We’re the ape-like inhabitants of a tiny rock in a vast cosmos.
How much do we really know about it?
Humanity’s best minds have conceived ‘big ideas’ like atoms, gravity, and evolution.
This website shows you how they explain the universe and are connected. Best read on a tablet.
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Say hey to Owlbert Einstein, Our curator of big ideas
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The Origin of Atoms
The Origin of Atoms
Every single atom around us, including those in our own bodies, originated in momentous cosmic events that predate the Earth.
Where Our Atoms Came From (Part I) 🎧
Where Our Atoms Came From (Part I) 🎧
Most of the atoms in your body are 13.7 billion years old, and being you is just the latest page in the story of their life.
Where Our Atoms Came From (Part II)
Where Our Atoms Came From (Part II)
Once they found their way to the Earth, your atoms began to cycle through the air, land, and water.
The Speed of Light
The Speed of Light
One of the fastest man-made objects was a space probe called Juno sent to survey the planet Jupiter.
Conservation of Energy
Conservation of Energy
All of the energy around you, from the light bouncing into your eyes to the heat coming out of your toaster, comes from an unbroken chain of events going back to the Big Bang.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Electromagnetic Spectrum
There is an invisible field that underlies the entire universe like a net stretching in every direction.
Gravity
Gravity
When you take a step, you’re anchored to the Earth by a force. You can jump to overcome it for a moment, but you are always pulled back down.
Nitrogen
Nitrogen
An incredible fifty percent of the nitrogen atoms in the tissue of any person alive today have originated inside of an industrial machine.
DNA. The Self-Replicating Molecule
DNA. The Self-Replicating Molecule
If given a time machine, every biologist on Earth would race to be sent back to an inconspicuous shallow rock pool, 4.28 billion years ago.
Oxygen
Oxygen
Twenty-one percent of the air that you’re breathing right now is oxygen. Like most elements it’s the remnant of a supernova explosion, one of the most incredible phenomena in the universe.
Nuclear Waste
Nuclear Waste
Hundreds of thousands of years in the future, when even the pyramids have been ground to dust by wind, one human structure on Earth will remain.
What is CO²?
What is CO²?
Carbon dioxide has a pretty rough reputation. You probably know that it’s a gas, and that it’s causing climate change.
The Double Slit Experiment
The Double Slit Experiment
The double slit experiment is the most famous experiment in quantum mechanics.
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More coming soon!
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This is our intellectual lab, where we develop ideas in public. If the 'Best Ideas' posts are finished paintings, this is the workshop floor.
The Fabric of Reality
The Fabric of Reality
The building blocks of the universe.
Quantum MechanicsAtomic PhysicsChemistry
History
Human eras that once were.
HistoryArchaeology
The Future
The Future
Upcoming tech, the future of our civilisation, and the fate of the universe.
Futurology
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
Maverick articles that don’t fit anywhere else.
ConsciousnessEpistemologyFuture Tech & PolociesDifferent Perspectives
Say hey to Owlbert Einstein, Our curator of big ideas
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