bigthink.com
Every bigthink.com story we have translated and published, newest first. · 53 stories
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History shows that human progress is a myth
There are two different kinds of stories. The first is the linear story. The characters start at position A and end at position B, having be
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The test pilot who made airplanes safer (by teaching us how to break them better)
In the years following the Wright brothers’ 1903 takeoff, aircraft were designed via what a NASA history calls “an intuitive, daring empiric
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Does the expanding Universe stretch space or create new space?
It’s been nearly a full century, almost 100 years, since humanity first reached a revolutionary conclusion about the nature of our Universe:
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The secret your brain uses to decide how much pain you feel
We treat pain like a plumbing problem. Something in the body is broken, so we block the signal with medication or cut it out with surgery. T
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Leadership isn’t natural — but making intelligent decisions can be learned
Every day as a leader brings an endless flow of judgment calls, big and small. Even as you read this, you might be weighing where to focus y
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Can we be certain that time really exists?
From both a philosophical and a scientific perspective, we’re taught to doubt, question, and be skeptical of everything. Even the reality of
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NASA image shows Earth’s lumpiness — exaggerated 10,000 times
No, the Earth is not flat. But it’s not exactly round either. Nor is it — let us stop you right there, smartypants — an oblate spheroid. Clo
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This powerful belief can help you accomplish more
In the 1970s, academic psychology escaped from studying just behavior to start studying mental life. Albert Bandura, the father of this cogn
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These life-saving treatments were considered ‘too small’ to fund. Until now.
When 10-month-old Noa Greenwood was diagnosed with Canavan, her parents Lee and Lori were confronted with an idea of a future they’d never p
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How to build a leadership development program that actually works
Most leadership development programs fail quietly. Designed to look great on paper, rarely built to change behavior in practice. Jessica Lan
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This physics trick allows you to beat the speed of light
In our Universe, there are a few rules that everything must obey. Energy, momentum, and angular momentum are always conserved whenever any t
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The “perfect cosmological principle” isn’t true for our Universe
Back in 1923, an unprecedented scientific revolution occurred. Hubble’s discovery of a Cepheid variable in the Andromeda galaxy, M31, opened
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Starts With A Bang podcast #133 – The Milky Way’s center
Here in our Universe, there are all sorts of places where stars are actively forming right now. Our galaxy is going through a relatively qui
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Ask Ethan: Are there really charm quarks inside the proton?
At the start of the 20th century, we were still figuring out what the structure of matter was. We knew everything was made up of atoms, and
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The science, medicine, and mythology of menstruation and menopause
OBGYN and author Dr. Jen Gunter explains what’s actually happening inside the body during menstruation and menopause, why so much of what we
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How to make difficult decisions, according to philosophy
Every now and then, life asks us a question with no easy answer. Which career should we pursue? Should we have children? Should we move to t
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Why mirrors flip left-to-right but not up-and-down
If you’ve ever looked in a mirror, you’ve likely noticed that everything you see is flipped. When you raise your left hand, your reflection
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We have the knowledge to build a better world. But is that enough?
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Time is a fundamentally different type of dimension than space
One of the most common questions we can ask about any two distinct locations is, “What’s the shortest distance between those two points?” By
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Every single crewed mission to space — on one definitive map
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Do we live inside a baby universe that’s really a black hole on the outside?
One of the biggest existential questions that has puzzled humanity for as long as humans have been around is simply, “Where did all this com
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The surprising link between false memories and imagination
In his memoir Uncle Tungsten, British neurologist Oliver Sacks described two bombing incidents from his childhood during the Blitz. One invo
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Yes, the Sun is a star, but it’s far from typical
Our starry skies make us wonder, “Is the Sun a typical star?” From their earliest beginnings to their final extent before fading away, Sun-l
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The Philosopher’s Guide to Uncertainty
There is a paradox at the heart of being human. On the one hand, we have to make plans for the future. We go to jobs, book vacations, and sa
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