Latest Articles

Latest Articles

The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.

Two men speaking into microphones appear beside the cover of “The American Way of Killing” by Malcolm Gladwell, featuring a lowered U.S. flag on an orange background.
44mins
Author Malcolm Gladwell explores the fallacies behind the Second Amendment in conversation with Jonny Thomson.
entanglement across space
Are quantum fields real, or a mere calculational tool? 3 unique experiments show they carry energy. If energy's real, so are quantum fields.
Historical engraving showing a public execution by drawing and quartering in a city square, with crowds of spectators—a stark contrast to the progress of modern justice.
Everyone matters. If you believe that, it's a good sign.
A hospital bed sits in a forest clearing beneath a large, glowing white light, surrounded by trees and greenery.
What happens when transcendent experiences collide with a culture that lacks language for understanding them?
John Templeton Foundation
Two men are shown on either side of a dark, surreal movie poster featuring a rabbit mask and various faces; “BT Conversations” branding appears at the top right.
1hr 15mins
Richard Kelly on 25 years of Donnie Darko, the true origin of the bunny mask, and The Philosophy of Time Travel, and his new novel.
3D geometric shape with colored edges and yellow triangular faces, appearing as a complex polyhedron on a black background—reminiscent of structures often explored in AI breakthrough research and theoretical physics.
Making more complicated, more precise predictive calculations tells us what real experiments should deliver. AI just surpassed humans at it.
An older man sits on a chair in a studio, surrounded by six painted portraits of historical figures against a black background.
1hr 29mins
Jonathan Rauch, author and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, dives into the philosophy of liberalism, how it has created and transformed our institutions, and the state of truth in a world rife with misinformation.
Book cover for “A Fabulous Debt” by Robin Wigglesworth, featuring a historical painting of a man holding a piece of paper, with gold and white text on a black background.
After a plague-ridden crusade left Venice drowning in debt, the republic created the world's first bond market, changing the relationship between the government and its citizens.
Map showing live camera locations across North and South America, Europe, and Africa, marked with blue numbered circles and black camera icons. The interface includes search and navigation options.
The world webcam map, a defunct format from Web 1.0, is a foil to today’s algorithmic internet.
A woman with gray hair in a bob, wearing a beige blazer and gold necklace, sits against a plain white background, looking slightly upwards with a neutral expression.
7mins
Jennifer Doudna co-invented CRISPR. Now she's the one asking how much power we should be allowed to handle.
evolution of the Universe from all free particles to stable atomic nuclei to neutral atoms
The expanding Universe, CMB, and large-scale structure revealed the Big Bang. New nucleosynthesis advances deliver unprecedented precision.
The observable Universe is 92 billion light-years in diameter. These pictures put just how large that is in perspective.
A grid displays 45 colorful classic novel book covers, including titles like “Catch-22,” “Lolita,” “On the Road,” and “Infinite Jest.”.
In our age of screens and shrinking attention spans, let this analog challenge be your progress bar toward literary beauty and joy.
A person lies in bed covered by a blanket, resting their head on a pillow and holding a closed book on their chest.
Classics editor Henry Eliot shares his strategies for getting started, staying motivated, and finding joy in literature’s great books.
Text reading “Big Think Members. Your Brain on Books. A Members-Only Live Event” over a torn paper effect and a blurred stack of books in the background.
1hr 2mins
Members
What’s happening in your brain and body while you’re lost in a great book?
Voyager 1
We strongly suspect we aren't alone in the Universe, but so far, we haven't found anyone. What determines when we'll finally make contact?
A colorful map titled “A Literary Map of America,” showing U.S. states with notable authors’ names and works, displayed in front of shelves filled with books.
A map is a text in its own right, and like a Pynchon novel, this one can be read in a multitude of ways.
A page titled “The Philosophy of Time Travel” and a folded paper with a sinister, smiling skull drawing are set against a geometric, tunnel-like background, alluding to the mysterious lessons in physics and mortality found within Donnie Darko.
Most time travel stories involve changing the past to create a better future. "Donnie Darko" subverts that expectation, and a whole lot more.