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.

Collage featuring a man with glasses, reminiscent of Seth Godin, on a black and yellow background. Overlaid with images of architecture and industrial elements, this piece is titled "The Night Crawler.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Two colorful spiral galaxies interacting in space, with bright centers and swirling arms of red, blue, and white hues, set against a backdrop of stars.
The Kalam cosmological argument asserts that everything that exists must have a cause, and the "first" cause must be God. Is that valid?
Graph titled "The Post-WWII Boom 1945-1970" shows intersecting curves labeled "The Old World Is Dying" and "The New One Struggles To Be Born," with "JFK Was Here" marked at 1960.
Americans have gone through three historic junctures like what we're witnessing today — and they happen on an uncanny 80-year cycle.
We understand many things about our Universe, and our home within it, extremely well. The number of stars in the Milky Way isn't among them.
Map highlighting an area in Europe, centered on the Netherlands and surrounding countries, with a red overlay labeled "PDF.
Common knowledge says the maximum size of a PDF is as big as 40% of Germany — but that’s a gross underestimate.
branching parallel universes
The Multiverse isn't just a staple of science fiction; there's real-life science behind it, too. Here are 10 facts to expand your mind.
Stylized illustration of a person holding a chess piece, with a digital glitch effect and horizontal lines creating a blue-toned, distorted appearance.
How the cult hit sci-fi show imagines a “techno-realist” future.
A retro computer displays a ghost on the screen as pixelated chains drift across the foreground, reminiscent of a scene from a Ken Liu short story. This digital haunt unfolds against a vivid orange background.
The first in a series of short stories by the Hugo- and Nebula-winning author that inspired the cult hit "Pantheon."
A colorful, spinning galaxy with a bright orange core, existing for 12 billion years, is surrounded by smaller galaxies and star clusters against a black space background.
Large, massive, rotating galaxies like the Milky Way are common today. So how could one form a mere ~2 billion years after the Big Bang?
Over a century after we first unlocked the secrets of the quantum universe, people find it more puzzling than ever. Can we make sense of it?
A close-up of an oiled muscular arm flexing on the left and a vibrant peacock feather with blue and green hues, symbolizing sexual selection, on the right, both set against a stark black background.
Science writer Matt Ridley joins us to discuss how “Darwin’s strangest idea” makes us all a bit feather-brained (in a good way).
globular cluster terzan 5
For centuries, even after we knew the Sun was a star like any other, we still didn't know what it was made of. Cecilia Payne changed that.
A graph titled "The Long Boom 2000-2025" shows intersecting curves from 1975 to 2025, depicting a transition from an old to a new world. Text reads "I was here" at the intersection around 2005.
The latest from Peter Leyden's "The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050", an essay series published by Freethink.
A man in a suit sits on a stage chair with a headset, set against a vibrant green background, ready to discuss the latest advancements at OpenAI.
OpenAI has become a household name in artificial intelligence — but back in 2018 things looked very rocky. Here’s what happened.
From the vastness of space, Earth at night reveals its exo-earth beauty, with illuminated continents showcasing a tapestry of lights across North and South America. Major cities and regions emerge from the glowing darkness, painting a vivid picture against the backdrop of oceans.
Even from a single pixel, multiwavelength data taken over time can reveal clouds, icecaps, oceans, continents, and even signs of life.
Colorful galaxy with dark dust lanes and bright stars, set against a deep space background.
Someday, we'll look back and see a young galaxy forming stars for the first time. JADES-GS-z14-0, the farthest ever, isn't early enough.
Einstein's general relativity has reigned supreme as our theory of gravity for over a century. Could we reduce it back down to Newton's law?
Illustration of two connected neurons with green and orange bodies, featuring detailed blue nuclei, against a black grid background.
A fresh view of intelligence — spanning living systems from bacteria to human civilization — challenges the idea that it’s merely problem-solving.
From a vantage point reminiscent of Carl Zimmer's explorations, an aerial view captures a massive swirling cloud formation over Earth, resembling a hurricane or cyclone against the infinite darkness of space.
In his new book, the popular science writer tells the story of how scientists discovered the “gaseous ocean” we all swim in — and the trillions of invisible life forms we share it with.
Two side-by-side images of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula showcase different views with vibrant colors and star-filled backgrounds, embodying the great paradox of beauty within science.
Our scientific instruments are constantly improving, revealing nature's workings as never before. Without them, we'll remain in the dark.