Astronomers see spiral and elliptical nebulae nearly everywhere, except by the Milky Way’s plane. We didn’t know why until the 20th century.
Whether we should tear down philosophy’s Berlin Wall and let East and West finally merge depends entirely on what we think philosophy is—and what it’s for.
When plans fall apart, adaptability can build something better.
While death-bed utterances are more famous, baby’s first words have influenced us too.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
We’ve wasted our time and resources ideologically policing and punishing each other for far too long. Here’s a better route to prosperity.
“I want to change the way we think about the past altogether,” says Dr. Betül Kaçar, an astrobiologist who studies the origin of life.
Robert Waldinger, Zen priest and Harvard professor, explains why fulfillment isn’t about reaching an idealized state. It’s found in everyday acts of kindness and compassion.
Big Think spoke with author and psychiatrist Elias Dakwar about addiction, rock bottom, and the moment you realize your compass is broken.
From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic structures of all, everything that exists depends on two things: charge and mass.
Reality TV created Donald Trump. But who created reality TV?
Groundbreaking invention does not always translate to commercial benefits. The challenges that faced Microsoft Research help explain why.
The CMB gives us critical information about our cosmic past. But it doesn’t give us everything, and galaxy mapping can fill in a key gap.
“Gyroscope-on-a-chip” technology could soon enable us to navigate over long distances without GPS.
A re-evaluation of how we perceive introverts in leadership is long overdue. Here are the compelling reasons why.
The full extent of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to our own, has been entirely imaged with Hubble’s exquisite cameras.
Be more like Goldilocks.
“Can we push these cells to do something other than what they normally do?” asks developmental biologist Michael Levin. “Can they build something completely different?”
Dark matter doesn’t absorb or emit light, but it gravitates. Instead of something exotic and novel, could it just be dark, normal matter?
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
We’re all entitled to our own opinions, no matter how ill-informed they are. But facts are facts; we can’t just choose the ones we prefer.
The more you know, the better you can act.
Steve Jobs once quipped that Apple’s professional managers “knew how to manage, but they didn’t know how to do anything.”
Asteroid 2024 YR4, which could devastate a city’s worth of humans, has gone from 1.2% to 2.3% to 2.6% to 3.1% chances of impact. Here’s why.
Neuroscientist and author Anne-Laure Le Cunff discusses the lasting benefits of uncertainty, curiosity, and the experimental mindset.
A brief guide to habits that separate deep understanding from superficial knowledge — and how to cultivate them.
Magicians use “change blindness” to delight audiences — and you can use it to become an excellent colleague.
At extremely close distances to their stars, even rocky planets can be completely disintegrated. We’ve just caught our first one in action.
Conversational AI agents will have a major advantage over human salespeople.
From “job crafting” to questioning our preconceived ideas about work, there are many ways to fight burnout and disengagement.