Latest Articles

Latest Articles

The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.

In "The History of Western Philosophy," Bertrand Russell made it clear whose thinking he admired — and whose thinking he didn't.
a drawing of a lobster on a white background.
The pandemic and the Great Resignation fed into a perfect storm of inflation — and some restaurateurs cleaned up.
life beyond earth
Back in 1990, we hadn't discovered a single planet outside of our Solar System. Here are 10 facts that would've surprised every astronomer.
a number of different types of numbers on a pink background.
Striking differences in the composition of the gut microbiome suggest that fermented food could help those suffering from anorexia.
a woman's face is shown with a colorful background.
Forgetting and misremembering are the building blocks of creativity and imagination.
a painting of a human skull on a table.
Most people are not experiencing a "good" death.
Neuroscience suggests that it's way better to give than to receive — and high performing people agree.
a close up of a person with freckles on his face.
1hr 25mins
Richard Reeves explains the big problems facing men today — and why no one is talking about them.
composite JWST ALMA HST Fomalhaut
The nearby, bright star Fomalhaut had the first optically imaged planetary candidate. Using JWST's eyes, astronomers found so much more.
The "island rule" hypothesizes that species shrink or supersize to fill insular niches not available to them on the mainland.
a close up of a carving on a wall.
Glimpse into the ancient Maya empire through the writing of its own inhabitants.
a robot hand holding a magnifying glass.
A panel of healthcare professionals much preferred responses that came from the chatbot in a recent study.
a large group of clouds with a red sky in the background.
These composers channeled the horror of the Holocaust and Hiroshima while honoring those who lived through it.
A pair of scissors appears to cut through a black and white illustration of a DNA double helix.
4mins
Forget AI. Gene editing is still our most powerful — and dangerous — technology.
four exoplanets super-earth mini-neptune
They're the most common type of exoplanet known today, and many astronomers have called them "super-habitable." None of that is true.
a painting of a couple of zebras on a blue background.
The discovery has enormous implications for the development of novel anti-anxiety medications.
a black and white photo of a man in front of a red background.
As a physician, John Pringle helped reinvent hygiene; as a husband, he destroyed a woman’s life with his abuse.
a close up of a statue
As the stream of AI-generated art turns into a deluge, NFTs could become a cornerstone of the Virtual Renaissance.
perseverance ingenuity mars
Mars, the red planet, was a world we knew almost nothing about until our first spacecraft visited it. In just ~50 years, how far we've come!