Podcast Episodes

The Math of Catastrophe

Season 1 Episode 29

Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth’s history where…

Published on 10 hours ago

Audio Edition: Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems

Season 1 Episode 28

It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks.

The story Q…

Published on 5 days, 10 hours ago

What Can a Cell Remember?

Season 1 Episode 27

“Memory” means many things to many people, and in many fields. We tend to understand memory to be a phenomenon that happens primarily in the brain, but in recent years, researchers have understood me…

Published on 1 week ago

Climate Modeling Is at a Crossroads

Season 1 Episode 26

The climate is changing. So is the way we understand the climate. On this week's episode, contributing writer Zack Savitsky joins host Samir Patel to discuss his recent reporting on the rich history …

Published on 2 weeks ago

Audio Edition: A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems

Season 1 Episode 26

Rare and powerful compounds, known as keystone molecules, can build a web of invisible interactions among species.

The story A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Published on 2 weeks, 5 days ago

AI's Dark Side Is Only a Nudge Away

Season 1 Episode 25

In order to trust machines with important jobs, we need a high level of confidence that they share our values and goals. Recent work shows that this “alignment” can be brittle, superficial, even unst…

Published on 3 weeks ago

How We Came To Know Earth

Season 1 Episode 24

For most of us, the word “climate” immediately generates thoughts of melting ice, rising seas, wildfires and gathering storms. However, in the course of working to understand this pressing challenge,…

Published on 4 weeks ago

Audio Edition: ‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture

Season 1 Episode 24

The deceptively simple Kakeya conjecture has bedeviled mathematicians for 50 years. A new proof of the conjecture in three dimensions illuminates a whole crop of related problems.

The story ‘Once in a…

Published on 1 month ago

How a 17-Year-Old Solved a Major Math Mystery

Season 1 Episode 23

In the field of harmonic analysis, there’s a constellation of questions about how the energy of a wave concentrates.

Earlier this year, a 17-year-old high school student named Hannah Cairo solved a 40…

Published on 1 month ago

Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface

Season 1 Episode 22

In science textbooks, Earth looks like a round layer cake. There's a hard line between the liquid metal core and the putty-like rock mantle. But maybe that boundary is a little fuzzier than we previo…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago