About this season
Explore mind-bending developments in basic science and math research. Quanta Magazine is an award-winning, editorially independent magazine published by the Simons Foundation.
Episodes (26)
1. Richard Schwartz: In Praise of Simple Problems
Aired 9 January 2018
Mathematician Richard Schwartz talks about why he's attracted to the hidden depths of simple problems.
2. Ed Boyden on the Promise of Expansion Microscopy
Aired 18 January 2018
Ed Boyden of MIT’s Media Lab, the inventor of expansion microscopy, explains how the technique could illuminate deep mysteries about how the brain works and improve cancer diagnosis, among many other advances.
3. Erich Jarvis on Theories About the Origin of Vocal Learning
Aired 30 January 2018
Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis discusses how the brain circuitry for vocal learning in songbirds and humans evolved from systems for controlling body movements and why so few species have this ability.
4. Daniel Goldman and His Smart Robots
Aired 14 February 2018
Goldman explains how “smarticles” work together to demonstrate collective behavior.
5. Barbara Engelhardt on How to Improve Statistical Analyses of Genomes
Aired 27 February 2018
Barbara Engelhardt, a computer scientist at Princeton University, explains why traditional machine-learning techniques have often fallen short for genomic analysis, and how researchers are overcoming that challenge.
6. Günter Ziegler Seeks God’s Perfect Math Proofs
Aired 19 March 2018
Günter Ziegler describes one of the most famous and beautiful proofs in "Proofs From THE BOOK," a book he co-authored with Martin Aigner.
7. Donald Richards: A Revealer of Secrets in the Data of Life and the Universe
Aired 11 April 2018
Donald Richards discusses the statistical rule-of-thumb he wishes everyone knew.
8. Michela Massimi: Defending the Philosophy of Science
Aired 24 May 2018
Michela Massimi argues that the philosophy of science doesn’t have to be useful to scientists for it to be useful to humanity.
9. Lisa Manning on the Dynamics of Glasses and Embryos
Aired 11 June 2018
Lisa Manning, a physicist at Syracuse University, describes how the physics of glassy materials helps to explain how some organs assume their correct shape during embryonic development.
10. Carina Curto on How Physicists Can Think About Neuroscience
Aired 19 June 2018
Carina Curto, a mathematician at Pennsylvania State University, explains how her background in theoretical physics helps her tackle daunting problems in theoretical neuroscience.
11. Jessica Whited on Limb Regeneration and the Axolotl Genome
Aired 2 July 2018
Jessica Whited is a biologist who studies limb regeneration at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Here, she explains how genomic information for the salamander called an axolotl will help us understand the potential for regrowing limbs in humans and other animals.
12. Cohl Furey on the Octonions and Particle Physics
Aired 21 July 2018
Cohl Furey explains what octonions are and what they might have to do with particle physics.
13. Alessio Figalli: A Traveler Who Finds Stability in the Natural World
Aired 1 August 2018
The mathematician Alessio Figalli is rarely in one place for very long. But his work has established the stability of everything from crystals to weather fronts by using concepts derived from Napoleonic fortifications.
14. Caucher Birkar: An Innovator Who Brings Order to an Infinitude of Equations
Aired 2 August 2018
Birkar discusses the need for originality in mathematics and in life.
15. Akshay Venkatesh: A Number Theorist Who Bridges Math and Time
Aired 3 August 2018
Akshay Venkatesh on his mathematical working style, which took him many years to discover.
16. Constantinos Daskalakis: A Poet of Computation Who Uncovers Distant Truths
Aired 4 August 2018
Constantinos Daskalakis on why he studies the interface between theoretical computer science and human behavior.
17. 2018 Fields Medal Coverage at Quanta Magazine
Aired 6 August 2018
Mathematicians Caucher Birkar, Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze and Akshay Venkatesh have been awarded the Fields Medal. Computer scientist Constantinos Daskalakis won the Nevanlinna Prize.
18. Rosaly Lopes on Volcanoes Throughout the Solar System
Aired 28 August 2018
Rosaly Lopes explains why it’s worth exploring the huge variety of volcanoes on other worlds.
19. Tomas Bohr on Performing the Double-Slit Experiment with Bouncing Droplets
Aired 11 October 2018
Tomas Bohr explains the significance of the double-slit experiment in exposing the weirdness of the quantum world.
20. Renee Reijo Pera on the Importance of Timing in Embryo Development
Aired 15 October 2018
Stem cell researcher Renee Reijo Pera of Montana State University explains how the timing of developmental events in the early embryo can subtly affect health many years later.
21. Mario Jurić on How Astronomy Is Changing
Aired 24 October 2018
Just as mathematics transformed physics from a philosophy into a science, data and computation are transforming science today, says Mario Jurić. He’s leading the push to get astronomy ready for the torrents of data that are about to flow. Mario Jurić explains how the nature of what it means to be an astronomer is changing.
22. Valeria Pettorino on Learning About Dark Energy With the Euclid Satellite
Aired 13 November 2018
Valeria Pettorino discusses the prospects of learning about dark energy with the Euclid satellite.
23. Albert Einstein, Holograms and Quantum Gravity
Aired 14 November 2018
In the latest campaign to reconcile Einstein’s theory of gravity with quantum mechanics, many physicists are studying how a higher dimensional space that includes gravity arises like a hologram from a lower dimensional particle theory.
24. Why Different Parts of a Coffee Mug Produce Different Pitches
Aired 27 November 2018
The Stanford mathematician Tadashi Tokieda demonstrates one of his physics “toys”: the curious higher and lower notes you hear when tapping a coffee mug with a spoon.
25. Martin Rees on the Future of Science and Humanity
Aired 5 December 2018
The University of Cambridge astrophysicist, Astronomer Royal and popular author discusses how our society can benefit from science while avoiding potential pitfalls.
26. What Is Emergence?
Aired 20 December 2018
How do extraordinarily complex emergent phenomena — like ants assembling themselves into living bridges, or tiny water and air molecules forming into swirling hurricanes — spontaneously arise from systems of much simpler elements? The answer often depends on a transition in the interplay between the elements that resembles a phase change.