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A live-blog event of a fabulous public lecture given by Katie Freese on the unseen components in our Universe. “If you take everything we know… it only adds up to […]

With, as Carl Sagan famously put it, “billions and billions” of stars out there, many of them with planets that would support life, why aren’t we seeing that life the form of visits from aliens?

A learning collaboration between Pixar and Khan Academy helps aspiring animators familiarize themselves with the basics of the craft. The free course is called Pixar in A Box.

The massive black holes that formed LIGO’s first event were a surprise, and then a mystery. Here’s the long-awaited solution! “Black holes can bang against space-time as mallets on a […]

Among many others, Britain’s new Foreign Secretary has managed to offend the previous, current and future presidents of the U.S.

New research verifies that each addresses a separate cognitive domain. 

Is it how the Universe began, or just how our observable Universe began? They’re not the same! “These theories were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe […]

The Sun might not be responsible for the short-term warming we’re experiencing now, but in the end, it’s all that matters. “We have known since the 1800s that carbon dioxide traps […]

Baba Ramdev has built a $670 million company on the back of yoga’s soaring popularity. Is his ethics in alignment with yoga’s teachings? 

And what technology will it take for us to get there? “Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on […]

There is one specific condition for fascism to take hold in the United States.

In Inside Out, this summer’s fantastic Pixar film about the fraught emotional landscape of childhood, a girl named Riley gets hauled away from her idyllic life in Minnesota to a […]

Want to Help Defuse ISIS’ Propaganda? See How It Works from the Inside. The recent attacks in Paris shine a light on the world’s current biggest boogeyman: ISIS. “Boogeyman” is […]

Any normal person with a smartphone would take a picture of an aurora and post it on social media, which is what led Elizabeth MacDonald and Nathan Case to found the Aurorasaurus website. Since scientists can’t be everywhere at all times to spot these auroras, they rely on social media to do it for them.

As we all still recover from the Paris attacks, remember the beauty and joy of one of the most forgotten French discoveries. “Truth is more valuable if it takes you […]

Sometimes, space itself comes with its own magnifying lens. “We see the world through the lens of all our experiences; that is a fundamental part of the human condition.” –Madeleine […]

Astronaut Scott Kelly channeled his inner Mark Watney.

An incredible live-blog of an incredible event. “It’s becoming clear that in a sense the cosmos provides the only laboratory where sufficiently extreme conditions are ever achieved to test new […]

Have we ignored another of the criminal justice system’s major issues?

The Planck satellite measures the polarization of light, inferring our galaxy’s magnetic field. The result is spectacular art. “It is true that we are made of dust. And the world […]

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.

When was the last time anyone cared about an Artic research ship? Exactly. 

The Global Challenges Foundation released a Global Catastrophic Risk Report last week. The results aren’t pretty. Or surprising. 

LIGO is celebrating apparent confirmation of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, specifically that space and time are really one unit that exist as part of a gravitational grid.

The Federal Highway Administration has rescinded its approval for the use of an alternative roadside typeface called Clearview, once again making the 70-year-old Highway Gothic typeface the single standard for directional signage.

In principle, they could, of course. But around bizarre star KIC 8462852? Probably not. “The fancy that extraterrestrial life is by definition of a higher order than our own is […]

Many people are quite sure of what’s needed after a tragedy, yet there is a lot of disagreement. How can this be? It’s all about how the brain can form widely different opinions inside different people.

Learn why you shouldn’t take a selfie in zero gravity, and other aspects of living in space. 

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 […]

Clear skies? Go out and watch! Want a better show? Read on! “Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” –Walt Whitman When it comes to meteor showers, most people […]