Scientific Advancement

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Scientific Advancement

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A woman sits at a desk covered with tall stacks of papers, reviewing and pointing to documents as she conducts a purpose-driven peer review in a busy office setting.
Starts With A Bang
Ask Ethan: What is the true purpose of scientific peer review?
Just because a paper passes peer review doesn't mean that what's written, or what the author asserts, is true. Here's why it still matters.
Ethan Siegel
A bright, circular blue and white object is centered against a black background, with a smaller red object to the lower left.
Starts With A Bang
Starts With A Bang podcast #121 – Direct exoplanet imaging
Going back to 1990, we hadn't even found one planet outside of our Solar System. As we close in on 6000, we now see many of them directly.
Ethan Siegel
An artist's rendering of the nasa jupiter spacecraft.
Starts With A Bang
NASA to needlessly kill Juno mission to Jupiter this month
The Juno spacecraft, orbiting and imaging Jupiter since 2016, is still succeeding. Without a further extension, the mission now faces death.
Ethan Siegel
A 3D potential energy surface with a central peak and surrounding valley illustrates zero-point energy power; two blue spheres indicate positions atop the peak and within the valley. Axes labeled Re(φ), Im(φ), and V(φ).
Starts With A Bang
Ask Ethan: Can “zero-point energy” power the world?
Throughout history, "free energy" has been a scammer's game, such as perpetual motion. But with zero-point energy, is it actually possible?
Abstract collage with a butterfly, brain sketches, graphs, and scientific diagrams overlaid with red, black, and beige shapes and textured patterns.
Neuropsych
Why the 21st century could bring a new “consciousness winter”
A conversation with neuroscientist Erik Hoel about the future of consciousness research.
Ross Pomeroy
Abstract illustration of a human figure with glowing neural-like lines and bright light concentrated around the head, set against a red and orange gradient background.
Thinking
A letter from the editor
Introducing Big Think's Consciousness Issue.
Stephen Johnson
A hexagonal telescope with a gold exterior and an open, black interior is shown against a black background, highlighting NASA habitable worlds observatory science.
Starts With A Bang
NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory: the future (or end) of NASA science
At the end of July, hundreds of scientists convened to plan NASA's upcoming astrophysics flagship mission. Will the US allow it to happen?
Ethan Siegel
Green abstract image with floating, glowing funnel-shaped objects and spherical wireframe shapes evokes a black hole universe, all set against a misty green background with ethereal light streaks.
Starts With A Bang
Ask Ethan: Could our whole Universe be a black hole’s interior?
Once you cross a black hole's event horizon, there's no going back. But inside, could creating a singularity give birth to a new Universe?
Ethan Siegel
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