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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
3mins
Thanks to modern tech, Earth is now considered a ‘detectable’ planet. Astrophysicist Sara Seager explains how this idea can lead us to discovering life elsewhere in our universe.
No human has ever left the Solar System, and only six already-launched spacecraft will ever exit it. Will Voyager 1 remain the most distant?
19mins
"I call it a tyranny of attention because there's so many demands on our attention coming from so many different directions that we are simply overwhelmed and we don't have the mental bandwidth to cope with it."
16mins
"The production of the silicon wafers that are used in the chip manufacturing process requires extraordinary levels of purity."
Quantum entanglement links information between particles across space and time. So what happens when one of them falls into a black hole?
Philosopher Sven Nyholm on reclaiming achievement from the machines.
In this excerpt from Wired on Wall Street, Tom Hardin (aka "Tipper X") shares how he began gathering intelligence on insider trading for the FBI.
Forget about the terawatt lasers we're making on Earth. The Universe makes natural ones thousands of times more powerful than the Sun.
Ambition. Descent. Wisdom.
A growing movement shows that protecting the world’s forests — and the people who have safeguarded them for centuries — is one of the most powerful, and overlooked, tools in the fight against climate change.
Skoll Foundation
To bring the best out of your teams, don’t flex like Maximus — lean into a “helpful fight” instead.
The actor, comedian, and marijuana cultivator on collaboration, success, and overcoming nerves — in business and life.
Even space and time are relative in Einstein's universe. That means our old notions of "where" and "when" no longer apply on cosmic scales.
The idea that it’s “too late” to reduce emissions fuels cynicism and despair, putting us on an even worse trajectory.
The great Chinese philosopher offers a durable and practical blueprint for harmonizing with our work colleagues.
11mins
Now that love has been liberated, it seems to have become more complicated and more illusive than ever. Alain de Botton explains.
There are plenty of engineering obstacles, and those can be overcome. But you cannot change the laws of physics, and those matter too.
3mins
Toxic positivity isn’t optimism. It’s denial. Historian Kate Bowler explains why our obsession with “good vibes only” is making it harder to cope.
The fundamental building blocks of reality are indivisible: quanta that cannot be split or divided. Our understanding remains incomplete.
What’s in a number? Only a vanishingly small slice of your life, it turns out.