The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
Santa Claus in his workshop
In her 2020 book, "The Alchemy of Us," Ainissa Ramirez explores how important material inventions shaped the course of human experience.
People can lose their authentic selves when they don't honestly confront life's potential, according to the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
photometry
The photometric filters for the Vera Rubin Observatory are complete and showcase why they are indispensable for astronomy.
steel tires
Steel tires may be better for the planet and could replace rubber.
Caption:An illustration of a red dwarf star orbited by an exoplanet.
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
It's that time of year when the hours of meticulous wrapping of Christmas toys are viciously undone in seconds by tiny children.
humanoid robots
Humanoid robots are coming, and Ameca is designed to be the ideal platform to study human-robot interactions.
space sex
Whether NASA likes it or not, humans eventually will be having space sex.
An old man looking out of the blinds.
Americans have a lower life expectancy than people in other rich countries despite paying much more for healthcare. We explore the number of factors which might explain this difference.
A man walks through the snow listening to music on his headphones.
Just as storylines make sense only when you have the context of the beginning and the end, listeners need to understand the impetus for why the album was even made.
A placebo-controlled study found that oxytocin seems to significantly reduce romantic jealousy among people in intimate relationships.
map of the empty diagonal
France is split in two by its very own "desert," the Empty Diagonal. The area’s depopulation is fairly recent, and Paris is to blame.
∆G = ∆H - T∆S
∆G = ∆H - T∆S is one of the most abstract formulas in science, but it is also one of the most important. Without it, life cannot exist.
first contact
Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where's everyone else?
Inflation: An image of money taped to a wall and reflected by a glass surface.
In the most extreme cases, spiraling prices can lead to a collapse in a currency’s value.
exoplanets
Even if you or I will never actually visit these distant worlds, we now know they exist. They should fill us with wonder.
future of money
Digital currencies are set to upend paper currencies, but it likely won't be the decentralized utopia some hope it will be.
climate model
Driving Teslas and planting trees are nice, but methane reduction, industrial efficiency, carbon removal, and a moderate carbon tax are the most efficient ways to fight climate change.