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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
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"You’ve got to get away from the idea cancer is a disease to be cured. ... Cancer is in a way nature’s experiment with life."
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Seeking a "penicillin moment" in cancer research through a radically new approach.
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If humans contacted aliens, the astrobiologist would be the man in charge of sending the first message. So what would he say?
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OK, Paul Davies admits it’s a "crazy idea." But if we want to improve our search for ET, it’s the kind of idea we might need.
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Good luck finding intelligent life within 1,000 light years. As for super-advanced alien civilizations, they’re probably closer to the center of the galaxy.
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If we want to test the idea that life forms easily in Earthlike conditions, why not search for organisms outside our tree of life—right here on Earth?
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"There’s no lack of real estate" where life might spring up in the universe. So why has our search for ET turned up nothing?
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The theory that life on our planet originated on Mars was originally dismissed as a "crackpot notion." It’s now considered a distinct possibility.
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A conversation with the Arizona State University cosmologist and astrobiologist.
When veteran journalist Daniel Okrent joined the New York Times as the newspaper's first public editor in 2003, he entered a newsroom reeling in the wake of the Jayson Blair […]
The Braille system is one of design's most ingenious feats. Today, designers are using it to bring more ease and joy into the lives of blind people in everything from mundanity to playtime.
Today marks the second installment of Big Think's newest series, "Moments of Genius," which is sponsored by Intel and focuses on key discoveries by math and science leaders. In our […]
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The information revolution may turn everyday people into ocean conservationists.
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As the oil spill continues to plague the Gulf, the deep-sea explorer makes a passionate case for saving ocean life.
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You may like the taste, but is your dinner worth its cost to our ecosystem?
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Some sea life may think, sense and feel in ways that are beyond our comprehension.
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Sharks are scary, but an ecosystem without them is even scarier.
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Sylvia Earle describes an intimate encounter with a 40-foot-long humpback whale.
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The ocean’s depths are home to organisms that have been around for nearly half a billion years.
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Forget sharks and predatory animals—the most dangerous aspect of diving is oxygen.