The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
A photo of a woman with her face blanked out is taped to a background filled with handwritten writing. She wears a pink top and gold hoop earring, her hand resting near her collarbone.
"I will not reason and compare: my business is to create."
Antimatter rocket with a glowing blue exhaust travels through deep space, showcasing the marvels of interstellar travel amid distant galaxies and stars.
Our dream of journeying to other star systems has a big obstacle to overcome: the vast interstellar distances. Can antimatter get us there?
Night view of a city skyline with illuminated skyscrapers and a bridge, home to a self-healing power grid, all reflected in the water below.
A new generation of self-healing tools could make the U.S.'s aging power grid far more resilient against modern threats.
Illustration of server racks, a yellow high voltage warning sign, a green dollar symbol, and faint graphs in the background.
Data centers consume enormous amounts of power, but their steady demand could make the grid more efficient — and lower costs for everyone.
Illustration of a person lying inside a low battery icon, using a phone with a yellow screen, against a dark blue and black background with neon accents.
Your energy doesn’t work like a battery — and treating it that way may be why you still feel tired even after a break.
A fork holds a piece of lettuce, partially obscured by a bright yellow glow against a dark background.
A growing movement is trying to turn energy directly into food — reviving an old dream of escaping the violence and inefficiency of eating.
Abstract illustration of a person running, shown in silhouette with layered, wavy bands of green, blue, black, and yellow in the background.
A Columbia researcher argues that everything from stress to aging comes down to how energy moves through your body.
Illustration of Earth overlaid with a grid and energy types from the Kardashev Scale: Type I, II, and III, representing planetary, stellar, and galactic energy usage.
The famous framework ranks civilizations by energy use — but ignores a critical factor that can halt their progress.
World map showing global oil reserves, rare earth elements deposits (yellow dots), and major shipping routes and chokepoints, with oil reserves highlighted by pink circles of varying sizes.
As the global economy moves beyond oil, the strategic importance of the world’s most critical hydrocarbon chokepoint is likely to decline rapidly.
Book cover for "Anchored, Aligned, Accountable" by Aiko Bethea, featuring gold stacked stones on a blue background and a subtitle about transforming lives and work by overcoming the false urgency myth.
Our obsession with speed and productivity creates unnecessary pressure that quietly fuels burnout and anxiety.
A black-and-white photo of a person walking in profile, centered on a red background with multiple yellow arrows pointing outward in all directions—a striking design inspired by modern China.
A firsthand look at China’s material progress and clean-tech revolution -- and what could happen if we let an authoritarian state steer AI's future.
A hand holds up a small gold trophy against a dramatic sky with lightning and a burst of light, symbolizing victory when you lead with love.
When leaders embrace positive personal energy, everyone feels the benefits — in trust, innovation and creativity.
Image of a galaxy cluster with bright yellow galaxies at the center, surrounded by blue regions representing dark matter in deep space—a striking view often used for dark matter cosmic test MOND studies.
On cosmic scales, only dark matter (or something equivalent) gives us the Universe we observe. Now, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect agrees.
Colorful nebula with bright stars ignite glowing gas clouds in space, featuring red, yellow, and blue hues against a dark background.
Although a star's "birth" is well-defined, it doesn't correspond to an ignition event in its core. Here's how stars are actually born.
protoplanetary disk
Every time a new star forms, there's an opportunity to form planets alongside and around it. How does it happen, and how long does it take?
Black-and-white photo of Jan Morris, an older person seated on a bed, smiling with a typewriter in front. The book cover text reads: "Jan Morris, a life, Sara Wheeler.
Jan Morris's biographer confronts the limits of storytelling while trying to capture a life defined by contradiction and reinvention.
An Ishihara color blindness test with colored dots, showing letters “u” and “d” in black, and a magnified section highlighting the dot pattern—inviting viewers to observe proton decay through subtle visual cues.
"Color" with respect to the strong force is just an analogy. Here's how to understand it without colors, group theory, or any advanced math.
How to get employees to engage in learning programs.
Most L&D pros assume attention comes with the job title. Marketers wake up every day convinced they have to earn it. That gap explains a lot.
A hexagonal storm formation with a dark central vortex on a planet’s surface, showing swirling blue and tan cloud patterns.
From 2004 through 2017, Saturn was imaged many times and from many angles up close by Cassini. This new viral image isn't real; it's AI.
Silhouette of a human head in white with a small red figure appearing to move or climb inside, set against a black background—illustrating how our brains shape our selves.
Your sense of self isn’t located in a single part of the brain — it emerges from a complex interplay of cognitive processes that change over time.