Words of Wisdom — January 7, 2014

Living Up to the Image

“The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.” – Elvis Presley (born on this date in 1935)

bigthinkeditor

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.” – Elvis Presley (born on this date in 1935)

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Starts With A Bang

Meet the first star system to “solve” the 3-body problem

Due to chaos, it was long thought that planets couldn’t stably orbit systems containing three stars. GW Orionis is the first counterexample.

A vivid cosmic scene reveals colorful nebulae and stardust in vibrant shades of blue, purple, and orange, set against a backdrop of space. NASA observatories capture this celestial beauty, unveiling hidden holes in the vast tapestry of the universe.

Starts With A Bang

The biggest holes in NASA’s suite of observatories

NASA’s space telescopes and observatories bring humanity unrivaled science images and scientific discoveries. Here’s what should be next.

Five Lego minifigures standing in a line, each with distinct facial expressions and clothing, against a split white and orange background.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: Can you self-identify as a different generation?

Reading this article would be such a millennial thing to do.

Diagram of the expanding universe concept with cosmic inflation, light cone, and time axis.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: What’s the deal with cosmic inflation and the Big Bang?

Almost everyone asserts that the Big Bang was the beginning of everything, followed by inflation. Has everyone gotten the order wrong?

Illustration of human evolution with silhouettes of ape to human walking against an abstract background with swirling red and white patterns.

The Past

A new spin on the “Stoned Ape Hypothesis”

The controversial theory about magic mushrooms and human evolution gets a much-needed update.

Up Next

The Word of the Year: SCIENCE

The Merriam-Webster people have named SCIENCE the word of the year. Why? It had “the greatest increase in look-ups” in the online version of their dictionary. This data might be […]