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Time Perception
7mins
Jim Al-Khalili explains how the past and future are more fluid than we may think.
3mins
The brain is an “illusion factory.” Here’s what that means for our perception of time.
Unlikely Collaborators
From here on Earth, looking farther away in space means looking farther back in time. So what are distant Earth-watchers seeing right now?
Science helps us imagine the vastness of space and time — and our small but meaningful place within it.
3mins
What drives the universe's expansion? Chemist Lee Cronin explains the theories linking time, space, and selection, providing a fresh perspective on this cosmic mystery.
On June 20, 2024, the summer solstice occurs at its earliest moment since 1796: when George Washington was President of the USA. Here's why.
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use "years" to measure time. Can we do better?
Even if you aren't in the path of totality, you can still use the solar eclipse to measure how long it takes the Moon to orbit Earth.
Leap day only comes once every four years, including in 2024. But the reason we have it, including when we do and don't, may surprise you.
Research suggests you can influence your sense of time by changing the “embodiedness” of your daily habits.
Big Think recently spoke with sleep psychologist Dr. Jade Wu about the surprising consequences of forgoing sleep.
Our intuitive understanding of time is very different from a physicist's understanding of time. How do we reconcile these views?
In a world without clocks, people used common activities in place of time units. How long it took you to go to the toilet mattered.
Will you die when your body dies?
As the Earth spins and wobbles on its axis and revolves elliptically around the Sun, each day changes from the last. "24 hours" isn't right.
Dive into a realm where time, space, and even reality itself are put into question.
5mins
Why does time move forward but not backward? Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder explains.
"All moments past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist."
Every timekeeping device works via a version of a pendulum — even the atomic clocks that are accurate to nanoseconds.
Theoretical physicist Brian Greene explores the potential particles of time and why we could, in theory, travel forward in time but not back.
John Templeton Foundation
This article was originally published on our sister site, Freethink. Fifteen volunteers in France just spent more than a month living in a cave — without any way to tell time — […]
Even with leap years and long-term planning, our calendar won't be good forever. Here's why, and how to fix it.
We haven't seen a partial eclipse lasting this long since 1440, and won't again until 2669. North America is perfectly positioned for 2021's.
No one has seen an equinox this early since the 19th century. And you’d better get used to it. This year, on March 19, 2020, the equinox will occur. For a […]
And it’s not because of leap seconds; it’s a fundamental property of most days. Human beings, in marking the passage of time, account for each day equally: with 24 hours. One […]
The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, but doesn’t have the earliest sunrise or the latest sunset. Here’s why. The length of a day on planet Earth might […]
There may be a fundamental reason why time travel, backwards, is impossible. We’ve all had the dream of traveling back in time. Whether there’s a wrong we want to right, […]
The world’s greatest clockmaker sent a clock to the new world, and everything went haywire. The reason why will shock you. For millennia, humanity’s one-and-only reliable way to keep time was […]
Many sci-fi technologies will remain in the realm of fiction unless physics changes. But some experiments could uncover just that! “Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities. How many of us […]