With a planetary nebula, over 80,000 stars and a distance of only 10,000 light-years, it’s one of the most rewarding globulars of all! Image credit: R. Columbari, via http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=31833. “I […]
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If we came to be just a few billion years earlier, we’d never know. Image credit: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum Astronomia), Hawaiian Starlight. “After all the ‘Universe’ […]
The average Facebook user now has about 338 friends, though the median number is quite a bit lower: 200. This means that while half of all Facebook users have 200 […]
“One of the greatest challenges to the engineering of large tissues and organs is growing a network of blood vessels and capillaries,” said the scientist leading current research efforts.
What every middle-to-high schooler should know. Image credit: Bayside STEM academy, via Stanford at https://ed.stanford.edu/news/new-design-thinking-curriculum-targets-middle-school-students. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time […]
How the demons and angels of our greatest minds advanced science. Image credit: Luis Royo Fantasy Art, via Photobucket user mikenolan78. When most people think of Einstein, they think of […]
There have been many supernovae in the Milky Way seen over the past 2,000 years, but nobody ever saw the most recent ones! Image credit: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.Borkowski et al. “When I […]
From asteroids to planets to stars and more, doubling what you’ve got can be disastrous! “Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double […]
Messier himself lamented his own original discovery. If only he knew why he was so disappointed, he might’ve been amazed instead! “Things need not have happened to be true. Tales […]
How do we know how old the most distant objects we see actually are? “Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back […]
The odds of a large scale terrorist attack were low before that fateful day, and remain low now. But risk perception isn’t just a matter of the probabilities. It’s how the risk feels, and any risk that feels like a risk to you feels scarier than a risk that only endangers somebody else.
And the undeniable physics of how fusion actually works. Image credit: The FIRE Place, via http://fire.pppl.gov/. “Between cold fusion and respectable science there is virtually no communication at all. …because the […]
We know to be wary of demagoguery, but “plutogoguery” also has perils. Especially if it promotes elite psychological patterns that history warns against: 1. Demagogues are leaders (agogos = “lead”) […]
Through a telescope, this swarm of star appears extremely oblate. But is it really? Image credit: via http://vilagbiztonsag.hu/keptar/displayimage.php?album=19&pid=19138. “If I take dust in my hand and ask you if that […]
Irony lurks in the surge of interest in cognitive psychologists’ research on human reasoning: we seem to be desperately interested in reading about how poorly we think.
PopWed Co. in Washington DC offers couples an inexpensive pop-up wedding free from the stress of large event planning. The company’s two employees officiate and photograph the intimate, public ceremonies — sometimes to the chagrin of local security guards.
If you’re a recent college grad frustrated that the salary you needed to pay your private student loans never materialized, you have the sympathy of Daniel Altman, Big Think’s Chief […]
According to Duolingo founder Luis von Ahn, 800 million poor people around the world are trying to learn English to better themselves and improve their economic conditions. But most language lessons are expensive. His solution: Duolingo, a free app that runs on smartphones and computers.
Of the countless natural wonders dotting Iceland’s famous Ring Road, perhaps most notable are the country’s bountiful and majestic waterfalls. Iceland’s unique location and climate have made it home to some […]
After more than two years, we’ve visited all 110 objects. Have a look back at each one! “If you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you will learn. […]
There have been a lot of stories out there recently about the pros and cons of working at Google — not from a purely professional perspective, but from a personal […]
It turns out blowing into your old Nintendo cartridges probably did more harm than good. The reason? Human breath is gross.
All day every day, people accidentally offend each other. If you slip easily into defensiveness whenever someone accidentally offends you, life becomes like old Dodge City on a bad day. […]
Recently I’ve seen a ton of people sharing a provocative Forbes article whose title just about sums it up: “Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid […]
You’ve got to see what happens when this man realizes he’s talking to the living legend herself. Image credit: GayCalgary Magazine, via http://www.gaycalgary.com/Magazine.aspx?id=109&article=3182. “I’m just thankful that I’m still here. […]
When Pablo Picasso and other early modernists appropriated elements of so-called “primitive” African art for Cubist and proto-Cubist works such as 1907’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon they perpetrated a kind of […]
The Catholic Church has long regarded itself as a bastion of religious ethics. While it is undeniable numerous charitable efforts and organizations have arisen thanks to its emphasis on its […]
Every new cultural institution hopes for “The Bilbao Effect”—the economic boom the faltering, former industrial city of Bilbao, Spain, enjoyed after the 1997 rise of architect Frank Gehry’s game-changing design […]
Most of us recognize soma as the ‘ideal pleasure drug’ in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In this context the pleasure was pacifying—it kept people in line without questioning their […]
If spiral galaxies have a preferred direction, it just might be. “Since the beginning of physics, symmetry considerations have provided us with an extremely powerful and useful tool in our […]