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Apple and the FBI sat before the House Judiciary Committee. The group heard testimonies from both sides about the issue, including the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey and Apple’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Sewell.

If we came along too soon, would we ever have discovered dark energy? “Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I will not […]

Before Oprah or Martha Stewart, Berg built an empire around her name.

The Italian city of Milan is giving commuters a cash incentive to cycle to work. The city is trying to clear its air pollution, a major risk factor for the environment and public health.

The Planetary Society has unveiled the successor of its first solar sail project, the LightSail 2. It will take flight sometime this year when SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is ready.

It’s a wonderful potential technology for going interstellar. But in your lifetime? Don’t hold your breath. “Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We […]

Donald Trump’s savvy Twitter campaign is helping him win the presidential nomination.

Big Think is proud to partner with the 92nd Street Y’s 7 Days of Genius Festival to bring you an in-depth look at the many qualities and characteristics of genius.

By combining Hubble data with other views from great, space-based observatories, we’re shedding new light on the Universe. “The wonder is, not that the field of stars of so vast, […]

Ra Paulette spent 20 years carving caves into soapstone mountains. His passion for the transcendent brings us back to Earth. 

In February of 2016, less than six months after first becoming operational, LIGO (the laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory) announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves. What are they? […]

Infectious disease doctors in Brazil — as well as mothers of infants born with microcephaly — are using WhatsApp to diagnose and cope with the Zika-caused illness.

Everything that’s inherently quantum in the Universe is both a wave and a particle. So, are gravitational waves? “You asked me how to get out of the finite dimensions when […]

Sponsored by 92nd Street Y

Nathan Eagle is the CEO of Jana, and its product is the mCent app. It addresses two issues facing emerging markets: giving users the ability to access the internet for free and helping connect major corporations with its next billion potential customers.

New bikes could be on their way to your local bikeshare system. PBSC Urban Solutions, the largest supplier of bicycles and stations in North America, has unleashed a pair of brand-new models designed to give riders a broader choice of how they use the system.

A Spanish collective has transformed an old abandoned church into La Iglesia Skate: a modern skatepark and cultural center, complete with a brand-new paint job by renowned interior artist Okuda San Miguel.

Elizabeth Kenny went against conventional methods for treating polio and believed a patient should have an active role in their recovery.

It’s getting bigger over time, but is there anything it’s displacing, or expanding into? “Mathematicians deal with possible worlds, with an infinite number of logically consistent systems. Observers explore the […]

The stars, gas, nebulae and dust in our galactic plane make it impossible to see through. But there are other forms of light. “Vision is the art of seeing what is […]

An estimated 10 percent of the world’s population doesn’t have access to the Internet. Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is trying to find a way to bring isolated communities online, but in order to do so, it needs to know where they live.

Experimentation-out-of-love is often inefficient and hard to measure. It isn’t always “solution-oriented.” But it’s as necessary and natural to us as breathing, and all too easily swept under the rug. 

It’s not in any form of light, and yet here we are, “seeing” the Universe all the same. “If the imprint is really due to gravitational waves from the big […]

The search for Planet Nine is on. The problem is scientists don’t know where to start — it has an orbit of 10,000 to 20,000 years. However, a group of researchers from France may have narrowed the search area.

Is this a map of Europe’s future?

Now that it’s seen gravitational waves, could physics beyond Einstein be its next target? This post is written by Sabine Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist specialized in quantum gravity & high energy […]

Big Think is proud to partner with the 92nd Street Y’s 7 Days of Genius Festival to bring you an in-depth look at the many qualities and characteristics of genius.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the tenets of encryption and privacy yesterday in an event in Spain. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was much more opaque when asked to describe his opinion.

“Scanning for signs of life” is a staple of science fiction. Could it be science, too? This post was written by Jillian Scudder. Jillian is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics […]

Apple thinks the government is wrong to seek a “backdoor” to its operating system. Most Americans think the government is right.