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Astrobiology
The famous framework ranks civilizations by energy use — but ignores a critical factor that can halt their progress.
Mars was warmer and wetter long ago. If anything was alive there, what came next was either a tragedy or a masterclass in survival.
As the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war, distant, advanced civilizations would never know it. Earth appears peaceful from far away.
Andy Weir’s novel blends humor, scientific rigor, and human ingenuity to make science fiction feel believable and thrilling.
In theory, the fabric of space could have been curved in any way imaginable. So why is the Universe flat when we measure it?
No civilization, no matter how successful, can last forever. What does the non-detection of intelligent aliens mean for our own longevity?
A big open question in 21st-century science is how life began here on Earth. The metabolism-first scenario just might be the best one.
Speculative evolution explores the strange paths natural selection might have taken — and what that means for humans.
Some sci-fi aliens are wildly implausible. Others aren’t so far-fetched.
One big goal of science is to find an inhabited, Earth-like planet. But if we find an Earth-like world, will we even recognize it?
The unanswered questions about sex, love, and pregnancy in space could shape the future of humanity more than we think.
No claim has even made it halfway up the Confidence of Life Detection (CoLD) scale, but 21st century science is just beginning to unfold.
Astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger spoke with Big Think about how "the colors of life" could leave detectable traces on distant planets.
There will always be "wolf-criers" whose claims wither under scrutiny. But aliens are certainly out there, if science dares to find them.
Particles are everywhere, including particles from space that stream through the human body. Here's how they prove Einstein's relativity.
Finding alien Earths requires seeing Earth-sized planets at Earth-like distances from Sun-like stars. A new discovery completes the roadmap.
NASA’s Caleb Scharf talks with Big Think about life’s long experiment in expansion.
What if the first search for life beyond Earth actually succeeded?
Do aliens speak the same physics that we do, with similar laws, observables, and underlying mathematics. Maybe not, argues Daniel Whiteson.
In 2025, Earth remains the only planet where life is known to exist. Without a second example, "The Stand" has a vital lesson to teach us.
Big Think spoke with astronomer David Kipping about technosignatures, "extragalactic SETI," and being a popular science communicator in the YouTube age.
Organic compounds can form through simple chemistry alone — making the search for true biosignatures trickier than it seems.
The red planet, Mars, may once have been teeming with life, just as Earth is today. Finding "organics" on Mars, however, doesn't mean life.
The most common type of exoplanet is neither Earth-sized nor Neptune-sized, but in between. Could these haze-rich worlds house alien life?
The Universe was born incredibly hot, and has expanded and cooled ever since. Could life have begun back when space was "room temperature?"
Our Earthbound definitions of life could leave us blind to the Universe’s strangest forms.
In the search for life in the Universe, the ultimate goal is to find an inhabited planet beyond Earth. How will we know when we've made it?
At the end of July, hundreds of scientists convened to plan NASA's upcoming astrophysics flagship mission. Will the US allow it to happen?
Somewhere, at some point in the history of our Universe, life arose. We're evidence of that here on Earth, but many big puzzles remain.
65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it most likely caused the impact itself.