Science & Tech

Science & Tech

Explore the discoveries that reveal how the world works, alongside the technologies that extend, reshape, and sometimes challenge what’s possible.

A timeline diagram showing portraits of various scientists, documents, and equations connected by arrows, illustrating the historical development of quantum mechanics.
16mins
“The messy reality of it is that all of these very smart people, including Isaac Newton, were talking to other people.”
Silhouettes of people walk toward a large stack of books on a barren, monochrome landscape with a pale background.
The great books aren’t just classics — they’re cultural Schelling points that give our minds a place to meet up in the world of ideas.
terraforming
The first world beyond Earth for human habitability should be the Moon, not Mars. This is why we should terraform our lunar neighbor first.
Book cover for "The History of Money: A Story of Humanity" by David McWilliams, featuring stacked coins arranged in a Fibonacci sequence on a black background with white and gold text.
Fibonacci’s "Liber Abaci" not only revolutionized commerce — it also helped nudge the world towards reasoned, quantitative enquiry.
two particles different wavelength speed of light
Times dilate and lengths contract near the speed of light. Bizarre and confusing? Sure. But under relativity, it can't be any other way.
Book cover of "The Shortest History of AI" by Toby Walsh, featuring blue and white text on a dark background with a small glowing circle near the center—an apt nod to early AI like Logic Theorist.
In this excerpt from "The Shortest History of AI," Toby Walsh explores the history of the Logic Theorist, the first AI to prove mathematical theorems.
A close up of a hand.
13mins
“Over the last 10 or 15 years, scientists have really started to understand the fundamental underlying biology of the aging process. And they broke this down into 12 hallmarks of aging.”
A field of galaxies in deep space, featuring a bright spiral galaxy at the lower right with a stellar stream escaping the galaxy, and a large, bright red star at the upper left.
Stellar streams are faint trails of stars that appear to "stream" out of galaxies. A new one, escaping galaxy M61, may point to many others.
A split image showing a detailed drawing of a bearded man on the left and a black-and-white portrait of a young Steve Jobs with long hair on the right.
How did Jobs revolutionize tech, not once but continually? Aspiring innovators — and today's Apple — should look to The Bard and seek out singularity.
Three side-by-side images show different views of the Red Spider Nebula in space, captured by JWST, with a bright center and colorful gases in orange, green, and blue against a backdrop of stars.
When dying, Sun-like stars have binary companions, spectacular sights arise from the ionization. JWST spots the Red Spider Nebula in action!
big crunch
There's some, but not overwhelming, evidence that dark energy is evolving. What would it take for a "Big Crunch" to be our cosmic fate?
solar system model
Scientists are notoriously resistant to new ideas. Are they falling prey to groupthink? Or are our current theories just that successful?
A beam of light shines through clouds in a painted sky, with the word "AWE" in large yellow letters centered in the image.
14mins
If you’ve gotten goosebumps when hearing a story about a stranger’s selfless heroism, or you’ve felt your chest swell at a concert, when the audience’s voice and the musician’s instruments align, you have felt awe. And, according to professor Dacher Keltner, who has spent his life studying it, it’s one of humankind’s most unifying traits:
ufo lights liverpool
Physicist Daniel Whiteson challenges the notion that all intelligent species would eventually uncover the same laws of nature. Do you agree?
Split image showing a vintage sailing ship with an American flag on the left and a modern electric boat labeled "Navier" on the right, both on the water with blueprint sketches in the background.
Rivals may try to outnumber us with fleets of cheap vessels. Our path is to out-innovate them.
A middle-aged man with glasses and a beard, resembling Jimmy Wales, poses in front of a light-colored background featuring Wikipedia's globe logo and various language characters.
Wales shares with Big Think his thoughts about the future of media, the promise of AI, and our need to build a culture on trust.
A green book cover with blue text, inspired by Goldie Chan's vibrant style.
Introverts have social batteries that will drain over time, but they can be recharged with good energy hygiene. Here’s how.
DUNE neutrino detectors
Nearly 100 years after being theorized, the strange behavior of the neutrino still mystifies us. They could be even stranger than we know.
An illustration of an eye outline formed by two black arrows, with a blue Earth at the center where the iris would be, on a textured beige and peach background.
An ode to the data visualization tools that help us see what is too vast, complex, or interconnected for the naked eye — from planetary systems to pandemic trends.