The Latest from Big Think

Text reading "The Latest" in a large, serif font on a light background.
Book cover of "Target Earth" by Govert Schilling, featuring a meteor streaking toward Earth—a striking visual of cosmic catastrophe—set against space, clouds below, and an orange background.
If an asteroid hadn't killed off the dinosaurs, humans would almost certainly have never walked the Earth.
A collage with graphs, a flower, a container ship, and a hand giving a thumbs-up—hinting at lucky investors—overlaid with the title “THE NIGHTCRAWLER” in bold letters at the top.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
particle physics destroy universe
Empty space itself, the quantum vacuum, could be in either a true, stable state or a false, unstable state. Our fate depends on the answer.
A man in a suit sits in front of American flags, his face partially shadowed and filtered in yellow tones.
Trump may make America great again — just not in the way he had intended.
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.
After drastic cuts to the NIH, the FDA, the NSF, and the DOE, NASA science faces down its smallest budget ever. All of society will suffer.
A large black question mark with the words "live the questions" overlaid in cursive font, set against a beige background with red abstract lines.
"Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books written in a truly foreign language."
Barry Ritholtz, a man in a suit and tie, stands confidently before a blue zigzag line on a light backdrop.
Barry Ritholtz — market commentator, founder of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and podcast host — shares what really trips investors up.
black hole baby universe
Perhaps no existential question looms larger than that of our ultimate cosmic origins. At long last, science has provided the answers.
Colorful abstract depiction of a human silhouette surrounded by layered, radiant patterns in various colors against a textured background.
From religious iconography to modern mysticism, the human aura has been a subject of fascination across centuries and cultures.
A woman's black and white portrait is centered, crafted by AI creators. An abstract geometric background with orange, black, and yellow segments featuring cube patterns surrounds the photo.
The founder of GenZ Publishing joins Big Think from the infinitely unfurling confluence of print and digital.
A vast view of deep space, captured in one of NASA's most important images, displays numerous galaxies of varying shapes and colors against a dark backdrop scattered with distant stars.
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was originally seen as a colossal mistake. This one image, taken in 1995, changed everything.
Illustration of a clock showing 10:10 with zoomed-in views highlighting both '10' markings, on an orange background.
Surprisingly, multimodal large language models struggle to read time on analog clocks.
lab leak SARS-CoV-2
In theory, scientists could've produced a deadly virus that accidentally infected lab workers. In practice, we know that didn't happen.
The word "enough" stands boldly in black at the center, with incorrect spellings like "enugh," "enuph," "enuff," and "enuf" crossed out in red above and below, subtly highlighting the quirks of English spelling.
In "Enough Is Enuf," Gabe Henry traces the history of simplified spelling movements and the lessons they teach us about language.
Collage of a snarling wolf, a stock market graph, and abstract shapes, overlaid with the bold text "The Night Crawler" hints at de-extinction possibilities.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
uranium oxide oklo nuclear reactor
Planets can create nuclear power on their own, naturally, without any intelligence or technology. Earth already did: 1.7 billion years ago.
An older man with a white beard sits in a room, wearing a light blue shirt, hands clasped together. Bookshelves and artwork are visible in the background.
One of the most original and optimistic thinkers in America sketches some big ideas about what's possible with AI in the next 25 years.
A hint of pessimism drips from the upside-down mint ice cream cone melting on the asphalt, a sweet reminder that some delights are meant to slip away.
Pessimissts are never disappointed, but are they also kinder?