bigthinkeditor
Stephen’s Quintet is the name of the first identified compact galaxy group. This remarkable image of it was captured with data from the Hubble Legacy Archive and the Subaru Telescope […]
“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” […]
Good news for mice! Bad news for cobras. Researchers have engineered the strongest constructed muscle yet–ten times stronger than all previous attempts, and successfully implanted it into mice. It’s so […]
AMC just released a trailer for its Silicon Valley drama series “Halt and Catch Fire.” There’s just something about geeks and hackers yelling at each other as though they’re in […]
Working at Big Think, we’re often asked, what’s it like to interview Dr. Michio Kaku? The Big Think expert and author of The Future of the Mind is a rock […]
America has been undergoing a marijuana revolution of sorts. Marijuana is legal for medical use in 20 states and the District of Columbia, and now it’s sold in Colorado and […]
Einstein’s quantum description of light earned him a Nobel prize, but he’s mostly remembered for relativity. At their core, special and general relativity are, in fact, not relative. Explore Einstein’s […]
“Education must be the only sector that hasn’t already been completely revolutionized by technology,” says Wendy Kopp, the CEO and co-founder of Teach For All, and the founder and chair […]
Around 220 million light years away, the spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 speeds through the galaxy cluster Abell 3627. Hubble captured an image of the distant galaxy. As ESO 137-001 travels, its gas […]
“We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.” – Neil deGrasse […]
Writers loathe using cliches like “Orwellian” and “Kafkaesque.” But sometimes, it can’t be helped, especially when you’re Christopher Hitchens getting arrested in communist Czechoslovakia. He tells a very “Hitchensian” story […]
While it’s not a Frankenstein’s monster, it’s still an exciting advancement toward creating life from scratch. The journal Science announced that a team of scientists produced a yeast chromosome. The […]
Before there was David Lynch’s Dune, there was Jodorowsky’s Dune. This film project never made it off the ground, but the team that the mad genius avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky […]
When it comes to picking a beverage of choice, it should be water, plain and simple. Our bodies are around 60% water. So why shouldn’t we be chugging our eight […]
The missing Malaysian jet may have ignited a fear of flying in many. Statistically, a missing plane is an extremely rare occurrence. What we should all be terrified of when […]
Anant Agrawal is the president of edX, an online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT. As Bill Clinton said at the Global Education & Skills Forum, it’s important to […]
Change is hard to do. In fact, for many “change” is a dirty word. Regardless, our society is set-up to embrace change. Every New Years Eve we flaunt our resolutions […]
Walking around London, it’s easy to imagine what the city looked like in the 1700s. A project by Redditor Shystone made it much easier to go back in time. Old […]
Tim Harford presents two surprising examples when explaining how recessions work. A contributor to the Financial Times and author of five books, including his latest, The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, […]
“The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens.” – Copernicus
In 2012, Gregory Harpel, an amateur paleontologist digging around a streambed in Monmouth County, N.J., stumbled upon what he first assumed to be a rock. It turned out that it […]
These dazzling cosmic waves of blue with dark crests can be found in the constellation Orion. They are the product of M78 and other bright reflection nebula. NASA explains their […]
“Although they are only breath, words which I command are immortal.” – Sappho
In honor of last week’s enormous discovery of the Big Bang’s smoking gun, let’s go back to the search for the “God particle,” which we of course covered here on […]
John Davies is an expert on bringing technology into classrooms. As the general manager of the Intel World Ahead Program, Davies’ mission is to understand how to increase access to […]
Superconducting levitation may be omnipresent one day and revolutionize transportation. This video explains how it works and shows you the possibilities of this amazing technology:
How does NASA control the flow of fluids in Space? NASA invented ferrofluid. It turns out the stuff is multipurpose when you apply rare earth magnets. Check out the ferrofluid […]
There are a lot of ways to entertain oneself on the International Space Station. Playing with a large sphere of water is one of them. Watch what happens when an […]
This classic physics experiment is made thanks to some hot jazz. Literally hot jazz. Flammable gas is pumped through a Reuben’s tube, which is attached to a speaker. Watch what […]
This supersonic jet, the F-14 Tomcat, can create a cloud. Check out this footage of the jet ripping through the sky, leaving a trail of vapor. What you’re witnessing are […]