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 colorful, abstract scientific illustration with a central glowing sphere, circular patterns, and various lines and circles suggesting quantum connections or uncertainty data points, on a dark background with blue accents.
From a primordial soup of particles, atoms eventually emerged. What happened to make it so, and could things have worked out any other way?
colliding black holes
All matter particles can act as waves, and massless light waves show particle-like behavior. Can gravitational waves also be particle-like?
black hole hawking
The matter that creates black holes won't be what comes out when they evaporate. Will the black hole information paradox ever be solved?
A person in a cleanroom suit stands next to a large cylindrical scientific instrument inside a high-tech laboratory with bright lighting and metallic walls, where one blip of dark matter was recently detected.
In 1982, an experiment showed unprecedented evidence for exotic matter: magnetic monopoles. But without reproducibility, it didn't hold up.
Satellite view of Earth showing Eurasia at night, with illuminated areas highlighting population density and settlements across the continent.
Until recently, nobody had visualized the fungal "Wood Wide Web."
blue marble not 24 hours apollo 17
As the Earth spins and wobbles on its axis and revolves elliptically around the Sun, each day differs from the last. "24 hours" isn't right.
A bright flash of light in the Universe
In general relativity, white holes are just as mathematically plausible as black holes. Black holes are real; what about white holes?
Book cover with the title “Kobuk the Destroyer” by Alex Davies, featuring a bear firing a cannon and a flying rabbit reminiscent of Jimmy Doolittle’s daring spirit, all set against a striking red background.
Jimmy Doolittle pushed aircraft to their limits and, in the process, helped turn flight testing from daredevilry into a discipline.
Raisin bread expanding Universe
The evidence that the Universe is expanding is overwhelming. But how? By stretching the existing space, or by creating new space itself?
time
We experience time as real. But what if it's only an illusion: an illusion that's inherently relative? Does time fundamentally even exist?
Split image: Left side shows a close-up of a DNA double helix; right side, a child outdoors creating a large bubble with a pink wand.
12mins
Doctors told Noa Greenwood's family that she wasn't expected to live past age ten. This new biotech changed that, and opened the doors to a whole new wave of medical funding, treatment, and care.
BridgeBio
There's a speed limit to the Universe: the speed of light in a vacuum. But you can beat the speed of light. Just travel through a medium!
halo evolve cosmic time millennium II
Generations ago, cosmologists asserted that the Universe might not just be the same in all directions, but at all times. But is that true?
A composite image of the Milky Way galactic center shows orange gas clouds, purple radio bubbles, and green and blue background stars in space.
Today's Milky Way only forms stars slowly. Our galactic center, where the star-forming rate is highest, gives a unique window into our past.
proton internal structure
Every proton contains three quarks: two up and one down. But charm quarks, heavier than the proton itself, have been found inside. How?
anti-gravity mirror
If you look into a mirror, you'll notice that left-and-right are reversed, but up-and-down is preserved. The reason isn't what you think.
time dilation
We live in a four-dimensional Universe, where matter and energy curve the fabric of spacetime. But time sure is different from space!
Infographic showing Apollo mission timelines, astronaut suits, and colored orbital paths around the Moon labeled with Apollo mission numbers, highlighting milestones in crewed spaceflight.
Big Think’s latest poster is a detailed look at humanity’s loftiest enterprise so far: making it off-planet.
Most of us have heard that the Sun is an ordinary, typical, unremarkable star. But science shows we're actually anything but average.
Our Big Bang could be just one region within an infinite, inflating multiverse. If we were born close to the cosmic edge, what would we see?