August 7, 2013

Watch: Inside a Mosquito Bite

The video below gives us a microscopic view of an event that is happening with great frequency this month: a mosquito is eating human for dinner.

bigthinkeditor

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The video below gives us a microscopic view of an event that is happening with great frequency this month: a mosquito is eating human for dinner.

This video shows how the proboscis is inserted along the lumen of the blood vessel.

Watch here:

Credit: Choumet et al, PLOS 2012.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Person examining a petri dish with tweezers, holding small colored objects, against a dark background.

Health

Are microplastics really destroying our health?

They’re in our brains, hearts, and blood — but what are they doing to us?

A statue of a thoughtful, seated philosopher on the right seems to be contemplating a calling, while a standing figure holding a lyre on the left adds harmony against the textured background.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: Can you have a “calling” without a caller?

If you’re an atheist with a vocation, who laid that path for you?

Close-up image of a human iris featuring vibrant blue and yellow hues with a dark pupil in the center.

The mystery at the heart of consciousness

“Is it possible that consciousness is a much more basic phenomenon in nature and is essentially pervading everything?”

▸

10 min

—

with

Annaka Harris

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does the CMB really “prove” the Big Bang?

Since the mid-1960s, the CMB has been identified with the Big Bang’s leftover glow. Could any alternative explanations still work?

A wasp illustration in blue on grid paper is overlaid on a close-up image of effervescent bubbles in a golden alcoholic liquid.

Health

The first known animal that’s “immune” to alcohol intoxication

Could studying the Oriental hornet lead to a treatment for people with alcohol use disorder?

Up Next

What Will the Sun’s Magnetic Field Reversal Mean for Our Solar System?

The Sun’s magnetic field will flip in three to four months, an event that will have ripple effects across the Solar System, that’s detectable by even the far-away Voyager probes at the doorstep of interstellar space.