Cosmic Queries – Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking with Charles Liu
March 6, 2026
The necessity of observers in realizing objective reality remains an open philosophical and physical question, highlighted by interpretations of quantum mechanics like the Copenhagen interpretation and the dual-slit experiment.
Science at Warp Speed: StarTalk Live!
March 3, 2026
The universe can be observed through multiple 'windows' beyond electromagnetic radiation, including neutrinos and gravitational waves, which provide fundamentally different information about cosmic events.
Is the Universe a Math Problem? With Terence Tao
February 24, 2026
The distinction between pure mathematics (curiosity-driven exploration of abstract patterns) and applied mathematics (developing tools for practical scientific modeling) is bridged by interdisciplinary collaboration, which often leads to unexpected breakthroughs like the application of non-Euclidean geometry to General Relativity.
The Origins of Artificial Intelligence with Geoffrey Hinton
February 20, 2026
The genesis of AI research in the 1950s was split between logic-inspired reasoning and biological inspiration focused on perception and memory via neural networks.
Cosmic Queries – Your God Is Too Small
February 17, 2026
The speed of light ($c$) remains constant in a vacuum, but light appears to slow down in a medium because photons interact with molecules, which introduces delays that are mathematically modeled by the index of refraction.
Cosmic Queries – Quantum Consciousness with Charles Liu
February 13, 2026
The Big Rip scenario, which involves tearing apart quarks, is contingent on dark energy being 'phantom energy,' a condition currently contradicted by the lack of observed negative energy particles.
Thing You Thought You Knew – Red Hot, Blue Hot
February 10, 2026
The sheer number of water molecules in a single cup is greater than the number of cups of water in all the world's oceans, meaning every glass of water contains molecules that have passed through historical figures.
Cosmic Queries – Understanding Infinity with Stephon Alexander
February 6, 2026
Physicists often try to avoid infinities, such as those predicted in black hole singularities where density becomes infinite, viewing them as limits to the applicability of current theories like General Relativity.
Return to Venus with David Grinspoon
February 3, 2026
NASA is planning a return to Venus with the Da Vinci mission, an entry probe designed to descend through the planet's harsh atmosphere, which features Earth-like conditions in its upper clouds but searing heat and crushing pressure at the surface.
Cosmic Queries – Black Hole Information Paradox
January 27, 2026
The Black Hole Information Paradox is partially addressed by the concept that information swallowed by a black hole is communicated to the surrounding gravitational field via Hawking radiation, allowing the information to be preserved as the black hole evaporates.
What Everyone Knows You Know with Steven Pinker
January 23, 2026
Common knowledge, defined technically as a situation where everyone knows that everyone else knows something *
Cosmic Queries – The Complex Universe with Sean Carroll
January 20, 2026
The resolution to the apparent contradiction between Hawking radiation and the experience of crossing an event horizon is that high-intensity radiation is present upon crossing, but the observer is moving too fast to observe it.
Cosmic Queries – Galactic Grab Bag – Blue Steel
January 16, 2026
The Moon's apparent 'wobble' is actually a libration caused by its elliptical orbit, allowing observers to see slightly more than 50% of its surface over time.
Cosmic Queries – Expanding Bubble Universes
January 13, 2026
Sending nuclear material to the Sun would be ineffective for reviving it because the Sun operates on fusion, not fission, and sunspots alone are larger than Earth.
Your Brain is a Time Machine with Dean Buonomano
January 9, 2026
Unlike man-made clocks that rely on counting regular oscillations, the brain tells time across different scales (seconds to circadian rhythms) using complex neural dynamics, which are more analogous to an hourglass.
Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling with John Martinis
January 6, 2026
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2025 was awarded to John Martinis and Michel Devere for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit.
Things You Thought You Knew – The Color of the Sun
December 30, 2025
The sun's true color, as seen from space or through thin clouds on Earth, is white, not the yellow or red we perceive due to atmospheric scattering of blue light.
Our Burning Questions – Free Will Emergence
December 26, 2025
The distinction between gravity as a force (Newtonian view) and gravity as the curvature of spacetime (Einsteinian view) is experimentally indistinguishable in local, non-accelerating reference frames, making the semantic argument immaterial for practical purposes.
Cosmic Queries – Space Volcanoes: Fire and Ice with Natalie Starkey
December 23, 2025
Most volcanoes in the outer solar system are 'ice volcanoes' or cryovolcanoes, erupting materials like water, ice, and gas rather than molten rock.
Cosmic Queries – Living in a Simulation with Nick Bostrom
December 19, 2025
Nick Bostrom's simulation argument posits that at least one of three propositions must be true: civilizations go extinct before becoming technologically mature, mature civilizations lose interest in running ancestor simulations, or we are almost certainly living in a simulation.
Origins of Dark Energy with Adam Riess
December 16, 2025
The discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe, for which Adam Riess won the Nobel Prize in 2011, was made by comparing the expansion rate in the past to the present using Type 1A supernovae as standard candles.
Replaceable You with Mary Roach
December 12, 2025
The history of human organ replacement dates back to at least 1500 BC, with early efforts focusing on nasal reconstruction due to mutilation as punishment.
Cosmic Queries – Multiverse Nesting Dolls
December 9, 2025
If our universe is inside a black hole, a merger with another black hole would be visible from the inside as the event horizons merge and matter collapses toward the singularity, potentially leading to a new spacetime.
Are We The Universe’s Way of Knowing Itself? With Brian Cox
December 2, 2025
The concept of emergence, where complex phenomena arise from simple underlying laws, is a central theme, exemplified by Kepler's study of snowflakes and the nature of consciousness.
AGI, Immortality, & Visions of the Future with Adam Becker
November 28, 2025
The prevalent visions of the future promoted by tech leaders, such as colonizing Mars or achieving AGI-driven immortality, are often based on literal misinterpretations of science fiction and flawed scientific postulates.
Sounds of the Cosmos with Kim Arcand
November 25, 2025
Data sonification, pioneered by Kim Arcand for the Chandra X-ray Telescope, translates cosmic data into sound to offer new modalities for scientific analysis and public engagement, particularly benefiting the blind and low-vision community.
Cosmic Queries – Proving Einstein Right
November 21, 2025
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which explains gravity as the curvature of spacetime, required nearly a decade of mathematical development following his initial 1907 epiphany about gravity.
Things You Thought You Knew – Force, Heat, & Speed
November 18, 2025
In physics, *
Superhero Science: StarTalk Live! With Charles Liu
November 14, 2025
Superman's ability to save a falling person without squishing them requires him to possess a mechanism to absorb momentum and impact energy, akin to advanced airbags.
Cosmic Queries – Quantumly Stupid
November 11, 2025
A four-dimensional being observing three-dimensional creatures would see inside their organs, similar to how we can see inside a two-dimensional being's body.
The Limits of Knowing with Elise Crull
November 4, 2025
Physics and philosophy were historically intertwined, with foundational figures like Newton writing works explicitly titled as 'Natural Philosophy,' demonstrating that early physics required philosophical grounding regarding epistemology and metaphysics.
What Loneliness Does To Your Brain with Ben Rein
October 31, 2025
Loneliness is the subjective feeling that one's social needs are unmet, which is distinct from isolation, the objective state of being alone, and both states trigger a stress response in the brain.
Bill Nye Takeover
October 28, 2025
Proposed cuts to NASA's science budget, potentially by 25% overall and half of that from science divisions like Astrophysics and Earth Science, are historically severe, even exceeding post-Apollo drawdowns.
Cosmic Queries – ALIENS! with Jake Roper
October 24, 2025
The consensus for the easiest alien movie to survive is *
The Science of Godzilla, Zombies & Other Monsters, with Charles Liu
October 21, 2025
Monsters in storytelling often personify unknown fears, but as scientific understanding grows, these figures frequently transform from purely evil threats into more natural or even sympathetic entities.
Deepfakes and the War on Truth with Bogdan Botezatu
October 17, 2025
Global scams are estimated to inflict approximately $1 trillion in losses for 2024, a figure likely conservative due to underreporting.
Cosmic Queries – Death of a Black Hole
October 14, 2025
Lunar eclipses do not occur monthly because the Moon's orbital plane is tilted relative to the ecliptic (the Sun's apparent path), requiring a precise alignment for the Earth, Sun, and Moon to line up.
Things You Thought You Knew – Quantum Cat
October 7, 2025
The extreme difference in gravitational pull across a person's body near a black hole, known as tidal force, leads to 'spaghettification' where the body is stretched and torn apart atom by atom.
The Anxious Generation with Jonathan Haidt
October 3, 2025
Longitudinal government surveys show a sharp, synchronized increase in anxiety and depression among young people, particularly girls, starting around 2012-2013, coinciding with the rise of smartphone-based social media.
The New Space Race with Jeff Thornburg
September 30, 2025
Aerospace engineers are crucial for enabling scientific discovery, as they translate theoretical possibilities into functional hardware, often succeeding through a culture that accepts failure as a necessary source of data.
Cosmic Queries – Get Some Space
September 26, 2025
Nothing, not even atoms or nuclei, can sustain itself against the tidal forces inside a black hole, which ultimately leads to spaghettification and destruction.
Solving the Crisis in Cosmology with Wendy Freedman
September 23, 2025
The 'Hubble Tension' in cosmology, a discrepancy between local and early universe measurements of the Hubble constant, is not considered a crisis by leading scientists like Wendy Freedman, but rather an exciting opportunity to refine measurements and potentially uncover new physics.
Your Brain on ChatGPT with Nataliya Kosmyna
September 19, 2025
Using Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for essay writing significantly reduces cognitive load and functional brain connectivity compared to using search engines or one's own brain, potentially leading to a decline in core cognitive skills.
Gravity’s Cosmic Symphony with Kelly Holley-Bockelmann
September 16, 2025
LISA, a space-based gravitational wave detector with arms spanning millions of kilometers, is designed to detect lower-frequency gravitational waves from more massive cosmic events than Earth-based detectors like LIGO.