And what might we learn as we collect new, never-before-seen data? If you took one of history’s top scientists from 100 years ago and dropped them into today’s world, what […]
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The theoretical reasons to expect it are compelling, but the technology required to detect it is unfathomable. All throughout our galaxy, millions of black holes of a variety of masses […]
Our Universe is 13.8 billion years old, and our Sun formed about 2/3rds of the way through. Here’s what came before it. When it comes to the great cosmic question of […]
In the aftermath of everything we’ve learned about what’s in the Universe, we can make much better estimates of how many alien civilizations are out there. In 1961, scientist Frank Drake […]
From a Universe that went no bigger than our Milky Way to the trillions of galaxies in our expanding Universe, our knowledge increased one step at a time. “Gamow was fantastic […]
Some fear we are meddling with forces too powerful for human control.
How we went from our Milky Way, alone, to the entire Universe. “Gamow was fantastic in his ideas. He was right, he was wrong. More often wrong than right. Always […]
A live-blog event of a fabulous public lecture given by Katie Freese on the unseen components in our Universe. “If you take everything we know… it only adds up to […]
I scored an exclusive interview with Dave Reitze, the executive director of LIGO. Take a trip inside his Universe. “When I was in high school, I was certain that being […]
We know that Einstein’s general relativity is superior to Newton’s gravity, but where did Newton go wrong? “To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or […]
It’s the oldest, most distant light we’ve ever seen. But where, exactly, is it? “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to […]
Spoiler: NO, not a chance. Now find out why. “There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best […]
How an experiment high above Antarctica — Spider — sheds new light on the cosmic microwave background. Observations of the cosmic microwave background continue to capture public attention, highlighted these last few weeks in […]
A new gadget called the pd.id detects date rape drugs that may have been slipped inconspiculously into an unattended drink. The devices are battery powered and can be used repeatedly.
How to destroy an Alderaan-sized planet. “What’s that star?It’s the Death Star.What does it do?It does Death. It does Death, buddy. Get out of my way!” –Eddie Izzard It’s one […]
The Myo armband, developed by Canadian company Thalmic Labs, allows wearers to control electronic devices with hand and arm gestures. The technology evokes sci-fi films such as Star Wars and Minority Report.
What every middle-to-high schooler should know. Image credit: Bayside STEM academy, via Stanford at https://ed.stanford.edu/news/new-design-thinking-curriculum-targets-middle-school-students. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time […]
LOVERS of the Big Think will rejoice at hearing about the world’s largest migration of brain: BEIJING – Thousands of philosophers are expected to descend upon China’s capital in 2018 in […]
Andreas Schleicher, the Acting Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on how education can help students meet the challenges of today.
If stars, planets, and biological processes are so common in the Universe, then where is everyone? “If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens… Where Is Everybody?”–Stephen Webb As egocentric as […]
The future of humanity depends on it. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach […]
A new math curriculum is needed to move us from the knowledge economy to "the computational knowledge economy where high-level math is integral to what everyone does."
A group from Singularity U's Graduate Studies Program successfully flew a drone in Zero G gravity, cutting that cost by a factor of 10, and wants to utilize the drones for STEM education, 3D mapping.
One of the interesting developments in the Asian start-up scene over the last year has been the invasion of Western venture capital firms. Someone has obviously predicted that Asian tech […]
What’s the Big Idea? At TEDxSummit 2012, Hans Rosling predicted that mankind’s population threshold will be 10 Billion people. His talk was entitled Religion and Babies, as his goal was […]
Since the industrial revolution, humanity has flocked to the cities, where jobs are plentiful and centralized services make inhabitants’ lives easier. However, technology is gradually beginning to reverse this trend. […]
While researching creativity for his book Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer spent some time at 3M, analyzing the company culture that earned it the title of third most innovative company in the world in a recent survey of executives.
As Silicon Valley startups race to develop the next generation of sophisticated, algorithmic marketing software, it’s instructive to note the success of Thinkmodo – a viral marketing firm that films all its videos on iphones, does no market testing, and doesn’t even mention the name of the product in its campaigns.
by Michael Garfield “As viewed by astronauts from the moon, the earth lacks those lines of sociopolitical division that are so prominent on maps. And as recognized here below, the […]
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth).
Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay.
Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.