Surprising Science — February 12, 2011

The Singularity Is Near

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

With Time magazine’s recent cover story on futurist Ray Kurzweil, his theories about the singularity have entered the mainstream. Now hear them straight from the source.

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Infographic illustrating three steps to measure the Hubble Constant, showing Cepheid variable stars, supernovae, and galaxies at increasing distances with redshifted light—highlighting how these methods reveal that the hubble tension is real.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Is the Hubble tension a real problem?

Is the Universe’s expansion rate 67 km/s/Mpc, 73 km/s/Mpc, or somewhere in between? The Hubble tension is real and not so easy to resolve.

Starts With A Bang

ANITA did see weird particles, but not parallel Universes

The ANITA experiment found cosmic rays shooting out of Antarctica. One interpretation claims “parallel Universes,” but is that right?

A composite image showing a galaxy with red circles marking stars on the left and multicolored expanding rings with Earth on the right, all set against a grid background, illustrating concepts like Hubble tension studied by Wendy Freedman.

Starts With A Bang

Is the Hubble tension real? Exclusive interview with Wendy Freedman

Different methods of measuring the Universe’s expansion rate yield high-precision, incompatible answers. But is the problem robustly real?

A flowchart with a large question mark at the top leads to boxes containing photos, abstract patterns, and arrows connecting each step on a textured green background.

Smart Skills

When to quit: A simple framework for life’s toughest decisions

Annie Duke, a poker champion turned decision scientist, talks with Big Think about how to choose well under uncertainty.

A person is being recorded on video by a camera mounted on a tripod, with the display highlighting visual literacy as the subject appears in focus and the background is artfully blurred.

Business

6 ways for leaders to hone their “visual literacy”

Leaders may not realize it — they’re not just being watched, they’re being interpreted, filtered, and judged, frame by frame.

Up Next

All Videos

Lincoln’s Wild White House Seances

Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln held seances in the White House trying to contact the spirit of their dead son Willie. Or was it a calculated political move?