The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
A woman smiles at a baby in a crib, holding a toy while the baby reaches out, attempting their first words. They appear to be in a domestic setting.
While death-bed utterances are more famous, baby’s first words have influenced us too.
Abstract collage with red dice and handwritten text overlay, featuring a hand writing with a pen. Against a background of grid and bookshelf patterns, it captures an existential crisis. The title "The Night Crawler" hovers above, probing life's uncertainties.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
An astronaut stands proudly on the moon's surface near scientific equipment and a lunar lander, as the American flag waves in the background, symbolizing a pioneering USA nation.
We've wasted our time and resources ideologically policing and punishing each other for far too long. Here's a better route to prosperity.
Pipette approaching a petri dish containing a shimmering dark substance on a purple gradient background.
“I want to change the way we think about the past altogether,” says Dr. Betül Kaçar, an astrobiologist who studies the origin of life.
Two people experience everyday enlightenment as they shovel snow off a car in a winter wonderland, bundled up in cozy jackets, hats, and gloves.
Robert Waldinger, Zen priest and Harvard professor, explains why fulfillment isn’t about reaching an idealized state. It’s found in everyday acts of kindness and compassion.
A blue compass rose emblem with a fractured design symbolizes navigation through the struggles of addiction, set starkly against a black background.
Big Think spoke with author and psychiatrist Elias Dakwar about addiction, rock bottom, and the moment you realize your compass is broken.
anitmatter annihilation
From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic structures of all, everything that exists depends on two things: charge and mass.
Collage featuring Donald Trump on 'The Apprentice', Kim Kardashian on a red carpet, a film script, and a camera operator, capturing the behind-the-scenes essence of reality TV.
From Allen Funt to Donald Trump, author Emily Nussbaum explains how reality TV has blurred the lines between, well, reality and TV.
Open book with a four-pane window logo on the left page and an illustrated portrait of a man on the right page, reminiscent of Pasteur's quadrant. Background is light green.
Groundbreaking invention does not always translate to commercial benefits. The challenges that faced Microsoft Research help explain why.
A spacecraft with a large reflective dish orbits above Earth, exploring the starry galaxy and cosmic backdrop. Its mission? To map galaxies and teach us what the CMB can't, unlocking cosmic mysteries.
The CMB gives us critical information about our cosmic past. But it doesn't give us everything, and galaxy mapping can fill in a key gap.
Hexagonal map showing Europe, parts of Asia, and North Africa in varying shades of green and gray, with clusters of red and purple indicating specific regions.
"Gyroscope-on-a-chip" technology could soon enable us to navigate over long distances without GPS.
An introverted leader in a gray suit sits thoughtfully on a white cube in a minimalist, white space with two other white cubes nearby, embodying the power of quiet contemplation.
A re-evaluation of how we perceive introverts in leadership is long overdue. Here are the compelling reasons why.
A galaxy with bright stars and swirling clouds of dust creates the largest galactic mosaic, set against a dark space backdrop.
The full extent of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to our own, has been entirely imaged with Hubble's exquisite cameras.
Man peering through a glass container with measurement markings, focused expression, blurred foreground.
“Can we push these cells to do something other than what they normally do?" asks developmental biologist Michael Levin. "Can they build something completely different?”
MACS J0717 galaxy cluster dark matter
Dark matter doesn't absorb or emit light, but it gravitates. Instead of something exotic and novel, could it just be dark, normal matter?
Collage featuring a woman smiling, the text "The Nightcrawler," power lines, and multiple sticky notes with handwritten text detailing tiny experiments.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Group of people in a formal setting, with a man holding a large book, others standing nearby, and photographers capturing the scene. There is a large portrait and flags in the background.
We're all entitled to our own opinions, no matter how ill-informed they are. But facts are facts; we can't just choose the ones we prefer.
LEGO minifigure dressed in a suit sits at a desk with a computer monitor, phone, and a mug labeled "World's Best Boss.
Steve Jobs once quipped that Apple's professional managers "knew how to manage, but they didn't know how to do anything."