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 […]
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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.
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.
NASA has teamed up with the International Potato Center (CIP) in an effort to find out if the potato will be part of the Mars mission.
Why universities can no longer afford to access the research they created themselves.
The coffee pod design isn’t sustainable, so the German city of Hamburg has placed a ban on government-run buildings from using “Kaffeekapselmaschine,” or coffee capsule machines.
For Women’s History Month 2016, take the #5WomenArtists challenge and test your (sexist?) art history knowledge.
We are far more worried about the problem of parents not vaccinating their kids than low general vaccination rates for flu, which will sicken and kill way more of us, including WAY more kids.
ReWalk announced a commercial health program that will provide coverage for a personal exoskeleton system. The beneficiary of this ReWalk exoskeleton is a surgeon who has been bound to a manual wheelchair for 11 hours a day at work.
Londoners are defined by the sounds of their city — and here are the maps to prove it.
How the Hubble Space Telescope captured Andromeda and showed us a Universe we’ve never seen. “We are stardust, we are golden,We are billion year old carbon,And we got to get […]
There are many different levels, but one key difference separates science from the rest. “I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory […]
Understanding how to become more resilient could rely on a simple linguistic shift.
Ever wonder what happens when your credit card number, Google credentials, and online banking password get stolen?
You’d think in the age of Uber and Airbnb someone would have figured out how to put Big Textbook in its place. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than just waving a magical disruption wand and putting Follett out of business.
The science of “human vulnerabilities” is being used to “engineer compulsion.” In addition to A.D.D., “attention captivation disorders” are going viral.
Exercise has a number of health benefits for both brain and body. Researchers from the Academy of Finland wanted to find out what kind of exercises provide the best workout for the brain.
With Valentine’s Day in the past, that’s no reason to forget about the best part of that holiday! “Look, there’s no metaphysics on earth like chocolates.” –Fernando Pessoa One of the […]
What LIGO’s first signal actually means. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected gravitational waves.” –David Reitze This morning, the principal investigator of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), David Reitze, made […]
Before #OscarsSoWhite and #MoviesSoBland, William Cameron Menzies turned American movies into art.
Around 53 million years ago, the Arctic was host to a wide range of creatures that thrived in its warm swamps. The fossil record shows how our warming climate might influence old migratory patterns to reemerge in the Arctic Circle.