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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…
11 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…
11 months, 1 week 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…
11 months, 1 week 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,…
11 months, 2 weeks 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…
11 months, 3 weeks 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 …
11 months, 4 weeks 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…
11 months, 4 weeks 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 ago
Audio Edition: Heat Destroys All Order. Except for in This One Special Case.
Season 1 Episode 5
Heat is supposed to ruin anything it touches. But physicists have shown that an idealized form of magnetism is heatproof.
The story Heat Destroys All …
1 year ago
In Computers, Memory Is More Useful Than Time
Season 1 Episode 4
One computer scientist’s “stunning” proof is the first progress in 50 years on one of the most famous questions in computer science.
This is the third…
1 year ago