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History and Society
Experts and Big Think writers recommend their favorite reads for diving deeper into the history and perspectives found in the Book of Books.
The platform is a digital Royal Society for today's greatest minds — and it could play an essential role in shaping the next civilization.
Dreams of resurrecting lost species didn’t start in Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
The "Doctor Strange" director says mystery shifts your worldview — "not in a metaphorical sense, but in a deeply experiential one."
Many, from neuroscientists to philosophers to anesthesiologists, have claimed to understand consciousness. Do physicists? Does anyone?
English could settle into a state of "diglossia" where a gulf exists between the written form and its spoken varieties, but the two are bound into a single tongue.
With stars, gas, and dark matter, galaxies come in a great array of sizes. This new one, Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1, is the smallest by far.
11mins
"We are all in orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. How big is this collection of stars? Somewhere between 200 and 400 billion suns in the Milky Way galaxy, about 100,000 light years across."
According to Tolkien, fantasy requires a deep imagination known as "sub-creation." And the genre reflects a fundamental truth of being human.
The fact that our Universe's expansion is accelerating implies that dark energy exists. But could it be even weirder than we've imagined?
From medieval myths to Shakespeare's plays and modern cinema, British culture kept the Roman Empire alive long after its fall.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
The laws of physics obey certain symmetries and defy others. It's theoretically tempting to add new ones, but reality doesn't agree.
The award-winning nature writer, Robert Macfarlane, talks with Big Think about how to reacquaint ourselves with the rivers in our lives.
From “crave” packs to Valentine bookings, the world’s first fast-food hamburger chain values innovation from every level of the organization.
Can you travel by rail from Portugal all the way to Singapore? In theory, yes. In practice? Not so much.
The COSMOS-Web survey is now complete, combining JWST and Hubble infrared data. Its spectacular views show us the Universe as never before.
Reading obituaries can boost creativity by exposing you to distant ideas, fueling the associations that lead to unexpected breakthroughs.
Since 1998, we've known our Universe isn't just expanding, but the expansion is accelerating. Could the Big Bang itself be the reason why?
Long before the search for biosignatures, scientists imagined a cosmos teeming with intelligent life.
As democracy recedes and fascism rises in the USA and around the world in 2025, history provides a lesson in how science can fight fascism.
The comedian and musician behind the viral hit “BBL Drizzy” shares the books that shaped his thinking and approach to art.
Will platforms continue to offer the like button as an all-purpose tool — or will each of the button’s various functions exist in new forms?
The rapid crash of Nokia was triggered when key information gatekeepers became bottlenecks. Here’s the key lesson.
"For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD."
1hr 36mins
"It's a true fact, but a bizarre one, that the reason why hundreds of thousands of people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki rather than Kyoto and Kokura, is because of a 19-year-old vacation and a passing cloud."
What happens when scientists "write what they know"? Some amazing science fiction stories.
Arendt thought 20th-century philosophy had become too passive and abstract. She called for "active thinking" that prepares us to live in the real world.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
8mins
"There is interesting ethical questions about how we should actually conduct ourselves in [a space colonization] exploration phase."