Starship | Preparing for Third Flight Test
The world’s most powerful launch vehicle is ready for flight. The third flight test aims to build on what we’ve learned from previous flights while attempting a number of ambitious objectives. Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, […]
Paleontologist Answers Dinosaur Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED
Paleontologist Dr. Hans Sues answers the internet’s burning questions about dinosaurs. Why did T-Rex have such tiny arms? What colors were dinosaurs? How do dinos get their names? What did Jurassic Park get wrong? Why do fossils exist? Dr. Sues answers all these questions and much more! The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has […]
Master your anxiety. Unleash your genius | Jesse Eisenberg for Big Think+
In a candid exploration of the forces that drive creativity and success, Jesse Eisenberg delves into the paradoxes of the creative process and leadership. With striking honesty, Eisenberg reveals how anxiety, self-doubt, and fear have been unlikely catalysts in his multifaceted career as an actor, writer, and director. Beyond the glare of Hollywood, he shares […]
Mycologist Answers Mushroom Questions From Twitter 🍄 | Tech Support | WIRED
Clark University mycologist David Hibbett answers the internet’s burning questions about mushrooms. What’s the difference between crimini, button and portobello mushrooms? What are the weirdest mushrooms? Why do «magic» mushrooms exist? How can you tell if they are poisonous or not? David answers all these questions and much more!
Entomologist Answers Insect Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED
Entomologist Samuel Ramsey answers the internet’s burning questions about insects. What are the best insects to eat? Why do crickets hear from their legs? How do bugs breath? Dr. Sammy answers all these questions and much more. Check out Sammy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drsammytweets?lan… or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsammygram…
A simple way to tell insects apart – Anika Hazra
There are nearly a million known insect species in the world, but most have one of just five common types of mouthparts. Why is this information useful to scientists? Anika Hazra explains how the features of an insect’s mouthparts can help identify which order it belongs to, while also providing clues about how it evolved […]
Why Computer Vision Is a Hard Problem for AI
Computer scientist Alexei Efros suffers from poor eyesight, but this has hardly been a professional setback. It’s helped him understand how computers can learn to see. At the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), Efros combines massive online data sets with machine learning algorithms to understand, model and re-create the visual world. His work is […]
How to live an intellectual life | Zena Hitz | Big Think
When you picture an intellectual, who do you see? Professor Zena Hitz says that somewhere along the way, the idea of what an intellectual is and does became distorted. «The real thing is something more extraordinary but also more available to us,» Hitz adds, differentiating between an intellectual life constantly in pursuit of something else, […]
What happens to your brain as you age
As the most complex organ in your body, your brain changes radically throughout your life. Starting from before birth and continuing even after you’ve died. This is what happens to your brain as you age.
The science of super longevity | Dr. Morgan Levine
What if we could slow down the hands of our biological clocks? This question underpins much of the research of Morgan Levine, who leads a research team at the life science company Altos Labs. Levine investigates the fascinating intricacies of aging, recognizing that it doesn’t happen at a uniform pace for everyone. Central to her […]
Change your diet, extend your life | Dr. Morgan Levine
Dr. Morgan Levine, author of «True Age,» explains how the impact of diet on aging and longevity is determined by three factors: quantity, quality, and timing of food intake. First, caloric restriction, typically a 20% reduction in overall calorie intake, has been linked to increased lifespan in several animal models. However, the positive effects may […]
The friendship recession | Richard Reeves
Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, discusses the importance of friendships and the potential “friendship recession.” He notes that loneliness can be as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, but measuring and quantifying friendships is difficult. According to Reeves, an ideal number of close friends is around three or four. But […]
Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach | Bo Seo
Bo Seo, an author and two-time world debate champion, believes our public conversations are in crisis. To Seo, our arguing skills have collectively atrophied over recent decades, resulting in bad arguments that have caused many people to lose faith in the idea that productive disagreements are even possible. That’s why Seo suggests a framework called […]
Microquasar SS 433 – Relativistic jets accelerating particles to extreme energies inside our Galaxy
SS 433 stands out as one of the most intriguing objects within our Milky Way. At its core, a black hole draws material from a closely orbiting companion star, creating a hot accretion disk. Notably, a pair of oppositely directed beams of plasma («jets») spirals away perpendicularly from the disk’s surface at just over a […]
