The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
A black and white photo of a man with his hand on his head.
He is only out-sold by William Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.
air space flight
Only nine weeks later, the Wright Brothers achieved manned flight. The pathologically cynical always will find a reason to complain.
A blue circle with bokeh lights around it.
From ancient Greek cosmology to today's mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, explore the relentless quest to understand the Universe's invisible forces.
A Gen Z woman reshuffling on a bed with a cell phone.
From fearless quitting to redefined values, "Virtual Natives" are reinventing work culture.
A light bulb hanging on a wall with a swirl pattern.
Even if a leading theory of consciousness is wrong, it can still be useful to science.
A famous black and white painting.
Rejecting romanticism, these famous paintings depict war as it really is: sadistic and senseless.
Two women demonstrating authentic leadership while conversing at a desk.
Times of crisis tend to produce “hard” leaders, but — driven by Generations Y and Z — a softer leadership style has taken root globally.
A photo of an astronaut on the moon and a signed letter from Apollo 11.
Considering the astronomical occupational risks, life insurance was prohibitively expensive for the first NASA astronauts.
Einstein with his class of students in 1896
Hermann Minkowski called Einstein a "lazybones" with a "not very solid" education. Less than 10 years later, he would eat his words.
A painting exploring philosophical problems through a depiction of naked people in a pool.
Is immortality a tantalizing possibility or a philosophical paradox?
A Mercedes Benz parked in front of a building in Beijing, China.
China has always been one of the world’s wealthiest nations, but Chinese wealth looks different across the country’s eventful history.
A group of artistic men in suits playing saxophones with genius skill.
The answer may lie in the power to see far, far beyond yourself.
An artist's impression of a planet collision.
The Universe, although violent, is filled with creation events following destructive ones. 1850 light-years away, both types are unfolding.
Cells
It temporarily puts the immune system on high alert to prevent MRSA, pneumonia, and other infections in the hospital.
A mind map with the words hindi, hindi, hindi, hindi, hindi, hindi.
This minimalist map unties Asia’s mountainous geography, centered on the “Pamir Knot.”
Two black and yellow strips of string in a plastic container.
You can’t farm spiders — but putting spider genes into silkworms works even better.
A Japanese painting of a man in water.
The toilet “is a portal to a mysterious otherworld.”
star vs planet vs brown dwarf
Between the least massive star and most massive planet lies the mysterious brown dwarf: a class of objects that are neither star nor planet.
A soccer goalkeepers is diving to save a ball.
Goalkeepers have an enhanced ability to integrate auditory and visual information compared to other players.
If the "self" is not real, then we are slaves to a billiard ball universe, trapped in a nihilistic nightmare in which we cannot change our fate.
John Templeton Foundation