Kay woke before dawn to the sound of rain rattling the windows. She rose, washed her face, and was just getting dressed when she heard a gentle rap on the apartment door. Han Ying had invited a matronly friend — selected because of her happy marriage and large family — to comb Kay’s hair from girlhood braids into a married woman’s bun. It was the first ritual of Kay’s wedding day, November 21, 1910.
Earlier that year, Moy Sing and Han Ying had decided to find their oldest daughter a husband. They waited until Kay turned seventeen but saw no reason for further delay. After all, Kay was already three years older than Han Ying had been at the time of her own marriage. So Moy Sing asked local merchant Lee Weenom, an amateur matchmaker, to find Kay a suitable mate. The task was formidable, but not because of Moy Sing’s lack of wealth or social prominence. In 1910, fewer than forty single or widowed adult Chinese women lived in New York City, compared to about fifteen hundred single or widowed ... Continue Reading »
When it comes to the Universe and everything in it, only one thing is absolutely certain: everything that’s now living will someday die. This doesn’t just extend to living beings, but to all sources that use some sort of fuel and emit energy: eventually, as demanded by the laws of thermodynamics, all of that energy-liberating activity will cease. Stars will go dark, stellar remnants will fade away, and even black holes will evaporate. In the far future, our Universe will become something that’s virtually unrecognizable to us today, as our bright, star-and-galaxy-rich cosmos will transform into a sparse, dark landscape from which precious few signals could ever be detected.
But there’s a whole lot that’s going to happen before we reach that funerary late-stage state. Given what we know today, can we say anything important about the path to that end state, and how dark the Universe, as well as our galaxy, will become over time? That’s what our regular reader James D wants to know, writing in to ask:
“I was wondering if it’s possible to estimate using star formation rates, ... Continue Reading »
Around 1200 BC, the most sophisticated network of civilizations the ancient world had ever produced, spanning Egypt, Greece, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and beyond, came apart within a single generation.
Historian Eric Cline argues this collapse wasn’t the work of one invading force or one bad harvest, but something far harder to stop: An overly interdependent system that had no way to absorb multiple shocks at once.
This video The late Bronze Age was the last time our world was this connected is featured on Big Think.
Continue Reading »
This is what no one tells you, in the songs sung about Jason and the Argo. When he spoke like this — so proper and persuasive — his voice was filled with laughter. The amusement was never unkind, it always seemed generous. So the idea that my nephews — scarcely more than children — might be capable of protecting me was not risible, exactly, but somehow enjoyable to him. The way he bestowed his affection was almost regal, as though he were the princess and I were the adventurer. And every word felt like a gift, even as he acknowledged his promises to me.
I didn’t know this at the time, of course. I just thought it was one of those vocal mannerisms that foreigners sometimes have. It was only later, when I had seen him under different circumstances, that I knew he found delight in these moments. He loved to be asked for help, he loved to feel that he was granting wonderful favors. He believed his own generosity was the cause of anything he did at another’s request: He ... Continue Reading »
From your own experiential perspective, the laws of physics are stacked against you if you ever hope to achieve immortality. From a thermodynamic perspective, every system tends toward increasing entropy-and-disorder, and the only way you can combat that is by constantly inputting an external source of energy. In other words, everything about you, including your body and mind, is destined to eventually break down. Although you might try to leverage the power of relativity to dilate time and slow its passage, that will never work from your individual perspective; time only dilates or slows relative to an observer in a different reference frame from your own. No matter how quickly you move or how deep of a gravitational field you enter, you’ll still experience the passage of time as normal: at the rate of one second per second.
While this may confine a human’s dream of immortality to solutions that rely on technological enhancements, bio-hacking your body, or science-fiction level technology that relies on novel physical laws and/or phenomena, there’s still plenty that relativity has to say about living forever. There’s ... Continue Reading »
There is a rich and long history to the philosophy of reading. In his Phaedrus, Plato attacked reading as corrupting true philosophical dialectic. Later, in his 1597 book Essays, Francis Bacon wrote that “Reading maketh a full man.” And, in more modern times, Maryanne Wolf has said that the reading brain is under threat from digital culture.
That was a fairly generic paragraph to open an article about reading. It’s so generic that you’ve likely skimmed past it. But if you’re one of the 20% who have made it to this point, thank you. Well done.
Most people who open this article might spend around 50 more seconds on it, even though our website’s AI system estimates that reading it will take at least five minutes. In those 50 seconds, most readers will probably jump to the next section — drawn by the chunky font and brain-friendly division. They’ll scan it a bit, then jump to the next. So, at this point in the introduction, I might as well put any old nonsense in here. Did you hear about the gaudy goat ... Continue Reading »
Ever since the final years of the original space race, NASA has been unrivaled as the world leader in space sciences and space exploration. In particular, NASA astrophysics has brought us a wide range of space telescopes that have pushed the frontiers of humanity’s knowledge across the electromagnetic spectrum, from the highest-energy gamma-rays through X-rays, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and even microwave wavelengths. Whenever we consider building a new observatory, the big thing that scientists focus on is what we call discovery potential, or “how much” ability there is to see beyond the limits of our current instruments and observatories.
Not all wavelengths have received equal attention, however, and some wavelengths have been woefully neglected in recent years. In particular, the most powerful X-ray observatory in human history remains NASA’s Chandra, despite the fact that Chandra was launched all the way back in 1999: back in the 20th century. Plans for a future X-ray flagship were developed, laid out, and approved, with the next big step toward that goal being NASA’s AXIS mission: a true 21st century X-ray facility that would help ... Continue Reading »
From a scientific perspective, studying consciousness is a bit like trying to describe the singularity inside a black hole from the window of a spacecraft in its gravitational orbit. We can see how the black hole warps and contorts the space around it: Superheated dust and gas spiral inward; radiation and strange gravitational waves emanate outward.
But from this outside view, observing the singularity inside the black hole is impossible. The event horizon blocks all attempts. Similarly, as outside observers, we cannot directly access the conscious experiences of other beings. When we focus our third-person scientific tools on the places we suspect our mental lives to reside — namely, our brains (and bodies, more generally) — all we see is the stuff of physical reality: electrical activity, neurochemicals, and bodily tissues. No feelings, no emotions, no love. Our own inner cosmos of intentions, beliefs, and dreams is knowable only to ourselves.
Modern science tends to see consciousness as arising from neural activity, like ghostly software conjured through the brain’s material hardware. A radical new theory suggests something different: The brain doesn’t only ... Continue Reading »
Partway through our conversation about his new book Good Writing: How to Improve Your Sentences, Neal Allen lost his train of thought. He turned toward his wife and co-author, Anne Lamott. The two riffed briefly, their faces slightly angled away from their computer and from me.
“It will come back,” Lamott said.
He nodded briefly and repeated: “It will come back.”
And it did. “Oh!” Allen said, facing the screen, and off we went.
It was a small exchange, the kind you might expect from a married couple, but I jotted it down anyway, sensing it may prove significant. As we talked, the two continued to finish each other’s thoughts, nudging one another forward, even setting the record straight. (At one point, Lamott said Allen introduced his 36 “writing rules” on their second date. Allen reminded her: “In the book, you say it was the fourth or fifth.”)
I realized that their back-and-forth mirrored Good Writing’s structure, but in an improvised miniature. The premise of the book is straightforward: one by one, Allen goes through the 36 writing rules he’s picked up across his decades-long ... Continue Reading »
Jim Al-Khalili introduces the technologies emerging from the second quantum revolution: computers that exploit superposition to solve problems that would take today’s best supercomputers billions of years, sensors that read individual neurons firing inside your skull, and cameras that image biological tissue using light and not touch.
This video The idea so strange Einstein thought it broke quantum physics is featured on Big Think.
Continue Reading »
Kay woke before dawn to the sound of rain rattling the windows. She rose, washed her face, and was just getting dressed when she heard a gentle rap on the apartment door. Han Ying had invited a matronly friend — selected because of her happy marriage and large family — to comb Kay’s hair from girlhood braids into a married woman’s bun. It was the first ritual of Kay’s wedding day, November 21, 1910.
Earlier that year, Moy Sing and Han Ying had decided to find their oldest daughter a husband. They waited until Kay turned seventeen but saw no reason for further delay. After all, Kay was already three years older than Han Ying had been at the time of her own marriage. So Moy Sing asked local merchant Lee Weenom, an amateur matchmaker, to find Kay a suitable mate. The task was formidable, but not because of Moy Sing’s lack of wealth or social prominence. In 1910, fewer than forty single or widowed adult Chinese women lived in New York City, compared to about fifteen hundred single or widowed ... 
When it comes to the Universe and everything in it, only one thing is absolutely certain: everything that’s now living will someday die. This doesn’t just extend to living beings, but to all sources that use some sort of fuel and emit energy: eventually, as demanded by the laws of thermodynamics, all of that energy-liberating activity will cease. Stars will go dark, stellar remnants will fade away, and even black holes will evaporate. In the far future, our Universe will become something that’s virtually unrecognizable to us today, as our bright, star-and-galaxy-rich cosmos will transform into a sparse, dark landscape from which precious few signals could ever be detected.
But there’s a whole lot that’s going to happen before we reach that funerary late-stage state. Given what we know today, can we say anything important about the path to that end state, and how dark the Universe, as well as our galaxy, will become over time? That’s what our regular reader James D wants to know, writing in to ask:
“I was wondering if it’s possible to estimate using star formation rates, ... 
This is what no one tells you, in the songs sung about Jason and the Argo. When he spoke like this — so proper and persuasive — his voice was filled with laughter. The amusement was never unkind, it always seemed generous. So the idea that my nephews — scarcely more than children — might be capable of protecting me was not risible, exactly, but somehow enjoyable to him. The way he bestowed his affection was almost regal, as though he were the princess and I were the adventurer. And every word felt like a gift, even as he acknowledged his promises to me.
I didn’t know this at the time, of course. I just thought it was one of those vocal mannerisms that foreigners sometimes have. It was only later, when I had seen him under different circumstances, that I knew he found delight in these moments. He loved to be asked for help, he loved to feel that he was granting wonderful favors. He believed his own generosity was the cause of anything he did at another’s request: He ... 
From your own experiential perspective, the laws of physics are stacked against you if you ever hope to achieve immortality. From a thermodynamic perspective, every system tends toward increasing entropy-and-disorder, and the only way you can combat that is by constantly inputting an external source of energy. In other words, everything about you, including your body and mind, is destined to eventually break down. Although you might try to leverage the power of relativity to dilate time and slow its passage, that will never work from your individual perspective; time only dilates or slows relative to an observer in a different reference frame from your own. No matter how quickly you move or how deep of a gravitational field you enter, you’ll still experience the passage of time as normal: at the rate of one second per second.
While this may confine a human’s dream of immortality to solutions that rely on technological enhancements, bio-hacking your body, or science-fiction level technology that relies on novel physical laws and/or phenomena, there’s still plenty that relativity has to say about living forever. There’s ... 
There is a rich and long history to the philosophy of reading. In his Phaedrus, Plato attacked reading as corrupting true philosophical dialectic. Later, in his 1597 book Essays, Francis Bacon wrote that “Reading maketh a full man.” And, in more modern times, Maryanne Wolf has said that the reading brain is under threat from digital culture.
That was a fairly generic paragraph to open an article about reading. It’s so generic that you’ve likely skimmed past it. But if you’re one of the 20% who have made it to this point, thank you. Well done.
Most people who open this article might spend around 50 more seconds on it, even though our website’s AI system estimates that reading it will take at least five minutes. In those 50 seconds, most readers will probably jump to the next section — drawn by the chunky font and brain-friendly division. They’ll scan it a bit, then jump to the next. So, at this point in the introduction, I might as well put any old nonsense in here. Did you hear about the gaudy goat ... 
Ever since the final years of the original space race, NASA has been unrivaled as the world leader in space sciences and space exploration. In particular, NASA astrophysics has brought us a wide range of space telescopes that have pushed the frontiers of humanity’s knowledge across the electromagnetic spectrum, from the highest-energy gamma-rays through X-rays, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and even microwave wavelengths. Whenever we consider building a new observatory, the big thing that scientists focus on is what we call discovery potential, or “how much” ability there is to see beyond the limits of our current instruments and observatories.
Not all wavelengths have received equal attention, however, and some wavelengths have been woefully neglected in recent years. In particular, the most powerful X-ray observatory in human history remains NASA’s Chandra, despite the fact that Chandra was launched all the way back in 1999: back in the 20th century. Plans for a future X-ray flagship were developed, laid out, and approved, with the next big step toward that goal being NASA’s AXIS mission: a true 21st century X-ray facility that would help ... 
From a scientific perspective, studying consciousness is a bit like trying to describe the singularity inside a black hole from the window of a spacecraft in its gravitational orbit. We can see how the black hole warps and contorts the space around it: Superheated dust and gas spiral inward; radiation and strange gravitational waves emanate outward.
But from this outside view, observing the singularity inside the black hole is impossible. The event horizon blocks all attempts. Similarly, as outside observers, we cannot directly access the conscious experiences of other beings. When we focus our third-person scientific tools on the places we suspect our mental lives to reside — namely, our brains (and bodies, more generally) — all we see is the stuff of physical reality: electrical activity, neurochemicals, and bodily tissues. No feelings, no emotions, no love. Our own inner cosmos of intentions, beliefs, and dreams is knowable only to ourselves.
Modern science tends to see consciousness as arising from neural activity, like ghostly software conjured through the brain’s material hardware. A radical new theory suggests something different: The brain doesn’t only ... 
Partway through our conversation about his new book Good Writing: How to Improve Your Sentences, Neal Allen lost his train of thought. He turned toward his wife and co-author, Anne Lamott. The two riffed briefly, their faces slightly angled away from their computer and from me.
“It will come back,” Lamott said.
He nodded briefly and repeated: “It will come back.”
And it did. “Oh!” Allen said, facing the screen, and off we went.
It was a small exchange, the kind you might expect from a married couple, but I jotted it down anyway, sensing it may prove significant. As we talked, the two continued to finish each other’s thoughts, nudging one another forward, even setting the record straight. (At one point, Lamott said Allen introduced his 36 “writing rules” on their second date. Allen reminded her: “In the book, you say it was the fourth or fifth.”)
I realized that their back-and-forth mirrored Good Writing’s structure, but in an improvised miniature. The premise of the book is straightforward: one by one, Allen goes through the 36 writing rules he’s picked up across his decades-long ...