Ponder for a moment the ways people interact differently in today’s workplace when compared to historical norms. Remote and flexible work arrangements have become commonplace. Emails and text messages often replace real-time conversations — sometimes with the person visible acros … | Continue reading
Since the 1950s, discussions about AI have largely revolved around a big, tantalizing question: What can machines do, and where might they hit a wall? Will they ever truly think, understand, or maybe even become conscious? Could they reach the so-called “heights of human intellig … | Continue reading
It’s leadership’s little secret, like one of those relatives no one mentions. Known, but largely unspoken of. It is power, and it is at the heart of every leadership role at every level in every organization. There are as many definitions of power as there are people willing to v … | Continue reading
Our Universe has grown up impressively since the Big Bang. At the start of the hot Big Bang, the Universe was rapidly expanding and filled with high-energy, very densely packed, ultra-relativistic quanta. An early stage of radiation domination gave way to several later stages whe … | Continue reading
When my son was in the third grade, we joined the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Backyard Bird Count. A form of community science — research in which volunteers gather or analyze data — the event has hundreds of families observing and recording the birds they see in their neighborh … | Continue reading
In 2020, scientists detected a gas called phosphine in the atmosphere of an Earth-size rocky planet. Knowing of no way that phosphine could be produced except through biological processes, “the scientists assert that something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s … | Continue reading
This article is an installment of Future Explored, Freethink’s weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2028, and your tech startup has an idea that could revolutionize th … | Continue reading
I don’t want to believe; I want to know. That is my mantra. I am a scientist, and I want something real, something I can do something real with, not more swirling stories of incredible possibilities that are never backed up. As a professional astronomer whose professional task is … | Continue reading
I have a friend who thinks vaccines cause autism. I know you are not a health page or a science [column], but I want to know how I can try and change her mind. I have offered to show her scientific studies and shown her what all the many hundreds of experts say, but she doesn’t b … | Continue reading
Our culture has atomized: We’re all on our own with our phones, laptops, and digital media experiences. No one knows what everyone else is seeing. In some ways, these technologies have caused a shattering of culture, and we can’t seem to agree about our perceptions of the world, … | Continue reading
The American novelist Fannie Hurst once said that “A woman still has to be twice as good as a man in order to get half as far.” And, certainly, when she said it back in the 1940s, it was likely not far from the truth. It’s hard to know if she was the first to coin the idea, as ma … | Continue reading
For just a moment, I want you to close your eyes and think about the most famous, most spectacular images of the Universe that you’ve ever seen. Did you picture planets or moons within our Solar System? Perhaps you thought of nebulous regions of gas, where new stars are forming i … | Continue reading
In the summer of 2016, 100 teenage girls living in California’s Salinas Valley slipped silicone bracelets onto their wrists and committed to keep them there for a week. Around the same time, 92 preschoolers in Oregon accessorized the same way. The bands found their way onto the w … | Continue reading
When was the last time you did something decidedly moral? Spend a moment to reflect on your day and draw out a few good or decent things. It could be a small act, like holding open a door for a colleague, or a bigger one, like offering consolation or support to a friend in need. … | Continue reading
Adam Karr’s journey from a single-mother upbringing in South Chicago to leading a $39 billion investment firm is an inspiring story of resilience, long-term investing, and a framework for success in life and business. In conversation with Shane Parrish of The Knowledge Project, A … | Continue reading
In this Universe, few mysteries loom as large as the puzzle posed by dark matter. We know, from the gravitational effects we observe — at all times, on scales of an individual galaxy and upward, and everywhere we look — that the normal matter in our Universe, along with the laws … | Continue reading
How did life on Earth begin? Is there life on other worlds? These two questions have an excellent pedigree as human beings have been asking them for a very long time. What is remarkable about this historical moment, however, is how close we may be to answering either one. Even mo … | Continue reading
Deep in the Blue Mountains of Oregon lives what is possibly the largest, oldest, and heaviest living thing on Earth: a giant mushroom dubbed the Humongous Fungus. The word “possibly” didn’t weasel its way into the previous sentence by accident. Estimates of this organism’s extent … | Continue reading
If every facet of the reproduction process is based in evolution, how does menopause, something where reproduction is no longer possible, benefit our species? We think it’s because of an idea called the wise woman hypothesis, says Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and author. The wise wo … | Continue reading
Whenever a star is being formed, there will be two opportunities throughout its life to go supernova. The first comes early on: if the star is massive enough, when it exhausts first the hydrogen and next the helium within its core, it can continue onward and fuse carbon, neon, ox … | Continue reading
Twenty years ago, the internet was a medium liberating people from state control. Now, the internet is increasingly seen as a threat triggering calls to restore state control over online behavior. The latest twist in this trend is the growing demand to criminally prosecute both u … | Continue reading
Let’s consider a classic mistake we see teams make too often: rushing to take on a cofounder to fill an urgent gap in the founding team. Imagine you’re right at the start of your journey, and you need an experienced sales executive. Through a mutual friend, you meet a mid-career … | Continue reading
As the latest election cycle in the USA winds down and people across the country and world begin to reckon with the results — and their consequences — you could be forgiven for thinking that science is in a lot of trouble. Confidence in science and scientists has waned in recent … | Continue reading
In 2016, the Chinese Communist Party announced that producing its own dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips was a national security priority. DRAM is critical for a variety of personal, commercial, and military computers, providing temporary, quickly accessible file storage w … | Continue reading
According to the theory favored by most scientists, the stars and galaxies that dot the night sky are just a small fraction of the mass and energy budget of the Universe. A form of matter called dark matter is thought to be five times more prevalent than ordinary matter. Over the … | Continue reading
When isolated stars form, their fates are pre-determined. This region of space shows a portion of the plane of the Milky Way, with three extended star-forming regions all side-by-side next to one another. The Omega Nebula (left), the Eagle Nebula (center), and Sharpless 2-54 (rig … | Continue reading
What color is a tree, or the sky, or a sunset? At first glance, the answers seem obvious. But it turns out there is plenty of variation in how people see the world — both between individuals and between different cultural groups. A lot of factors feed into how people perceive and … | Continue reading
This article is an installment of Future Explored, Freethink’s weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2035. You just started a job working at a US container port, but un … | Continue reading
In this Universe, there are a few objects that are just larger, and a few events that are just more powerful, than others. As far as size goes, the cosmic web creates some of the largest features ever discovered, with the largest galaxy filaments and the largest regions devoid of … | Continue reading
More than a decade before humans launched themselves into outer space, a tiny species made the journey first. NASA first sent fruit flies on a mission in 1947 to see whether the intrepid insects would return to Earth in one piece, and enable us to consider sending humans there, t … | Continue reading
I’ve kind of had enough of all this Stoic stuff. I’m not an expert on Stoicism (maybe you can help?). But I’ve had enough of being told by Stoic friends to “choose my feelings” and to “take control of my emotions.” Sure, I don’t like being angry, anxious, or even depressed now an … | Continue reading
For as long as we’ve been thinking about journeying to other star systems and the planets and worlds that orbit them, we’ve been compelled to consider just how to keep human beings intact during any journey that would bridge the interstellar distances. While short trips through t … | Continue reading
Historically, things don’t end well when German Chancellors start drawing lines on maps. Could the Brandt Line be the exception that proves the rule? To be fair, Willy Brandt was no longer Chancellor of West Germany (as he had been from 1969 to 1974) when he drew this line. In 19 … | Continue reading
In this recent Freethink interview, Chip War author Chris Miller offers a fascinating look inside the microchip industry, an often-overlooked (but critically important) backbone of the global economy. Microchips power everything from smartphones to cars to complex AI systems, mak … | Continue reading
Discussions of the impact of AI on human fulfillment or well-being must begin by acknowledging that the latter is a highly contested notion. Three broad types of theories of well-being have come to prominence in philosophy. Hedonism, a view associated with the 18th century Britis … | Continue reading
It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been more than 2000 years since humanity first not only discovered that planet Earth is round in shape, but was able to measure its size as well. Not only are the Moon and Sun similarly round, but every planet is as well. Even many of the no … | Continue reading
Next week, several intrepid cyber-athletes will race to carry out routine household tasks via a computer avatar: They’ll have to open a locked door, for example, and hold a cup under an ice dispenser to collect a precise number of cubes. Those tasks may sound easy, but there’s a … | Continue reading
Scientists stress out lab mice, a lot. Inducing chronic stress and anxiety in these furry critters is how scientists explore the bodily and cognitive effects of stress and discover anti-anxiety medications for humans. There are two primary ways researchers stress out a lab mouse: … | Continue reading
The dangers of overwork are well-known. Cognitively overloaded employees are prone to make mistakes and are less efficient in completing tasks. Burnout decreases employees’ motivation and sense of engagement — not just at work but across many aspects of their lives — and the cons … | Continue reading
What are some arguments for and against a future where humans only have relationships with AI, and not with humans? AI is rapidly becoming better at understanding human feelings and emotions and developing intimate relationships with us, says historian and the best-selling author … | Continue reading
There are all sorts of situations we face in life where we need to consult someone with expert, specialized knowledge in an area where our own expertise is insufficient. If there’s a water leak in your house, you may need to consult a plumber. If there’s pain and immobility in yo … | Continue reading
The Universe seems to be eternal — or close enough. For nearly 14 billion years, stars have lived and died, galaxies have spun, and matter has moved in stately ways throughout the cosmos. That might not seem remarkable at first — until you realize that this stability requires ord … | Continue reading
Pardoning the Turkey The United States has many strange practices, but one of the oddest is surely the annual ritual of “pardoning” a turkey before Thanksgiving. Although President Abraham Lincoln is said to have spared a live turkey who had been brought home for Christmas dinner … | Continue reading
In times of anxiety and uncertainty, humans tend to split the world into good and evil. It’s a natural tendency, a way to feel more comfortable, says best-selling author Amanda Ripley. Today, you see it among many, many millions of people because there’s a lot of anxiety about th … | Continue reading
In 1905, Albert Einstein was working as a patent clerk in Switzerland when he asked one of the most profound questions in the history of physics: “What would happen if I rode alongside a beam of light?” The question was simple but counterintuitive. It was also, in retrospect, a m … | Continue reading
There’s a great sin that scientists all too often commit: by assuming, based only on a small number of examples (possibly as few as one), that the best scientific story we can reconstruct for those examples applies to all similar systems universally. Perhaps there’s no greater ex … | Continue reading
A surprisingly effective way of understanding our world is to look at it through the lens of fiction. Many of the greatest adventures of the page and screen take place in imaginary worlds that bear a striking resemblance to our own. That’s because their authors used actual histor … | Continue reading
Nothing is ever one-dimensional. And leaders in the current business landscape would do well to remember, innovation is both a challenge and an opportunity. Moore’s law claiming that computers, and computing power in general, is advancing at double the pace every two years is loo … | Continue reading