A framework for understanding the metaverse

Explore the metaverse with this mind map

The metaverse is a complex concept that involves interlocking and rapidly evolving parts, including Web3, augmented reality, and trademark law. It's easy to get overwhelmed when faced with the new legal, financial, ethical, and creative intersections of our reality and its virtual echo. This mind map details the metaverse and its implications for various fields that interact and overlap. Click through the map to read and listen to topic summaries or explore more in-depth resources.

The interoperable metaverse and what that means

This explainer video explores the challenges of achieving the interoperability needed to unify economies, avatars and systems across virtual worlds in the metaverse.

Expert predictions on the metaverse

Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive metaverse. Many worry current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms.

What does the metaverse actually look like?

An emerging virtual world could change how we work, play, and do business. This five-minute video shows you what it looks like and the potential it holds.

Coinbase and the metaverse

In this essay, Coinbase founders Brian Armstrong and Alex Reeve talk about the importance of the metaverse, the components of it, and the role Coinbase plays.

A fascinating look at how a journalist spends 24 hours in the metaverse

A Wall Street Journal strapped on a VR headset for a full day. Here's what happened when she went to work meetings, hung out with new avatar friends and attended shows — all in the metaverse.

Investors are buying up land in the Metaverse

Real-estate transactions in the metaverse are reaching record highs. Digital real estate investors share how and why they're spending millions on virtual property.

Is there a First Amendment right to assemble in the metaverse?

Metaverse users have taken to digital streets to protest topics ranging from the commercialization of the supposed decentralized virtual world to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Do these protesters have the legal right to do so? Do First Amendment rights for American users carry over into the metaverse's digital sphere, and what dangers await users in countries prone to protest suppression? This article explores human rights and the right to protest in the metaverse.

The virtual reality era has finally arrived

The smartphone era has driven a large share of the consumer electronics market for almost 20 years now. But what comes next? Dominant computing platforms come and go over time, and there’s reason to believe that mixed reality devices like headsets and glasses might be the form factor that eventually replaces smartphones. This article presents a snapshot of where we are right now in the VR era, and what the future holds.

A definitive guide to crypto and blockchain

The concept of cryptocurrency emerged more than a decade ago, with a famous whitepaper on bitcoin. To fully understand the rise of bitcoin, Bloomberg’s Matt Levine developed this comprehensive four-part series exploring the broader crypto and blockchain ecosystems, where they came from and how they work (subscription required).

How metaphors shape the way we think

A metaphor is often viewed as a form of art, deployed only in special circumstances to help an audience grasp something complex or unique. But metaphors are far more fundamental than that, shaping much of how we think about our relationship to others and the world. This article explores how a focus on the metaphors we use can clarify and strengthen our thinking. Learn more here.

Explore the world of fan fiction

This guide to the genre's major platforms breaks down their strengths and weaknesses, offering an excellent primer for the uninitiated newcomers.

What does it mean for AI to "understand" something?

This Quanta article discusses how programmers are working to create a reliable test for the depth and extent of the knowledge of machines. What does AI know and how does it know it, if it knows anything at all? There's been progress, but it hasn't been easy. Even humans can still be fooled some of the time.

The Standard Model reveals an underlying organization to the universe

Using the framework of quantum field theory, it structures all known particles into 12 matter particles, alongside five particles that carry three of the four fundamental forces. Although remarkably precise and predictive, it cannot yet explain gravity, dark matter, or dark energy.

Meet six commercially available synbio products

An article exploring the science behind synbio products currently on the market, and projecting the products that can be expected over the next 10 years.

A primer on 5G and how it works

You see it mentioned in countless commercials, and your phone might already use it, but do you know what it is? Watch this five-minute primer on the basics of 5G.

The stock market, explained in 3 minutes

Curious about the inner workings of the stock market? 1440's got your breakdown of how it works.

The majority of Meta's revenue comes from advertising

Since introducing Facebook Ads in 2007, ads have become the main way Meta makes money and keeps the social media platforms free for users. Meta's targeted ad program allows businesses to set a maximum advertising budget and be charged only for the actual number of impressions an ad receives. In 2025, $196.175B of Meta's $200.966B annual revenue came from advertising.

Unpacking the famous argument in the 'Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?' paper

In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper in a journal arguing the technological possibility that humanity is living in a simulation. The argument, while popularly mocked (or cheered), is presented seriously in the paper. This podcast episode explores the contours of the arguments in an accessible way.

Learn how to invest in index funds with this step-by-step guide

There are a few questions experts suggest answering before investing in an index fund, such as your goals for your investment and the index you want to track. This article walks you through those questions to help you get started.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company

Those revelations include the company's unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Understanding TikTok-owner ByteDance's business model

ByteDance has ridden TikTok's major success to become the world's most valuable startup. This deep dive showcases some of the company's smartest moves and tactics, and where it's headed next.

Imagining the farms of the future

About 10,000 years ago, humans began to farm. This agricultural revolution was a turning point in our history and enabled the existence of civilization. Today, nearly 40 percent of our planet is farmland. Spread all over the world, these lands are the pieces to a global puzzle we’re all facing: in the future, how can we feed every member of a growing population a healthy diet? Brent Loken investigates in this seven-minute video.

The early years of the Met

The Met didn’t start out in the grand, sprawling grounds that it currently occupies. This episode of Hometown History, a podcast about lesser-known historical places and events, covers the early years of the venerable institution. Learn about how the vision and planning of a group of 19th century artists and philanthropists took the Met from a small collection in a humble brick building to the cultural powerhouse that it is today.

How do planets form? An interview with a planetary scientist

Dr Farzana Meru, assistant professor and planetary scientist, shares how planets come to be in this interview. Protoplanetary discs are swirling, dusty, and gaseous formations that form and revolve around stars. Some 4,000 extra-solar planets have already been discovered, and through these protoplanetary discs more are on the way.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.