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Remembering Frank Drake, who transformed the search for alien life & extraterrestrial intelligence into a full-fledged scientific endeavor.

We need a hypothesis that accounts for both the fine-tuning of physics for life but also the arbitrariness and gratuitous suffering we find in the world.

Science fiction met nuclear fission when Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd pondered the explosive potential of nuclear energy.

One of the fundamental questions for those studying and advocating progress is around understanding what variables can move the needle for the type of progress that you might want to see in the world. It’s a key focus of the “progress studies” discipline and a question that has received increased attention from academics and public intellectuals in recent years.

With a telescope at just the right distance from the Sun, we could use its gravity to enhance and magnify a potentially inhabited planet.

Space weather poses a tremendous threat to all satellites, knocking all computer systems offline. Is that a recipe for Kessler syndrome?

Researchers use fluid dynamics to spot artificial imposter voices.

A great many cosmic puzzles still remain unsolved. By embracing a broad and varied approach, particle physics heads toward a bright future.

A philosophical debate spanning creation, free will, and a sneaky teapot.

Steam cars hit the U.S. market in the 1890s but were largely extinct by the 1930s. Will technology bring them back?

The book “The Genesis Machine” outlines the promise and peril of synthetic biology, a powerful tool that will allow us to program life like a computer.

There are a wide variety of theoretical studies that call our Standard Model of cosmology into question. Here’s what they really mean.

Technology has advanced at a blinding pace in the past 150 years. That won’t always happen.

Ancient humans crossed the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia into North America. But some of them went back.

Recent research suggests that Earth’s magnetic field bounced back just as complex life was starting to emerge on our planet.

Matt Strassler’s journey into fundamental physics culminates in a brilliant explanation of the Higgs field. Enjoy this exclusive interview.

Bernini created art for 8 different popes. In the process, he helped reinforce and redefine Christianity’s visual culture.

Do the laws of physics place a hard limit on how far technology can advance, or can we re-write those laws?

Our understanding always will remain incomplete.

Cosmologists are largely still in the dark about the forces that drive the Universe.

From the Big Bang to dark energy, knowledge of the cosmos has sped up in the past century — but big questions linger.

The most celebrated genius in human history didn’t just revolutionize physics, but taught many valuable lessons about living a better life.

Zombies aren’t a modern-day obsession. Throughout history, fear of the undead led to bizarre burial rituals all over the world.

Was there ever life on Mars? Is there life on Mars now? Did it originate there or here, on Earth? All possibilities are fascinating.

From COVID and cancer vaccines to a steady drop in the number of people living in extreme poverty, there are reasons for optimism in 2023.

Einstein’s “happiest thought” led to General Relativity’s formulation. Would a different profound insight have led us forever astray?

In order to figure out how English might evolve in the future, we have to look at how it has changed in the near and distant past.

If used improperly, the metaverse could be more divisive than social media and an insidious threat to society and even reality itself.

Do we actually live in a deterministic Universe, despite quantum physics? An alternative, non-spooky interpretation has now been ruled out.

Aragon AI CEO Wesley Tian tells Big Think Business how he took his company from initial conception, through acceleration, to the scaling phase.