Latest Articles

Latest Articles

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

A composite image of the Milky Way galactic center shows orange gas clouds, purple radio bubbles, and green and blue background stars in space.
Today's Milky Way only forms stars slowly. Our galactic center, where the star-forming rate is highest, gives a unique window into our past.
proton internal structure
Every proton contains three quarks: two up and one down. But charm quarks, heavier than the proton itself, have been found inside. How?
Abstract image of vertical orange and beige lines distorted by horizontal ripples on a pale blue background.
When the road runs out, you've got to make your own way.
anti-gravity mirror
If you look into a mirror, you'll notice that left-and-right are reversed, but up-and-down is preserved. The reason isn't what you think.
A man sits on a chair against a white backdrop with a yellow background, featuring small black silhouettes of people interconnected by dotted lines.
1hr 24mins
Author Daniel Coyle breaks down the common traits shared by successful people, and why environment, not innate ability, is the variable that ties them all together.
Book cover with the title “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?” by Daron Acemoglu, featuring a gold sticker noting Acemoglu as a Nobel Prize recipient in Economic Sciences. The design hints at themes of collective knowledge that shape and challenge modern democracies.
Our collective knowledge has made us better off, but only when communities and social institutions adapt it for the common good.
time dilation
We live in a four-dimensional Universe, where matter and energy curve the fabric of spacetime. But time sure is different from space!
Infographic showing Apollo mission timelines, astronaut suits, and colored orbital paths around the Moon labeled with Apollo mission numbers, highlighting milestones in crewed spaceflight.
Big Think’s latest poster is a detailed look at humanity’s loftiest enterprise so far: making it off-planet.
baby universe
The inside of every black hole leads to the birth of a new Universe. Could our Universe have arisen from one?
Most of us have heard that the Sun is an ordinary, typical, unremarkable star. But science shows we're actually anything but average.
Blue-toned image of bookshelves with the text: “The Philosopher’s Guide to Uncertainty. Members-Only Live Event. Big Think Members.”.
56mins
Members
How can we take control of our lives when so much is out of our hands?
Our Big Bang could be just one region within an infinite, inflating multiverse. If we were born close to the cosmic edge, what would we see?
Large telescope inside an observatory dome, showing metal structure, supporting beams, and curved reflective surfaces under artificial lighting.
In 2025, two cleverly designed studies claimed to find evidence of strange objects orbiting Earth — years before humanity had put anything in space.
A vintage-style portrait of a man with long hair, with a large green apple and leaves digitally placed over his face.
"Publish or perish" has become an academic cliché. But the biggest casualty isn't researchers — it's scientific discovery itself.
John Templeton Foundation
double slit experiments with electrons send one at a time
The double-slit experiment, hundreds of years after it was first performed, still holds the key mystery at the heart of quantum physics.
A person in a green shirt sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop, with geometric drawings and diagrams on a yellow background behind them.
1hr 23mins
Terence Tao breaks math down to six essential ideas: numbers, algebra, geometry, probability, analysis, and dynamics.
blue sky
The sky and oceans are both blue. It's not because one reflects the other. Science explains them both, but for very different reasons.
A man sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop, surrounded by large, digitally added orange ants on a green background.
42mins
Purpose is not only a question of meaning. For philosopher Alan Love, it is also a question of life, agency, function, and scientific method.
A man in a red shirt gestures with his hands. The text “MOND vs. Dark Matter” is displayed over a starry black background.
There are two rival ideas to try to make sense of the Universe: dark matter or modified gravity. Can a new cosmic test settle the issue?