The O’Neill Colony: Our New Home Away from Home

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Humanity is on the verge of making the transition off of Earth, making physicist and space activist Gerard K. O’Neill’s vision of space colonies ever closer to reality.

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Abstract illustration of a figure reaching for a yellow sphere on the left, with colored overlapping circles and concentric arcs—evoking themes of physics and consciousness—set against a vibrant multicolored gradient background.

Starts With A Bang

Does physics truly have anything to say about consciousness?

Many, from neuroscientists to philosophers to anesthesiologists, have claimed to understand consciousness. Do physicists? Does anyone?

Mini Philosophy

Why Tolkien thought “sub-creation” was the secret to great fantasy and science fiction

According to Tolkien, fantasy requires a deep imagination known as “sub-creation.” And the genre reflects a fundamental truth of being human.

Illustration of a large particle accelerator facility underground, with scientists working and a city landscape above ground.

Starts With A Bang

A new collider can teach us about the origin of matter

The laws of nature are almost perfectly symmetric between matter and antimatter, and yet our Universe is made ~100% of matter only. But why?

A repeating pattern of wireframe 3D geometric shapes intersected by diagonal yellow lines on a black background, evoking a physics break down of forms at the Planck scale.

Starts With A Bang

Why does physics break down at the Planck scale?

There are limits to where physics makes meaningful predictions: beyond the Planck length, time, or energy. Here’s why we can’t go further.

Black and white photo of a young woman resting her chin on her hand, set against a green background with circular and brain patterns.

Thinking

Why Hannah Arendt left philosophy behind to face the world

Arendt thought 20th-century philosophy had become too passive and abstract. She called for “active thinking” that prepares us to live in the real world.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

More Thoughts on SlutWalk

As more and more SlutWalk marches against sexual violence and victim blaming take place across the country and overseas, the movement is attracting criticism from some feminists who regard the […]