Episode Details

Learn about an artificial sun that’s hotter than our actual sun; whether math really is a universal language; and what words like “fresh” really tell you about how fancy your food is.  South Korean researchers created an artificial sun that's hotter than our actual sun by Grant Currin Korean artificial sun sets the new world record of 20-sec-long operation at 100 million degrees. (2020, December 24). Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-korean-artificial-sun-world-sec-long.html  Nield, D. (2020). South Korea’s “Artificial Sun” Just Set a New World Record For High-Temperature Plasma. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/south-korea-s-artificial-sun-just-set-a-new-world-record-for-high-temperature-plasma  ‌Tala, T., & Garbet, X. (2006). Physics of Internal Transport Barriers. Comptes Rendus Physique, 7(6), 622–633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crhy.2006.06.005  Delbert, C. (2020, December 28). Korea’s Artificial Sun Just Ran for 20 Astonishing Seconds. Popular Mechanics; Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a35084113/korea-artificial-sun-fusion-reactor-runs-for-20-seconds/  Tokamak. (2015). ITER. https://www.iter.org/mach/Tokamak  Home: 28th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2020) | IAEA. (2019, December 6). Iaea.org. https://www.iaea.org/events/fec-2020  Is math really a universal language? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from John) PBS Idea Channel. (2013). Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of Human Creation? | Idea Channel | PBS [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNymweHW4E  ‌Baidou, Alain. (2006). Briefings on Existence. State University of New York Press. https://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/769564/8b787039810debb75794401980b224d6.pdf  Madden, J. J., Lakoff, G., & Núñez, R. E. (2002, August). Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being. ResearchGate; Mathematical Association of America. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239547225_Where_Mathematics_Comes_From_How_the_Embodied_Mind_Brings_Mathematics_Into_Being  Thaller, M. (2019, March 7). The evolution of mathematics, from agriculture to quantum mechanics. Big Think; Big Think. https://bigthink.com/videos/mathematics-universal-language  What Words Like "Fresh" Really Tell You About How Fancy Your Food Is by Arika Okrent Jurafsky, D. (2014). The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu. W. W. Norton & Company. https://amzn.to/3rgRJbY  Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.