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Game Theory, Algorithms and High Prices
Season 1 Episode 34
How do sellers decide how to price their goods? Competition should keep prices down, while collusion can rig higher prices (and break the law). On th…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Why Are Waves So Hard to Grasp?
Season 1 Episode 33
At first glance, studying the math of waves seems like it should be smooth sailing. But the equations that describe even the gentlest rolling waves a…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Sleep Is Not All or Nothing
Season 1 Episode 33
Salvador Dalí, Thomas Edison and Edgar Allan Poe all took inspiration from the state between sleep and waking life. On this week’s episode, host Sami…
2 months ago
Audio Edition: A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting
Season 1 Episode 32
A powerful mathematical technique is used to model melting ice and other phenomena. But it has long been imperiled by certain “nightmare scenarios.” …
2 months, 1 week ago
The Mystery of Early Universe’s Little Red Dots
Season 1 Episode 33
Recently, astrophysicists identified something peculiar: An enormous “naked” black hole with no galaxy in sight. On this week’s episode, host Samir P…
2 months, 1 week ago
A Biography of Earth Across the Age of Animals
Season 1 Episode 32
Thanks to a delicate interplay between plate tectonics and life, Earth’s thermostat has kept animal life thriving on our planet for half a billion ye…
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Audio Edition: ‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle
Season 1 Episode 31
A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials.
The story ‘Paraparticles…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
What We Learn From Running ‘Life’ in Reverse
Season 1 Episode 30
Imagine a set of simple building blocks that can self-assemble into any shape you want. The possibilities for such a technology could be boundless. I…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
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. T…
2 months, 4 weeks 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 i…
3 months ago