History and Society

History and Society

Photons come in every wavelength you can imagine. But one particular quantum transition makes light at precisely 21 cm, and it's magical.
You don't need to be a scientist or a philosopher for facts, reality, and the truth to matter. The alternative is simply known as bullshit.
Black-and-white photo showing a disc-shaped object with a shadowed underside, floating in a blank sky—an iconic image from the UFO craze.
In this preview from "The Saucerian," author Gabriel Mckee explains how the combination of fantastical stories and obscure bureaucracy launched the “space age of the imagination.”
Book cover for "More Everything Forever" by Adam Becker, featuring a cosmic background with vertical blue streaks and white text, blending AI, space, humanity’s future, and echoes of Star Trek’s vision of exploration.
As we shape our future we should ask: Which interpretations of classic sci-fi fables hold sway with today’s powerful tech leaders?
A black and white photo of a bald man with a beard, reminiscent of a Christian Toetzke interview, is centered against a colorful abstract background featuring blue, yellow, and black geometric patterns.
The cofounder of Hyrox — one of the fastest-growing global brands in fitness — puts his snowballing success through a proper Big Think workout.
Book cover for "Unstoppable Entrepreneurs" by Lori Rosenkopf, featuring a torn paper effect revealing an orange circle with text about bootstrapping startups and innovation, published by Wharton School Press.
Warren Buffett famously noted that Berkshire Hathaway would “never depend on the kindness of strangers to stay in business.” Startups take note.
A person sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop in a loft-style room with brick walls, dark flooring, and two windows.
1hr 18mins
"The more uncertain and scary things get in the world, the more we as humans are drawn to simple dichotomies."
In all the known Universe, Earth is the only planet known to have native life. What should guide us in expanding humanity beyond our world?
A man in a suit sits in front of American flags, his face partially shadowed and filtered in yellow tones.
Trump may make America great again — just not in the way he had intended.
An astronaut stands proudly on the moon's surface near scientific equipment and a lunar lander, as the American flag waves in the background, symbolizing a pioneering USA nation.
After drastic cuts to the NIH, the FDA, the NSF, and the DOE, NASA science faces down its smallest budget ever. All of society will suffer.
A large black question mark with the words "live the questions" overlaid in cursive font, set against a beige background with red abstract lines.
"Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books written in a truly foreign language."
black hole baby universe
Perhaps no existential question looms larger than that of our ultimate cosmic origins. At long last, science has provided the answers.
Colorful abstract depiction of a human silhouette surrounded by layered, radiant patterns in various colors against a textured background.
From religious iconography to modern mysticism, the human aura has been a subject of fascination across centuries and cultures.
A vast view of deep space, captured in one of NASA's most important images, displays numerous galaxies of varying shapes and colors against a dark backdrop scattered with distant stars.
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was originally seen as a colossal mistake. This one image, taken in 1995, changed everything.
lab leak SARS-CoV-2
In theory, scientists could've produced a deadly virus that accidentally infected lab workers. In practice, we know that didn't happen.
The word "enough" stands boldly in black at the center, with incorrect spellings like "enugh," "enuph," "enuff," and "enuf" crossed out in red above and below, subtly highlighting the quirks of English spelling.
In "Enough Is Enuf," Gabe Henry traces the history of simplified spelling movements and the lessons they teach us about language.
uranium oxide oklo nuclear reactor
Planets can create nuclear power on their own, naturally, without any intelligence or technology. Earth already did: 1.7 billion years ago.
A hint of pessimism drips from the upside-down mint ice cream cone melting on the asphalt, a sweet reminder that some delights are meant to slip away.
Pessimissts are never disappointed, but are they also kinder?
The spiral galaxy, surrounded by dim stars and interstellar dust, stands out against a dark background, shining brighter than astronomers once imagined.
The most famous Hubble images show glittering stars and galaxies amidst the black backdrop of space. But more was captured than we realized.
People in early 20th-century attire gather outside a building, as an intriguing green geometric pattern overlays the scene. This blend of classic and modern elements evokes the innovative spirit of AI art.
Hugo-winning author Ken Liu explores what early cinema and Chinese poetry can teach us about AI's potential as a new artistic medium.
Diagram of the universe's expansion with grid patterns and cosmic elements, framed by "Consensus or Crisis?" in white text on black background. This visual encapsulates how cosmology changed from 2000 to 2025, highlighting key theories and discoveries.
25 years ago, our concordance picture of cosmology, also known as ΛCDM, came into focus. 25 years later, are we about to break that model?
Split-panel collage of illustrations with partial faces of four historical figures, featuring diverse expressions and art styles, separated by colored lines. Each face reveals a hint of misunderstood philosophy, inviting viewers to ponder the unseen depths behind their enigmatic gazes.
That Nietzsche quote might not mean what you think it does.
A person sitting on a chair with legs crossed in front of a white backdrop in a spacious room with wooden floors and large windows.
32mins
"Plato would argue that sex in and of itself is not what true love is. Sex can reach a point where you are in union with that person, where you see behind their appearances and you see behind the flesh and you experience something which is more transcendental."
Two visualizations map the cosmos, displaying color-coded cosmic microwave background radiation. Blue and orange patches indicate temperature variations across a spherical and an oval projection.
It's difficult to project a sphere onto a flat, two-dimensional surface. All maps of the Earth have flaws; the same is true for the cosmos.
An illustration of a Martian Revolution showcases a colony with astronauts tending to plants in a greenhouse embedded in the surface, under a red sky with two suns.
The latest season of the "Revolutions" podcast blends history with science fiction to tell the story of the Red Planet's rise.
Graph titled "The Post-WWII Boom 1945-1970" shows intersecting curves labeled "The Old World Is Dying" and "The New One Struggles To Be Born," with "JFK Was Here" marked at 1960.
Americans have gone through three historic junctures like what we're witnessing today — and they happen on an uncanny 80-year cycle.
We understand many things about our Universe, and our home within it, extremely well. The number of stars in the Milky Way isn't among them.
Map highlighting an area in Europe, centered on the Netherlands and surrounding countries, with a red overlay labeled "PDF.
Common knowledge says the maximum size of a PDF is as big as 40% of Germany — but that’s a gross underestimate.
A retro computer displays a ghost on the screen as pixelated chains drift across the foreground, reminiscent of a scene from a Ken Liu short story. This digital haunt unfolds against a vivid orange background.
The first in a series of short stories by the Hugo- and Nebula-winning author that inspired the cult hit "Pantheon."