Empty space itself, the quantum vacuum, could be in either a true, stable state or a false, unstable state. Our fate depends on the answer.
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The language you speak plays an important role in how you evaluate truth.
For decades people have arranged to freeze their bodies after death, dreaming of resurrection by advanced future medicine. Many met a fate far grislier than death.
As particles travel through the Universe, there’s a speed limit to how fast they’re allowed to go. No, not the speed of light: below it.
A clock, designed and built in Europe, ran hopelessly at the wrong rate when brought to America. The physics of gravity explains why.
The ability to differentiate your emotions might make you less likely to suffer from depression, alcoholism, and anger issues.
The story of China is the story of global economics.
Unlike the first Roaring Twenties, these won’t end with a Great Depression.
Some animals were even assigned their own lawyers.
The sharpest optical images, for now, come from the Hubble Space Telescope. A ground-based technique can make images over 100 times sharper.
Australian researchers figure out a new way to apply extreme pressure and squeeze out diamonds.
Although early Earth was a molten hellscape, once it cooled, life arose almost immediately. That original chain of life remains unbroken.
“The function of private media is to make money for the people who own the media. It is a business,” Sanders said.
Their goal is a digital model of the Earth that depicts climate change in all of its complexity.
Memory, responsibility, and mental maturity have long been difficult to describe objectively, but neuroscientists are starting to detect patterns. Coming soon to a courtroom near you?
This technological feat changes our cosmic history.
Was there an intelligent, technologically advanced species long before humans existed? Could there have been a dinosaur civilization?
If everyone just showed up to their appointments, $150 billion of waste could be averted.
Did you know that shifting to a positive perspective on aging can add 7.5 years to your life? Or that there is a provable U-curve of happiness that shows people get happier after age 50?
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Big Think has launched a line of apparel and goods that celebrate the life and work of four geniuses.
The pattern 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc., is the Fibonacci sequence. It shows up all over nature. But what’s the full explanation behind it?
Today, we could use Big Data to radically reform democracy. Tomorrow, we could build nanofabricators and usher in an era of abundance. Is society ready?
New ideas inevitably face opposition. A new book called “The Human Element” argues that overcoming opposition requires understanding the concepts of “Fuel” and “Friction.”
An evidence-based policy movement is arming the fight with tools and programs that are more effective than ever before.
Join Big Think’s premium video learning platform, Big Think+, and learn skills that will propel your life and career.
In the philosophy of Star Wars, the Sith are evil because they surrender to passion. But is a life of total rationality a “good” life?
Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there some way to avoid “having to live with it?”
Most exoplanets have been found around single stars via the transit method. But binary star systems might contain even more of them.