Science & Tech

Big Think Home

Science & Tech

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

Physics Astronomy Biology Biotechnology Engineering Aerospace Health Computing
Everything Articles Videos
Black and white illustration of a stylized human eye in the top left and a detailed depiction of an eyeball’s internal structure in the bottom right on a beige background.
2mins
The Well
What NASA is really looking for in space
We may be close to finding life beyond Earth. But would we even recognize it if we did? Astrobiologist Betül Kaçar explains what signs NASA is looking for.
Betül Kaçar 
Two side-by-side images of a galaxy cluster in space, captured by JWST, showcase numerous bright galaxies and stars on a dark background—highlighting one of the most extreme gravitational lens effects ever observed.
Starts With A Bang
JWST captures its most extreme gravitational lens ever
Massive galaxy cluster Abell S1063, 4.5 billion light-years away, bends and distorts the space nearby. Here's what a JWST deep field shows.
Ethan Siegel
Infographic illustrating three steps to measure the Hubble Constant, showing Cepheid variable stars, supernovae, and galaxies at increasing distances with redshifted light—highlighting how these methods reveal that the hubble tension is real.
Starts With A Bang
Ask Ethan: Is the Hubble tension a real problem?
Is the Universe's expansion rate 67 km/s/Mpc, 73 km/s/Mpc, or somewhere in between? The Hubble tension is real and not so easy to resolve.
Ethan Siegel
parallel universe
Starts With A Bang
ANITA did see weird particles, but not parallel Universes
The ANITA experiment found cosmic rays shooting out of Antarctica. One interpretation claims "parallel Universes," but is that right?
Ethan Siegel
A composite image showing a galaxy with red circles marking stars on the left and multicolored expanding rings with Earth on the right, all set against a grid background, illustrating concepts like Hubble tension studied by Wendy Freedman.
Starts With A Bang
Is the Hubble tension real? Exclusive interview with Wendy Freedman
Different methods of measuring the Universe's expansion rate yield high-precision, incompatible answers. But is the problem robustly real?
Ethan Siegel
A silhouette of a person sitting and reading under a white tree made from electronic circuit lines on a gray background.
The Present
AI is already in the classroom. It’s time colleges caught up.
"The rise of the internet brought about similar fears, yet it ultimately made learning richer and more accessible."
Gal Winter
Starts With A Bang
Could supermassive black holes anchor the tiniest galaxies?
The tiniest galaxies of all are the most severely dominated by dark matter. Could black holes be the cause of the extra gravity instead?
Ethan Siegel
Learn from the world’s biggest thinkers.
© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.