19 December 2019: The three-body problem, and festive fun

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This week, a solution to a centuries-old physics problem, and holiday shenanigans.

In this episode:

00:51 Disentangling three bodies Researchers have been working to unpick a problem that has stumped scientists since the 1600s. Research Article: Stone and Leigh

08:50 Frosty the Snowman The first of our festive science songs, about how a certain snowman is faring under climate change. Scroll to the transcript section below for the lyrics.

11:00 Festive quiz show Our reporters battle it out to be crowned as this year’s quiz champion. Can they describe some of the top news headlines without saying certain important words? We find out.

19:21 Carol of M87 Our second song is about the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration’s imaging of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy. Scroll to the transcript section below for the lyrics.

20:33 News Chat We hear about some of the people on Nature’s 10 this year. Feature: Nature’s 10: Ten people who mattered this year

30:00 Rockin’ Around Supremacy For our final song, we hark back to October, when Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy. Scroll to the transcript section below for the lyrics.

TRANSCRIPT

Frosty the Snowman lyrics: Frosty the Snowman was a jolly, happy soul But the smile wore off as the globe got hot ‘Cause the world used too much coal.

Frosty the Snowman is a fairy tale they say He was made of snow But the kids won’t know ‘cause it’s them who have to pay.

Gonna’ need some magic to Convince the world to stop ‘Cause now we’re running out of time And he’s feeling mighty hot.

Oh, Frosty the Snowman, is endangered as could be And the children say they wish he’d stay, But they don’t trust you and me.

He led them down the streets of town Right to the climate COP. They gathered there, and Greta stared And together hollered “STOP”.

Frosty the Snowman, had to hurry on his way But he said we should do all that we could For to change our dirty ways.

Frosty the Snowman, knew the time to act was now So the girls and boys said make some noise And we’ll get a change somehow

Carol of M87 lyrics: Hark at the sound Photons abound Radio waves All seem to say Out in the dark This glowing spark We find our goal See a black hole.

(M) M Eight-se’en (Eight) As it was then (tee) eons ago (se’en) See it aglow

Data from these Observatries Processed to give The first image

One seems to see With EHT Fire in a ring Light circling

Einstein was right, Warped is the light, See the lensing Bending the ring.

Now-we see-a supermassive black hole. (M – eigh-ty- se’en) How-we see-a supermassive black hole. (M – eigh-ty-se’en)

(M) Space time is bent (Eight) See this event (tee) Horizon burn (ee) So... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.