The Latest from Big Think

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A person looks out an airplane window at a cloud shaped like a brain in the sky, with a contemplative expression.
TikTok gave an old practice a terrible name. Neuroscience explains why it actually works.
Book cover of "Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business" by Marcus Buckingham, featuring bold "design love in" text and colorful, intersecting lines on a sleek black background.
Leadership isn’t about mastering a fixed set of skills, but creating the meaningful, human-centered experiences that inspire others.
apollo 8 earthrise
As the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war, distant, advanced civilizations would never know it. Earth appears peaceful from far away.
Book cover for "Thinking Sideways" by Jennifer Shahade, featuring chess pieces and orange-tan checkered pattern; subtitle: "How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life.
In this excerpt from her new book, Jennifer Shahade argues that the smartest move in life, as in chess, is sometimes a sideways one.
A group of identical, featureless figures with one central figure colored dark blue and green, surrounded by swirling lines.
As AI overwhelms the web, we will need a way to distinguish people from machines.
A labeled illustration shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, astronomers' most pristine star (SDSS J0715-7334), and the Milky Way galaxy connected by a wispy trail.
The 1st generation of stars formed, lived, and died very early on. But 2nd generation stars could still persist today. Did we just find one?
A map of the United States showing the most popular paint color in each state, with names of various gray, blue, and neutral shades labeled over the corresponding states.
The ideology, economics, and psychology behind the modern world's draining of color from homes, cars, and everyday objects.
The word "intelligence" in gray lowercase letters on a black background, with a subtle spotlight effect highlighting the center of the text, inspired by Frames of Mind.
Howard Gardner joins us to reflect on the theory of multiple intelligences and why the question of who owns intelligence is more important than ever.
A person’s silhouette looks out a spacecraft window at Earth—a blue and white sphere against the darkness of space—reflecting the hope inspired by Artemis II’s journey to the moon.
As humanity journeys to the Moon for the first time since 1972, can we rediscover our shared responsibilities: to the world and each other?
Digital illustration of a human head in profile showing a translucent brain with layered neural pathways, set against a blue gradient background.
25mins
“We can use neuroscience and tools from psychology to learn how to take advantage of anxiety.” From Zen Buddhism to flow state, these 3 experts explain how to hack your brain.
black hole merger
As light travels across the Universe, it's subject to cosmic expansion, changing fields, and relative motion. How about gravitational waves?
An older man with a beard sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop, with yellow neuron-like patterns on a black background surrounding the scene.
1hr 7mins
Members
Neuroscientist David Linden sheds light on the biology behind phenomena that medicine has long struggled to explain, from voodoo death and broken heart syndrome to the placebo effect, and why grief shows up in autopsy results
Book cover of "The Wage Standard" by Arindrajit Dube, featuring blue steps forming an upward arrow and highlighting key labor market issues and solutions through the wage standard.
In this excerpt from The Wage Standard, Arindrajit Dube explains how "monopsony" gives some employers the power to set wages below competitive levels.
moon landing Apollo 11
Even though no human has stepped foot on the Moon's surface in 50 years, the evidence of our presence there remains unambiguous.
Historic map illustration of the city of Tenochtitlan, surrounded by water, with labeled features and detailed buildings, from the early colonial period in Mexico.
This 1524 map of the Aztec capital was a window into an exotic otherworld — and largely a fiction.
A middle-aged man in a navy suit and light blue shirt gestures with his right hand while sitting against a plain light background.
7mins
Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec breaks down why the traditional idea of mentorship is not only outdated, but actively getting in the way of your growth.
A middle-aged man with light brown hair and a trimmed beard smiles at the camera, wearing a dark blazer over a light blue shirt against a plain background.
Members
You don’t need to be a salesperson to influence others. Robert Herjavec teaches us how to listen deeply, speak clearly, and create value in every interaction.
A colorful map shows the distribution of nearby galaxies, with distances and redshift factors labeled, created by DESI; NSF, NOIRLab, and Kitt Peak logos are visible.
Is dark energy evolving with at least 99.99% confidence? Despite the quality of recent data, scientists have every reason to be skeptical.
A group of people stands and plays cricket in an urban park at dusk, with city buildings, trees, and illuminated streetlights in the background.
The ozone hole was going to destroy life as we know it, but an unprecedented global effort fixed the problem.
Two stylized trees with intertwined roots and branches stand against a gradient background, symbolizing resilience, with floating leaves above them and abstract dark clouds overhead.
Long-lived companies show that resilience comes not from individual toughness, but from the strength of the systems around us.