Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order?
Season 1 Episode 15
As weird as it sounds, infinity comes in many shapes and sizes. And attempting to quantify it is sort of like a dog chasing its own tail. Or like inf…
1 year, 2 months ago
Audio Edition: After 20 Years, Math Couple Solves Major Group Theory Problem
Season 1 Episode 14
Britta Späth has dedicated her career to proving a single, central conjecture. She’s finally succeeded, alongside her partner, Marc Cabanes.
The story…
1 year, 2 months ago
When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color?
Season 1 Episode 13
Colorful messages are constantly being exchanged across the natural world, to communicate everything from sexual attraction to self defense. But whic…
1 year, 2 months ago
Is Gravity Just Rising Entropy?
Season 1 Episode 12
Where does gravity come from? In both general relativity and quantum mechanics, this question is a big problem. One controversial theory proposes tha…
1 year, 2 months ago
Audio Edition: How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics
Season 1 Episode 11
Emmy Noether showed that fundamental physical laws are just a consequence of simple symmetries. A century later, her insights continue to shape physi…
1 year, 2 months ago
How Amateurs Solved a Major Computer Science Puzzle
Season 1 Episode 10
The Busy Beaver Challenge, an open online collaboration, started in 2022 to finally solve a major problem in theoretical computer science. Over time,…
1 year, 2 months ago
The Mysterious Math of Turbulence
Season 1 Episode 9
Turbulence is a notoriously difficult phenomenon to study. Mathematicians are now starting to untangle it at its smallest scales.
This is the sixth ep…
1 year, 3 months ago
Audio Edition: Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories
Season 1 Episode 8
Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and …
1 year, 3 months ago
Birds' Migratory Mitochondria
Season 1 Episode 7
Changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of organelles in the cells of flight muscles provide extra energy for birds’ continen…
1 year, 3 months ago
Singularities Are Hard to Kill
Season 1 Episode 6
Black hole and Big Bang singularities break our best theory of gravity. A trilogy of theorems hints that physicists must go to the ends of space and …
1 year, 3 months ago