Big Think

In August 2024, I moved with my family from Chicago, Illinois, to Milan, Italy, to test out living overseas for a year. In the months after relocating, the American presidential race took an unprecedented turn with then-Vice President Kamala Harris navigating a late nomination to the Democratic ticket, Donald Trump surging to win the election, and Americans absorbing major so...

Math has undeniably escaped the human mind and implanted itself in nearly every corner of the world. Over the past 75 years, as computers became commonplace and grew in power, what once amounted to mental arithmetic has become something else entirely. It’s not just math; it’s “Big Math,” too large for the human brain alone.

Big Math’s offshoot algorithms, the step-by-...

“We have so much opportunity still and so much room to grow. Science is never done.”

Inside the Nike Sport Research Lab, Chief Science Officer Matthew Nurse and his team chase the questions that hold athletes back. Drawing on biomechanics, physiology and neuroscience, they start with the problems every athlete knows: fatigue, injury, the moment the body gives out. Wh...

Scholars of religion still can’t agree on what religion is, and Andrew Henry, creator of Religion for Breakfast, thinks that tells us something. In this conversation with Jonny Thomson, he explains why he looks at what religious practices do rather than what they claim, why a stadium chant and a church creed may be closer than they seem, and why “true Christianity” is harde...

Whenever someone tells you that they “have a theory,” you’re probably a mix of curious and skeptical, and with good reason. Most often, you’re going to hear a wild tale that’s a mix of true and dubious facts, possible but suspicious links between them, guesses that range from informed hypotheses to extravagant speculations, and a story about how