It’s hard to believe, but it was only back in the early 1990s that we discovered the very first planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun. Fast forward to the present day, here in 2025, and we’re closing in on 6000 confirmed exoplanets, found and measured through multiple techinques: the transit method, the stellar wobble method, and even direct imaging. That last one is so profoundly exciting because it gives us hope that, someday soon, we might be able to take direct images of Earth-like worlds, some of which may even be inhabited.
Although it may be a long time before we can get an exoplanet image as high-resolution as even the ultra-distant “pale blue dot” photo that Voyager took of Earth so many decades ago, the fact remains that science is advancing rapidly, and things that seemed impossible mere decades ago now reflect today’s reality. And the people driving this fascinating field forward the most are the mostly unheralded workhorses of the fields of physics and astronomy: the early-career researchers, like grad students and postdocs, who are just ... Continue Reading »
Richard Reeves argues that this quiet male crisis has been decades in the making, and it’s not the simplistic story most people assume.
From collapsing educational outcomes to shrinking roles in the labor market, men are struggling in ways that challenge our cultural narratives about progress.
This video Richard Reeves: Why working-class men are facing the sharpest decline is featured on Big Think.
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When most scientists talk about progress in their field, they speak about small, incremental changes that slightly, gradually improve our understanding of how the Universe works. But when we think about the biggest advances in scientific history, they often occur in revolutionary leaps, completely overthrowing our previously held views of how the Universe works. In particular, revolutions like special relativity and general relativity, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, and the Big Bang and cosmic inflation completely overthrew our prior picture of how things actually behave. As the “holy grail” of physics, many have long sought a theory of everything, seeking to explain every particle, phenomenon, and interaction in all the Universe within a single framework, and possibly even with a single equation.
Many attempts have famously been made in the past. Theodor Kaluza added extra dimensions, attempting to unify gravity with electromagnetism. Bryce DeWitt and John Wheeler pioneered approaches to a quantum theory of gravity. A slate of physicists, including Howard Georgi and Shelly Glashow, proposed unifying all the forces of the Standard Model in Grand Unified Theories. And string ... Continue Reading »
The Mediterranean Sea connects to the vastness of the Atlantic through the smallest of natural channels: The Strait of Gibraltar is only about 8 miles wide. People have swum across the Strait, and it is easy to see from Spain to Morocco on a normal, clear day. It seems like it would not take much for nature to simply close that connection between Europe and Africa, and in so doing isolate the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, this has happened before.
About six million years ago, something caused the Mediterranean to be cut off. Perhaps it was an ice age that decreased the sea level enough to leave a land bridge between Spain and Morocco. The Mediterranean’s isolation could also have been the outcome of tectonic processes.
In what is dubbed the Messinian salinity crisis, the Mediterranean Sea then evaporated over a period of about 1,000 years. The area turned into a dry basin, 3 to 5 km below sea level, punctuated with salty lakes similar to today’s Dead Sea. As slowly as the crisis set in, it ended with dramatic speed, in a ... Continue Reading »
I’ve been a longtime fan of the Art of Quality podcast, so it was a joy to join the show and share some of my Outlast research. Host and investor John Candeto — whom you may remember from our Long Game discussion on power laws — pressed me on why I’ve been traveling the world to study companies that endure: from London’s Lloyd’s and Lock & Co., to Italy’s Riva, Beretta, and Giusti, to Japan’s Tsuen Tea and Hōshi Ryokan.
At the heart of it is this: for me, studying the past provides a living playbook for how to build systems that can withstand shocks and endure for generations. And the high-level pattern emerging across my research is clear: longevity comes from honoring tradition while evolving slowly, and centering trust with employees and communities.
These lessons, I believe, hold as much relevance for modern investors as they do for centuries-old family businesses.
Key quote: “I’ve been asking all of these multi-generational owners essentially the same questions: What is it? Why are you still here? What keeps this business alive? One owner paused, reflected, ... Continue Reading »
If alien life exists, how would we even recognize it? Physicist Michio Kaku argues that our search for intelligence beyond Earth forces us to question the assumptions behind our own definition of “intelligent.”
Our current criteria for intelligence might be too narrow. Here’s what that means for the search for extraterrestrial life.
This video Michio Kaku: Why we don’t even rank on the Kardashev scale is featured on Big Think.
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If you look at all the objects detectable in Earth’s skies, including both naturally occurring bodies as well as artificial satellites, it should come as no surprise that the Sun appears as the brightest object of all. The Sun, after all, produces its own light, sustainably powered by nuclear fusion in its core. That core-generated energy helps keep the Sun from contracting under its own gravitation, but also propagates to the Sun’s edge, the photosphere, where the Sun emits radiation over a wide range of wavelengths that correspond to a temperature of around 6000 K. Although the Moon is the second-brightest object in most wavelengths of light, it only appears so bright because of its very close proximity to Earth. From an intrinsic point of view, most of the Moon’s light is merely reflected light from the Sun.
Although this was first shown to be true in visible wavelengths of light, the 20th century revealed that the same physical process held true across a wide variety of other wavelengths. The Sun is the brightest object in Earth’s skies, followed distantly by ... Continue Reading »
Human beings are deliberative creatures. We weigh things up all the time. At its most basic level, we weigh up what we enjoy. You open the fridge at dinner time and think, “Hey, I’m in a pasta kind of mood tonight.” You turn on Netflix and scroll through hundreds of movies before choosing one that suits. This thing will give me more satisfaction and pleasure than that thing.
The problem, though, is that weighing up pros and cons is not locked into the moment. The pleasure of an act might echo out into the future in happy, contented ripples. That movie might be so good that you’ll talk about it with friends or join a Reddit group dedicated to appreciating it. At other times, the indulgence of the now might lead to great pain in the future. Binging pasta might lead to a stomach ache and terrible torpor the next morning. A long time ago, I had a job I hated, and so my Mondays were doubly bad — the Monday itself was a miserable trial, but my Sunday afternoons would ... Continue Reading »
What does it take to make bold decisions when the odds aren’t clear? Statistician Nate Silver explains why the best risk-takers aren’t reckless. They’re strategic, evidence-driven, and comfortable acting without perfect information.
Silver shares habits that separate success from failure in competitive environments, to help you become more comfortable with risking it all.
This video Nate Silver: Habits of highly successful risk-takers is featured on Big Think.
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Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, psychologist Paul Eckman, PhD, and psychotherapist Esther Perel, PhD, explain how the brain constantly rebuilds emotions from memory and prediction. According to their research, by choosing new experiences today, we can reshape how our past influences us, gain more control over our feelings, and create new possibilities for connection and growth.
We created this video for Brain Briefs, a Big Think interview series created in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. As a creative non-profit organization, they’re on a mission to help people challenge their perceptions and expand their thinking. Often, that growth can start with just a single unlikely question that makes you rethink your convictions and adjust your vantage point. Visit Perception Box to see more in this series.
This video How our expectations shape what we see, hear, and feel is featured on Big Think.
Continue Reading »
It’s hard to believe, but it was only back in the early 1990s that we discovered the very first planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun. Fast forward to the present day, here in 2025, and we’re closing in on 6000 confirmed exoplanets, found and measured through multiple techinques: the transit method, the stellar wobble method, and even direct imaging. That last one is so profoundly exciting because it gives us hope that, someday soon, we might be able to take direct images of Earth-like worlds, some of which may even be inhabited.
Although it may be a long time before we can get an exoplanet image as high-resolution as even the ultra-distant “pale blue dot” photo that Voyager took of Earth so many decades ago, the fact remains that science is advancing rapidly, and things that seemed impossible mere decades ago now reflect today’s reality. And the people driving this fascinating field forward the most are the mostly unheralded workhorses of the fields of physics and astronomy: the early-career researchers, like grad students and postdocs, who are just ... 
When most scientists talk about progress in their field, they speak about small, incremental changes that slightly, gradually improve our understanding of how the Universe works. But when we think about the biggest advances in scientific history, they often occur in revolutionary leaps, completely overthrowing our previously held views of how the Universe works. In particular, revolutions like special relativity and general relativity, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, and the Big Bang and cosmic inflation completely overthrew our prior picture of how things actually behave. As the “holy grail” of physics, many have long sought a theory of everything, seeking to explain every particle, phenomenon, and interaction in all the Universe within a single framework, and possibly even with a single equation.
Many attempts have famously been made in the past. Theodor Kaluza added extra dimensions, attempting to unify gravity with electromagnetism. Bryce DeWitt and John Wheeler pioneered approaches to a quantum theory of gravity. A slate of physicists, including Howard Georgi and Shelly Glashow, proposed unifying all the forces of the Standard Model in Grand Unified Theories. And string ... 
The Mediterranean Sea connects to the vastness of the Atlantic through the smallest of natural channels: The Strait of Gibraltar is only about 8 miles wide. People have swum across the Strait, and it is easy to see from Spain to Morocco on a normal, clear day. It seems like it would not take much for nature to simply close that connection between Europe and Africa, and in so doing isolate the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, this has happened before.
About six million years ago, something caused the Mediterranean to be cut off. Perhaps it was an ice age that decreased the sea level enough to leave a land bridge between Spain and Morocco. The Mediterranean’s isolation could also have been the outcome of tectonic processes.
In what is dubbed the Messinian salinity crisis, the Mediterranean Sea then evaporated over a period of about 1,000 years. The area turned into a dry basin, 3 to 5 km below sea level, punctuated with salty lakes similar to today’s Dead Sea. As slowly as the crisis set in, it ended with dramatic speed, in a ... 
I’ve been a longtime fan of the Art of Quality podcast, so it was a joy to join the show and share some of my Outlast research. Host and investor John Candeto — whom you may remember from our Long Game discussion on power laws — pressed me on why I’ve been traveling the world to study companies that endure: from London’s Lloyd’s and Lock & Co., to Italy’s Riva, Beretta, and Giusti, to Japan’s Tsuen Tea and Hōshi Ryokan.
At the heart of it is this: for me, studying the past provides a living playbook for how to build systems that can withstand shocks and endure for generations. And the high-level pattern emerging across my research is clear: longevity comes from honoring tradition while evolving slowly, and centering trust with employees and communities.
These lessons, I believe, hold as much relevance for modern investors as they do for centuries-old family businesses.
Key quote: “I’ve been asking all of these multi-generational owners essentially the same questions: What is it? Why are you still here? What keeps this business alive? One owner paused, reflected, ... 
If you look at all the objects detectable in Earth’s skies, including both naturally occurring bodies as well as artificial satellites, it should come as no surprise that the Sun appears as the brightest object of all. The Sun, after all, produces its own light, sustainably powered by nuclear fusion in its core. That core-generated energy helps keep the Sun from contracting under its own gravitation, but also propagates to the Sun’s edge, the photosphere, where the Sun emits radiation over a wide range of wavelengths that correspond to a temperature of around 6000 K. Although the Moon is the second-brightest object in most wavelengths of light, it only appears so bright because of its very close proximity to Earth. From an intrinsic point of view, most of the Moon’s light is merely reflected light from the Sun.
Although this was first shown to be true in visible wavelengths of light, the 20th century revealed that the same physical process held true across a wide variety of other wavelengths. The Sun is the brightest object in Earth’s skies, followed distantly by ... 
Human beings are deliberative creatures. We weigh things up all the time. At its most basic level, we weigh up what we enjoy. You open the fridge at dinner time and think, “Hey, I’m in a pasta kind of mood tonight.” You turn on Netflix and scroll through hundreds of movies before choosing one that suits. This thing will give me more satisfaction and pleasure than that thing.
The problem, though, is that weighing up pros and cons is not locked into the moment. The pleasure of an act might echo out into the future in happy, contented ripples. That movie might be so good that you’ll talk about it with friends or join a Reddit group dedicated to appreciating it. At other times, the indulgence of the now might lead to great pain in the future. Binging pasta might lead to a stomach ache and terrible torpor the next morning. A long time ago, I had a job I hated, and so my Mondays were doubly bad — the Monday itself was a miserable trial, but my Sunday afternoons would ...