We live in a time of information abundance, which far too many of us see as information overload. With the sum total of human knowledge, past and present, at our fingertips, we’re faced with a crisis of attention: which ideas should we engage with, and why? Big Think is an evolving roadmap to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world.
A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think
Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.
Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.
Browse videos featuring experts across a wide range of disciplines, from personal health to business leadership to neuroscience.
Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.
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Cutting-edge physics in all its remarkable strangeness
The first total lunar eclipse of 2011 took place less than a week ago although people residing in North America weren't able to enjoy it. This time around, people in South America, the eastern half of Africa, central Asia and Australia among others were the lucky ones. People in Europe had the ...
It has been over 3 months after the tragic accident in Fukushima, Japan, and a flood of new information has been coming out. 1. After months of stonewalling and low balling figures, the utility finally admitted what many US physicists already suspected, that there was most likely a 100% core ...
When I was a grad student at Berkeley years ago, it was famous for not only finding new elements on the periodic chart, but also finding the anti-proton, the anti-particle of the proton. Since then, finding newer elements and different forms of anti-matter have become big business. Recently, it ...
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below and check back on Wednesdays to see if he answers it. Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Liam Stein ...
In second grade, my teacher made a statement that literally shocked me to the core. I have not forgotten it after all these years. She said, "God so loved the Earth that he put the Earth just right from the Sun -- Not too far or the oceans would freeze over and not too close or the oceans would ...
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below and check back on Wednesdays to see if he answers it. Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Bruce Vang ...
Get ready for a close encounter - In November! For the first time, astronomers have anticipated the arrival of a giant asteroid that will come whizzing by the earth. The asteoid is 2005 YU55, which is about the size of an aircraft carrier (about 1,300 feet long). It will actually come within the ...
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below and check back on Wednesdays to see if he answers it. Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Peth Kwanchit ...
Physicists at Stanford, who have spearheaded the billion-dollar Gravity Probe B mission, have announced that they have found Einstein's missing inch, once again proving the correctness of general relativity. According to Einstein, the sun warps the space-time surrounding it, so the ...
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below and check back on Wednesdays to see if he answers it. Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Matthew Robin ...
As a result of the economic downturn and the cancellation of the Constellation program, it's now Shuttle Endeavor's turn to take it's last voyage into space. After a postponement of the launch, Endeavor's thrusters will burn into the concrete of Pad 39A for it’s 25th and final flight on Monday and ...
Last Friday, donors for the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute received a letter from CEO, Tom Pierson stating that the Allen Telescope Array was being placed into a state of hibernation. It has been decided to place the 42-antenna array into standby mode because of the lack ...
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below and check back on Wednesdays to see if he answers it. Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Corey McClure ...
We are all aware that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful machine on planet earth and not yet operating at its full capacity. Since 2008, scientists at the CERN physics lab have slowing been increasing the intensity of the particle beams, with each time seeming to break its ...
Every Wednesday, Michio Kaku will be answering reader questions about physics and futuristic science. If you have a question for Dr. Kaku, just post it in the comments section below and check back on Wednesdays to see if he answers it. Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Felipe ...