Surprising Science — January 7, 2010

Of Parasites and Men

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

How many parasites live inside us? What is the relationship between internal parasites and allergies? And could one parasite even have affected our brain chemistry over the course of millennia? Science journalist Carl Zimmer (“Parasite Rex”) stopped by Big Think this week to discuss these and a host of other hot topics in science.

The conversation also touched on neuroscience (what is the “speed of thought”?), viruses in the human genome, and Zimmer’s popular blog, The Loom. Zimmer’s interview will be posted later this month.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

An image of a cluster of galaxies, meaning science.

Starts With A Bang

10 thoughtful insights about the great cosmic unknowns

An in-depth interview with astronomer Kelsey Johnson, whose new book, Into the Unknown, explores what remains unknown about the Universe.

A person is giving a presentation at a podium with a large abstract, colorful light pattern displayed on a screen behind them.

Starts With A Bang

Inflation and dark matter are not like string theory

Inflation, dark matter, and string theory are all proposed extensions to the prior consensus picture. But what does the evidence say?

Starts With A Bang

Why haven’t we detected a signal from intelligent aliens yet?

Life arose on Earth early on, eventually giving rise to us: intelligent and technologically advanced. “First contact” still remains elusive.

The Future

How Arc Institute is bringing science into the century of biology

There is one obstacle that reliably blocks innovative ideas: how we fund science.

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High Culture

From fan to showrunner: How “House of the Dragon” creator Ryan Condal landed TV’s biggest job

Ryan Condal, who worked in pharmaceutical advertising before Hollywood, talks with Big Think about imposter syndrome, “precrastination,” and Westeros lore.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Survivor Dies

The only official survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs in Japan has died of stomach cancer in his nineties.