Just ninety years ago, we thought our galaxy was the extent of the Universe. Now we know hundreds of millions of galaxies exist in an ever-expanding Universe. Where does that leave us?
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New York, 1964. The World’s Fair is in full gear, as 50 million people make the trek to Queens to see what the future has in store. The exposition showcases […]
With respect to the cosmos, mankind has just been born. Hypothetically, if our 14 billion-year-old universe were scaled down to just 10 years (for the sake of comparison), dinosaurs would […]
Researchers have isolated a single phosphorus atom and placed it atop a silicon crystal with more precision than ever before. We are one step closer to achieving a quantum computer.
[Author’s Note: In keeping with the tradition that whenever you have a blog post whose title is a question, the answer is always “no”…] Of all the essays I’ve written, […]
Neuroscientists have used quantum dots—light-sensitive, semiconducting particles just a few nanometers in diameter—to stimulate neurons which have been damaged by disease or age.
We may have heard about one notable religious conversion this week, but in the more than ten years I’ve been writing about atheism (yes, it’s been that long!), I’ve found […]
When popular culture appropriates complex scientific theories, such as quantum mechanics, Joe Schmoe opines all over the Internet. Is it worth bringing science to the mainstream?
By Rick Popely Someday, personal transportation may be in automated vehicles that drive themselves and run on electricity or an alternative fuel. But for the foreseeable future, most Americans will rely […]
Using standard chip making parts, IBM has created a super-fast optical processing chip by drilling a series of holes through the back which allow light to pass into the core of the chip.
Today we’re pleased to announce our second Big Think Book of the Month, the dazzlingly ambitious Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism, out May 22, 2012 from […]
If ideas are the currency of the future, then books are still the best way to trade these ideas with others. To celebrate the 600th blog post of Endless Innovation, I’ve put together […]
Three things stood out to me yesterday amid all the Trayvon Martin related hoopla surrounding the arrest of George Zimmerman on a charge of murder in the second degree. I […]
What’s the Big Idea? The words “Renaissance man” get thrown around a lot these days, but Nathan Myrhvold’s career evokes the true spirit of the phrase. More polymath than genius, the […]
Mysterious dark matter and dark energy may no longer be needed to explain the Universe’s accelerating expansion, which may be caused by tension between matter and antimatter.
New methods of creating solar cells cut manufacturing costs nearly in half. The New Jersey-based company is also working to create super-efficient cells by using nanotechnology.
The buzz surrounding physicist Stephen Hawking‘s newest experiments with communication technology has been a bit overexuberant, along the lines of “new technology could help Stephen Hawking communicate via brain waves!” […]
The first QD televisions–like current flat-screen TVs, but with better color and ultra-thin displays–will be available in shops by the end of next year. And later, the roll-up version.
If you’re a parent and you want to introduce your child to art, it’s sometimes hard to find that perfect combination of optimism and imagination in a single artist. Too […]
In each generation, our most brilliant thinkers lay the foundations on which lesser lights will build a new, bloated bureaucracy of the mind. Can experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats help us break the cycle?
What’s the Big Idea? “Your Gravity Theory Sucks!” Margaret Wertheim was surprised to find this comment on an order form for a self-published book called The Other Theory of Physics, […]
From all of us here at Big Think, Happy 70th birthday, Stephen! If you had only been one of the smartest humans ever, it would have been enough – but you’re something much bigger than that: a model of how to live.
–Guest post by Declan Fahy, AoE’s Science and Culture correspondent. Writer David Milch, a creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, was quoted in a talk by author Michael Crichton as […]
What is the link between innovation and the science fiction imaginary?
No, not outer space. The very space in which everything exists is still poorly understood by physicists. Since Einstein, we have known space has a structure but not how it functions.
I may have mentioned that, at Skepticon IV, JT Eberhard gave a fantastic talk on why the skeptical community must concern itself with mental illness. For the most part, the […]
One of the most exciting ideas in modern physics, that gravity is not a traditional force but an emergent one, was dealt a blow based on how the force works at the quantum level.
Ever since scientists in Germany announced last year the ability to create a small-scale cloak of invisibility for a 3D object the size of a human hair, there has been […]
Guest post by Samantha Eliza Benten The Law of Non-Contradiction, as stated by Aristotle: “One cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same […]
Discoveries in recent years suggest that nature knows a few tricks that physicists don’t: Coherent quantum processes may well be ubiquitous in the natural world.