Podcast Episodes

The “Solitude Zone”: A New Way to Measure If We’re Alone in the Universe

Season 2 Episode 261

A new study introduces the “Solitude Zone,” a statistical model that gauges when a single intelligent species—like humanity—is most likely to exist. Merging ideas from the Fermi paradox, Drake equati…

Published on 12 hours ago

New “Super-Earth” Found in the Habitable Zone

Season 2 Episode 260

Astronomers have discovered GJ 251 c, a “super-Earth” nearly four times our planet’s mass, orbiting in its star’s habitable zone — the sweet spot for liquid water and possibly life. Using 20 years of…

Published on 2 days, 11 hours ago

What’s Really Holding Back Space-Based Solar Power?

Season 2 Episode 259

A new study reveals that the biggest barrier to space-based solar power isn’t in orbit—it’s on Earth. Researchers found that while thousands of satellites could technically beam solar energy from geo…

Published on 4 days, 11 hours ago

How Cosmic Dust May Have Delivered the Building Blocks of Life to Earth

Season 2 Episode 258

In this episode, we explore new research from the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society revealing how cosmic dust may have carried the building blocks of life to early Earth.

Scientists si…

Published on 6 days, 12 hours ago

MIT Geologists Uncover Traces of Earth’s Primordial Origins

Season 2 Episode 257

MIT scientists have found the first direct evidence of material from the original “proto-Earth” — the planet that existed before the giant impact that formed our world 4.5 billion years ago.

By detect…

Published on 1 week, 3 days ago

The Core of the Problem: Why Our Magnetic Field is Weakening

Season 2 Episode 256

The Earth's protective magnetic field is changing. Data from the ESA Swarm mission reveals that the South Atlantic Anomaly, a vast weak spot in our planetary shield, is expanding and rapidly weakenin…

Published on 1 week, 5 days ago

Black Holes as Dark Matter Detectors: A New Window into the Invisible Universe

Season 2 Episode 255

A new study in Physical Review Letters proposes a groundbreaking way to detect dark matter using images from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Researchers found that the dark shadows of black holes …

Published on 2 weeks ago

Nickel and Urea May Explain Why Earth’s Oxygen Took So Long to Rise

Season 2 Episode 254

In this episode, we uncover new research from Okayama University that sheds light on the delayed Great Oxidation Event.

Scientists found that early ocean levels of nickel and urea controlled the growt…

Published on 2 weeks, 3 days ago

AI Breakthrough: Gemini Finds Real Cosmic Signals with Minimal Data

Season 2 Episode 253

Published on 2 weeks, 5 days ago

Is Dark Matter an Illusion? New Study Challenges the Foundations of Cosmology

Season 2 Episode 252

A new study from the University of Ottawa is shaking up our understanding of the universe. Professor Rajendra Gupta suggests that dark matter and dark energy might not exist at all — instead, the for…

Published on 3 weeks ago