Latest Articles

Latest Articles

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

As technology advances, the use of laser weapons in space becomes more likely.
upload brain
Uploading your mind is not a pathway to immortality. Instead, it will create a possibly hostile digital doppelgänger.
mummy brown
Rare and costly paints have shaped art history in unforeseen ways. Mummy brown caused one artist to bury his paint.
A food safety researcher explains another way to know what’s too old to eat.
Let's hope that squid don't evolve lungs and legs, or humanity might be in real trouble.
graphyne
A two-dimensional material made entirely of carbon called graphene won the Nobel Prize in 2010. Graphyne might be even better.
pulse light quantum tunnel barrier
In all the Universe, only a few particles are eternally stable. The photon, the quantum of light, has an infinite lifetime. Or does it?
What we call "basic research" is actually the most cutting-edge. It underpins knowledge, and without it, technology does not come into being.
agile learning
Agile learning enables an organization to pivot quickly in response to changes in technology, economic conditions, market demand, and more.
A new technique for analyzing networks can tell who wields soft power.
moral panic
Moral panics about the content of children's cartoons and other forms of entertainment have a long history.
Scientific journals, which are supposed to be the sacred scriptures of academia, are often full of shoddy research and misinformation.
For decades people have arranged to freeze their bodies after death, dreaming of resurrection by advanced future medicine. Many met a fate far grislier than death.
The answer is both disappointing and exciting.
Unplugging only ignores the hard work of overcoming your distractions.
People tend to underestimate how much a friend they’ve lost contact with would enjoy a simple note saying "hi."
5mins
The first human that isn’t an Earthling could be in our lifetime.
Maxar
A close-up of a painted human arm and hand reaching out with extended fingers against a light, cracked background.
5mins
Atheists are not immune from supernatural thinking.
sun gravity
With a telescope at just the right distance from the Sun, we could use its gravity to enhance and magnify a potentially inhabited planet.