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If everything began with a Big Bang and is expanding, is there a center? “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out […]

Could a strong enough tether save you? Or is your fate inevitable? “Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.”–Alfred A. Montapert Everyone is free to […]

It’s a choice you re-make every day, and — just like love — you can’t fake it. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” –Wayne Dyer I […]

As dark energy takes over and distant galaxies accelerate, what are we losing, and what does that mean? “What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they […]

It’s the greatest source of energy in the Universe, and yet we had no idea until less than 100 years ago. “The sun is a miasmaOf incandescent plasmaThe sun’s not […]

Perhaps the most spectacular example of rebirth in our galaxy, this cavernous nebula is giving rise to the next generation of stars! Image credit: ESO, via http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0925a/. “For in the […]

While looking at Jean-Antoine Houdon’s portrait bust of Voltaire in the Louvre, sculptor Auguste Rodin remarked, “To tell the truth, there is no artistic work that requires as much penetrating insight as the bust and the portrait. … Such a work is the equivalent of a biography.” On a separate occasion, Rodin stated, “The resemblance that [the artist] should achieve is that of the soul. Only this matters.” A new, full-scale reinstallation at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, focuses on Rodin putting those words into practice in his own portrait busts. Known for his large-scale, full-bodied works such as The Kiss, Rodin imbued an equal amount of passion into his symbolic, soulful portraits of friends, lovers, and the famous.

At the top of the Teapot, a fantastic cluster dotted with Red Giants awaits. Image credit: © 2005–2009 by Rainer Sparenberg, via http://www.airglow.de/html/starclusters/m28.html. “The most difficult thing is the decision […]

It’s only a matter of time before another star has a close encounter with our Solar System. How long do we have? “From an incandescent mass we have originated, and […]

For destruction, ice is also great, and will suffice. “Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor […]

Author and academic Kenji Yoshino describes the difference between passing and covering, and how companies will sometimes employ a myopic form of diversity inclusion that necessitates the abandonment of one’s identity.

Big Think and the Kellogg School of Management have launched a new executive training program, Ethics in Action. This unique, expert-driven, program is designed to help corporations address the ethical […]

The way the Universe has unfolded, to bring us about in this moment, has been remarkable. Be thankful for it all. “We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are […]

While 2015 gives us all a fresh start, we can consider the Big Bang until today to be “One Universe Year.” What comes next? “And now we welcome the new […]

The farther north you are, the harder this wonder is to see. But oh, the rewarding sights for those who find it! Image credit: Emi; Ivamov, via http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images/M06_LRGB.htm. “Happiness is […]

One day while walking through Rutgers’ Quad Two on the way to the gym, I noticed my friend Shelton across the lawn. As he bounced along the sidewalk—he was in […]

Nearly 250 years since its discovery, this dense, brilliant core was found to have our Milky Way’s first globular-based black hole! Image credit: Paulino Maldonado, via http://observatorioelojodeowi.blogspot.com/2011/05/subo-algunas-fotografias-de-espacio.html. “And then you […]

What the “independent tests” really teach us, if we’re willing to look carefully. Image credit: cold fusion hoax by Juan-Louis Naudin, 2003. “There’s a mark born every minute, and one […]

Researchers working on a new project at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University have begun tracking, in real time, cases of false news and the stories debunking them […]

And how we’re about to take the amazing scientific leap from “we think” to “we know” when it comes to its history. “Mars once was wet and fertile. It’s now […]

Nudges, “choice architecture,” social marketing and other non-rational approaches to government are a pretty significant development. After all, these policies replace explicit arguments (“you should get more exercise for these […]

A huge percentage of our Universe is blocked by the plane of our own Milky Way. Here’s how we’re finally seeing what’s there! “I am undecided whether or not the […]

I knew things weren’t going well when I rounded a bend on Ocean Parkway, a highway that slices through the eastern neighborhoods of Brooklyn on its way to Coney Island. […]

There are monster galaxies in the Universe thousands of times the size of ours. But none of them are spirals like us! “Sometimes, I sit alone under the starsand think […]

There’s five times as much dark matter as normal matter in the Universe. But how much of that matters for black holes? Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collaboration. “A […]

As Americans prepare to shoot off fireworks on the Fourth of July, let’s take a look at how other nations celebrate their holiday equivalents.

On the shortest night of the year, a galactic giant — the faintest Messier object of all — towers overhead. “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. […]

How we discovered what the Universe was made of when it first formed. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/K. Getman et al.; IRL NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J. Wang et al. “The nitrogen in our DNA, […]

If we came to be just a few billion years earlier, we’d never know. Image credit: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum Astronomia), Hawaiian Starlight. “After all the ‘Universe’ […]

Almost without fail, once someone learns that I am passionate about studying the habits and traits of the millennial demographic, he or she asks: Is there such thing as a […]