The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
A timeline chart showing the historical progression, branches, and influential figures of Western philosophy.
All of Western philosophy, from Thales to Žižek, on a single chart.
On November 6th, an AI-driven proof of the Aaronson-Ambainis conjecture was announced. What does it imply for quantum computing speedups?
Portrait of Admiral Yamamoto in a military uniform adorned with numerous medals and a sash.
Isoroku Yamamoto’s childhood fascination with America gave way to disillusionment when he encountered racism, inequality, and the realities of U.S.-Japan relations.
smbh growth evolution from direct collapse seed
"Everyone knew" how these things worked at the turn of the century. Wrong! Today, our understanding of these 5 phenomena is very different.
A woman and a man in business attire view the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art building from a distance.
At the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, R2-D2 stands near masterpiece paintings — and Lucas makes his case to be remembered among the greats.
Hands typing on a laptop computer.
The tools built to make us faster are eroding attention, presence, and performance.
Vibrant orange and blue nebula filled with bright, shimmering stars and some of the lowest mass brown dwarfs.
JWST's unprecedented capabilities reveal the smallest, coolest stellar-like objects ever. IC 248's brown dwarfs shatter the low-mass record.
Infographic titled “The Standard Model of Particle Physics” displaying particles, symmetries, and mathematical relationships for an in-depth Higgs explanation, including fermions, bosons, and the Higgs boson.
The Higgs boson, officially discovered in 2012, is unique among all known fundamental particles. But what is it really all about?
An overlaid map of the Mediterranean region, comparing a historical Carta Riccardiana to Marinus of Tyre’s projection, with statistical error data and projection details.
Portolan charts were too accurate to be medieval — so who made them? A Croatian professor finds evidence for sources in antiquity.
Two white eyes peering from behind vertical, intersecting bars that resemble a DNA profiling gel.
When the police thought they had caught a killer in 1986, DNA fingerprinting would prove them wrong and change criminal investigation forever.
gaia ESA milky way
For thousands of years, humanity had no idea how far away the stars were. In the 1600s, Newton, Huygens, and Hooke all claimed to get there.
A bright orange square with rounded corners containing thin, black hand-drawn horizontal lines and a small zigzag mark representing the persuasive leader.
The curse of knowledge explains why leaders have difficulty persuading others despite their more informed perspective.
Line graph titled Inflation Compounded Over 40 Years, showing eight exponential growth curves from 1% to 8% that illustrate the compound interest behind the current affordability crisis.
Einstein never said his famous "compound interest" quote. But the math of compound interest — and its inverse, inflation — explains so much.
Book cover for “Circuit Breakers: How Neuroscientists Get Inside Your Head” by Anna Chambers, PhD, featuring a colorful watercolor illustration mapping the brain.
In an excerpt from her new book, Circuit Breakers, Anna Chambers explains how brain-mapping research leads to more questions than answers.
A large, bright blue star next to a smaller, orange star against a starry space background, both marked with rotational axes to highlight the roundest object in the universe.
Nearly everything has angular momentum, so even massive, self-gravitating objects don't become perfect spheres. Which one comes the closest?
A collection of colorful gears of various sizes and textures arranged on a grid background.
The most valuable thing L&D can do now isn't build another course. It’s to ask what's really driving the problem.
Diagram showing the elliptical orbit of the Rubin Observatory dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 in relation to the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Some are clamoring to make it the Solar System's 6th official dwarf planet. They'll be shocked to learn how rich our own backyard truly is.
A person in a white t-shirt seen in a repeating, stacked motion, resting their head on an open book placed on a table.
Busying yourself with research often feels easier, safer, and more satisfying than taking action.