From First Principles

How can a weather satellite see Ramadan, Christmas and a blackout? Dr. Miguel Román joins Krishna Choudhary to explain NASA's Black Marble: nightly maps of the lights on Earth, from a single band on the VIIRS instrument, processed to account for moonlight, airglow, clouds and atmospheric effects.

It began as a calibration job on a brand-new satellite and an "anomaly" that followed the lunar calendar. Román traces how a small NASA team turned it into open data now used for energy access, disaster response and urban growth: Puerto Rico before and after Hurricane Maria, why LEDs can make satellite maps look darker, the 30-meter Black Marble HD, and a John Deere tractor seen from space.

Recorded in Washington, D.C., on September 28, 2026, before the Golden Goose Awards ceremony. Román is Deputy Director for Atmospheres and Data Systems at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a member of the Black Marble team, recognized with a 2026 Golden Goose Award. Part of our Golden Goose series.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open: three moments from the interview
00:49 A NASA intern's question and a new weather satellite
02:38 Calibrating the night band: the Moon and the desert
04:09 The anomaly: Ramadan seen from space
05:39 Christmas lights, and home in Puerto Rico
06:48 A new pair of glasses: all of humanity at night
08:32 From calibration to a Black Marble team
11:51 Opening the data to the world
12:58 Keeping the data honest: moonlight and airglow
14:36 One band, and why LEDs look like dimming
15:57 Why the satellite can't see blue: one instrument, many jobs
18:20 Light from every angle, and building heights
22:14 Puerto Rico: the 2016 blackout and Hurricane Maria
27:29 A Golden Goose story: Adjuntas, La Perla and resilience
30:21 From 500 m to 30 m: Black Marble HD
34:55 Ground truth, and a tractor seen from space
36:50 Electrifying Africa: the darkest places on Earth
40:58 What the Golden Goose Award means
44:49 Thank you, and why showing the method matters
47:46 Outro

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING
Holidays in lights: Ramadan and Christmas (2015):
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014EF000285
NASA's Black Marble product suite (2018):
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.017
Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (2019):
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218883
Uncertainty and viewing angle in night lights (2021):
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112557
Multiangle night-light composites (2022):
https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2022.3176616
Volatility in human night-time activity, Nature (2026):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10260-w
NASA Black Marble data:
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/projects/black-marble
Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report 2025:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/energy/publication/tracking-sdg-7-the-energy-progress-report-2025

EDITORIAL NOTES
15:12: White LED streetlights often use blue emitters near 450 nm, outside the VIIRS day-night band's roughly 500-900 nm sensitivity. A change in lighting technology can change what the satellite detects.
22:50: NASA dates the island-wide outage to late on September 21, 2016, following a power-plant fire; nearly 1.5 million customers lost power.
30:21: The 30-meter Black Marble HD maps are downscaled using additional land-surface information, not native 30-meter night-light measurements. Miguel explains this distinction later in the section.
36:50: About 666 million people lacked electricity in 2023, including 565 million in sub-Saharan Africa (Tracking SDG7 2025).
Statements reflect the September 2026 recording.

WATCH & LISTEN
Episode notes and research: https://ffppod.com/episodes/ep67
Golden Goose science rundown (EP59): https://ffppod.com/episodes/ep59
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#BlackMarble #GoldenGooseAward #SciencePodcast

Can sound destroy a tumor without an incision? Dr. Zhen Xu joins Krishna Choudhary to explain histotripsy: focused ultrasound that creates tiny bubbles to mechanically break apart tissue, without relying on heat.

From a noise complaint in a University of Michigan lab to the Edison system, Xu traces the unexpected discovery, the physics of cavitation, and the decades of research behind noninvasive liver-tumor treatment. We explore surprising immune effects in animal studies, the #HOPE4LIVER clinical trials, and what remains to be tested for other organs.

Recorded in Washington, D.C., on September 28, 2026, before the Golden Goose Awards ceremony. Xu is a histotripsy co-inventor, HistoSonics co-founder, and U-M's Li Ka Shing Professor of Biomedical Engineering. This is the first interview in our Golden Goose series.

CHAPTERS
00:00 The discovery that became histotripsy
00:50 A PhD student and a heart problem
03:42 Heat vs. sound: how histotripsy works
07:06 Gas pockets, and why not the lungs
09:06 The first paper (2004)
09:38 "Don't read any papers": Yellow Pages and pig hearts
12:29 Too loud: rethinking the ultrasound pulse
14:56 "Almost like smoke": the 2002 discovery
18:14 Building the equipment, and the Edison system
22:19 Through the skull, and controlling the bubbles
23:50 The physics: pressure waves, bubbles and cells
28:47 Ten years to understand it
32:42 Surgery keeps getting smaller: from ether to Star Trek
35:58 The surprise: an immune response
38:16 Why liver cancer, and 9 of 11 rats
47:19 #HOPE4LIVER: the clinical trial
49:59 How a treatment works
52:27 Recovery and the 20-mile-run anecdote
56:24 The future: worldwide, kidney, pancreas and brain
1:01:33 The Golden Goose Award and federal funding
1:04:31 Sign-off
1:04:41 Outro

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING
First tissue-erosion paper (2004):
https://doi.org/10.1109/tuffc.2004.1308731
High-speed imaging of bubble clouds (2007):
https://doi.org/10.1109/tuffc.2007.504
Microtripsy and precise cavitation (2014):
https://doi.org/10.1109/tuffc.2014.6722611
Bubble-cloud and cancer-cell interactions (2016):
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2016.05.018
Histotripsy through the skull (2016):
https://doi.org/10.1109/tuffc.2016.2531504
Abscopal immune responses: animal research (2020):
https://doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2019-000200
Partial treatment of rat liver tumors (2022):
https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14071612
#HOPE4LIVER pivotal trial (2024):
https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.233051
#HOPE4LIVER one-year follow-up (2025):
https://doi.org/10.1097/sla.0000000000006720
FDA Edison De Novo review:
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/reviews/DEN220087.pdf

EDITORIAL NOTES
08:40 / 48:12: Edison received FDA De Novo authorization in 2023 for noninvasive liver-tumor destruction. This is not a general cancer-cure approval.
35:58-47:19: The cited immune-response and 9-of-11 results are animal studies, not human cure rates.
49:17: The one-year trial reported 63.4% local control on primary review and 90% on post hoc review. Technical success and durable tumor control are different measures.
53:46: The 20-mile run is an individual anecdote, not recovery advice; Dr. Xu explicitly advises against it.
55:39: The one-year #HOPE4LIVER update was published in 2025.
Clinical and company updates reflect the September 2026 recording. Dr. Xu co-founded HistoSonics.

WATCH & LISTEN
Episode notes and research: https://ffppod.com/episodes/ep66
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#Histotripsy #GoldenGooseAward #SciencePodcast

What happens when AI moves beyond the chatbot and into the laboratory? From Claude-designed proteins that bind scorpion toxins to robots that assemble optics experiments, we examine what AI can do for science and what still has to be proven in the real world.
Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary explore the gap between generating a promising design and demonstrating that it works. We also unpack BrainChat, a research platform that lets epilepsy patients interact with their brain-recording data and contribute feedback to seizure detection, and a 15-year study of orangutan mothers facilitating playdates for their young.
Along the way: why binding a toxin is not the same as neutralizing it, how patient feedback can help personalize models, and what cloud laboratories and automated experiments could mean for scientific discovery. Which part of science do you think AI will change most?

CHAPTERS
00:00 Playdates, brain data and robot labs
00:29 Hello Internet and Signal Award celebration
02:40 Orangutan mothers and infant playdates
15:18 What 15 years of orangutan observations reveal
25:16 Testing the playdate hypothesis
39:30 BrainChat and patient-guided learning
44:57 Putting patients in the feedback loop
1:02:00 Personalizing seizure detection
1:05:33 What the BrainChat study does not yet establish
1:07:59 Anthropic scorpion-toxin binders
1:15:49 Why a toxin binder is not an antivenom
1:18:31 Fast AI designs, slower laboratory testing
1:19:40 Connecting AI to the physical lab
1:23:22 Robotic optics and automated laboratories
1:28:04 Cloud laboratories and remote experiments
1:33:00 Closing the loop with Lila Sciences
1:37:48 Wrap-up

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING
Orangutan maternal ranging and infant social play (PNAS):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42837467/
BrainChat and human-AI collaboration in epilepsy (Nature Medicine):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04680-4
Claude-designed scorpion-toxin binders (Anthropic):
https://www.anthropic.com/research/claude-scorpion-toxin-binder-design
Robotic optics experiments (MIT News):

EDITORIAL NOTES
The orangutan findings are observational evidence of mothers facilitating social play, not direct proof of conscious intent. BrainChat was a small feasibility study, not proof of improved clinical outcomes. The scorpion-toxin work demonstrated binding, not a validated antivenom.
On-screen clarifications:
15:20 The first author is Odd T. Jacobson. Maria A. van Noordwijk is a coauthor.
16:06 About 32,600 observation hours were collected over 15 years. That is roughly 3.7 years of continuous observation.
40:39 In epilepsy, deep brain stimulation reduces seizure frequency. Tremor is the Parkinson's disease example here.
47:07 The study included 13 participants: 11 with scalp EEG and 2 with intracranial EEG.
51:01 and 51:35 GPT-4o-mini ran in Penn's HIPAA-compliant Azure OpenAI cloud environment, not locally.
1:18:03 This was an Anthropic announcement, in collaboration with Citrini Research.

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Can light restore aspects of sight? Can recalling a cold experience change an animal's metabolism? And what can ghost particles and mirror-image molecules tell us about the universe?

Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary follow up on our 2026 Nobel Prize episodes with research building on optogenetics, IceCube and molecular handedness. We unpack an early human vision-restoration trial, cold-memory experiments in mice, cosmic neutrino flavors, and a tiny electrical sensor for distinguishing left- and right-handed amino acids.

Plus: how the Nobels work, our follow-up on the Nobel chemistry illustration, a brief look at neutrino Earth tomography, and why fundamental research matters. Which discovery would you like us to explore next?

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open: memory, neutrinos and mirror molecules
00:28 Hello Internet and how the Nobels work
04:32 Optogenetics recap
10:23 Restoring aspects of vision
25:43 Controlling movement in worms
29:31 Cold memories and metabolism
41:07 Memory, trauma and ethical questions
45:44 FFP housekeeping
48:17 IceCube recap
56:23 Measuring cosmic neutrino flavors
1:10:30 A brief look at neutrino Earth tomography
1:12:20 Why fundamental physics matters
1:26:58 Chemistry and molecular handedness
1:29:08 Correcting the Nobel illustration
1:39:30 Measuring chirality in tiny samples
1:46:42 Testing the sensor on meteorite and desert samples
1:51:22 Why these questions matter
1:57:20 Closing thoughts and signoff

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING
Optogenetic therapy for visual function (NEJM, 2026):
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2602215

Cold memories and thermoregulation (Nature, 2025):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08902-6

Three-flavor composition of cosmic neutrinos (PRL, 2026):
https://doi.org/10.1103/vntd-m133

Chiral discrimination in meteorite and desert soil extracts (Nature Communications, 2026):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77947-6

Further reading, briefly mentioned: neutrino Earth tomography (preprint):
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02644

EDITORIAL NOTES
The vision trial was small and exploratory. The cold-memory findings discussed are from mice.

On-screen clarifications:
16:53 Both eyes were profoundly visually impaired; the worse-seeing eye was treated.
19:57 The untreated eye was patched during testing, not a normal-vision control.
54:41 Neutrino event rates depend on energy and selection, not just detector volume.
1:05:47 Flavor identification efficiency is distinct from interaction probability; both depend on energy.
1:13:35 Other astronomy-related Nobels include 2017 (LIGO) and 2019 (cosmology/exoplanets).
1:18:00 The LHC at CERN enabled the Higgs discovery; CERN itself was founded in 1954.
1:44:25 Both enantiomers produce current signals; waveform features distinguish them.
1:46:42 Murchison is a meteorite. Diego de Almagro and North of Antofagasta are soil sites.
1:47:40 The sensor study reports mixed agreement and limitations, not uniformly negative results.
1:49:00 Phobos is a Martian moon; a captured-asteroid origin is a hypothesis.

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Why does life favor one molecular mirror image? The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary unpack the science from first principles: chirality, Pasteur's crystals, enantiomeric excess, and how a tiny imbalance can grow into an overwhelming preference for one molecular hand.

We connect Kagan's catalyst discoveries and the Soai reaction to medicines, the origins of biological handedness, and the serious concerns around hypothetical mirror life. Plus: symmetry in physics, Frances Oldham Kelsey and thalidomide, and our interpretation of a Nobel illustration.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Why life has a molecular handedness
01:33 Hello Internet
02:49 The 2026 Chemistry laureates
06:24 Chirality and mirror-image molecules
12:10 Pasteur and the history of handedness
19:36 Why is life's chemistry one-handed?
24:35 Frank and the origin-of-life puzzle
29:14 Enantiomeric excess explained
30:30 Kagan and nonlinear effects
38:58 FFP and symmetry in physics
42:20 Soai and asymmetric autocatalysis
51:28 Why chirality matters for medicine
58:21 What this does and does not explain about life
1:00:25 Mirror life and biological risk
1:10:37 Examining the Nobel illustration
1:14:10 Recap and Nobel week reflections

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING
Original papers and supporting context:
Frank's model (1953): https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3002(53)90082-1
Puchot, Kagan et al. (1986): https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00269a036
Soai et al. (1995): https://doi.org/10.1038/378767a0
Sato et al., amplification (2003): https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200390105
Mirror-life risks (2024): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads9158
Nobel announcement: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2026/press-release/

EDITORIAL NOTES
Intro: the 50:50 example describes an unbiased synthesis, not all chemistry. The Soai reaction is a clue to amplification, not proof of how life began.

On-screen clarifications:
04:38 B-DNA is right-handed; Z-DNA can form a left-handed helix.
13:56 Pasteur separated sodium ammonium tartrate crystals.
18:48 L/D configuration does not specify optical rotation.
19:10 Proteins mainly use L-amino acids; DNA/RNA use D-sugars.
22:55 Mentos mainly triggers CO2 bubble nucleation.
27:18 Asymmetric catalysis and autocatalysis are distinct.
34:07 0.25 × 0.25 = 0.0625 = 6.25%.
36:31 Inactive mixed catalyst pairs are a simplified model.
37:55 The normalized product-ratio curve need not be parabolic.
42:04 Wu: preferential emission opposite spin; antineutrinos also emitted.
45:30 5-pyrimidyl alkanol; an alkanol is an alcohol.
47:10 The tiny-imbalance result is Sato et al. (2003), cited above.
47:40 A demonstration of symmetry breaking by asymmetric autocatalysis.
49:09 Above 99.5% ee means above 99.75% majority form, not exactly 100%.
49:57 0.00005% excess is 1 part in 2,000,000.
52:44 Thalidomide enantiomers interconvert in the body.
53:36 Merrell applied in the U.S.; Kelsey withheld approval. Trial exposure occurred.
1:02:09 Mirror-life catastrophe is a serious risk, not an observed outcome.
1:03:28 Antibodies are adaptive immunity, not innate immunity.
1:03:53 Impaired recognition does not mean proven total immune invisibility.
1:04:27 Some treatments might work; ecosystem protection is very difficult.
1:04:56 No reproducing mirror organism has been reported.
1:09:19 Chimeras and genetic modification are not interchangeable.
1:10:37 The Nobel-diagram critique is our interpretation, not an official correction.
1:11:51 Solid wedge: toward; hashed wedge: away; ordinary line: neither.

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Breaking down science news so it makes sense to curious people everywhere.

Why build a telescope inside a billion tons of Antarctic ice? The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes Francis Halzen's work on IceCube and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from the cosmos.

In Episode 62 of From First Principles, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary explain neutrinos from the ground up: why these elusive particles make powerful cosmic messengers, how faint flashes of Cherenkov light reveal their interactions, and why detecting them requires an observatory buried deep beneath the South Pole.

We follow the path from beta decay and the first neutrino experiments to AMANDA, IceCube's construction, the 2013 astrophysical breakthrough, a distant blazar, and a neutrino map of the Milky Way. Along the way: cosmic rays, the Oh-My-God particle, tracks versus cascades, and the international collaboration behind the discovery.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Hunting ghost particles beneath Antarctica
01:16 Hello Internet and Nobel Prize
05:30 What are neutrinos?
10:00 Neutrinos as cosmic messengers
15:02 The Oh-My-God particle
16:21 Cosmic-ray energies
19:07 Cosmic particle accelerators
22:28 Why look for neutrinos?
25:52 How to detect a neutrino
29:23 Cherenkov light
33:13 Building a neutrino observatory
37:17 From Antarctic ice to AMANDA
42:21 Building IceCube
44:59 Reading tracks and cascades
49:30 Backgrounds and the 2013 discovery
52:46 Tracing cosmic neutrino sources
54:16 Mapping the Milky Way
58:23 IceCube collaboration and Gen2
1:01:05 Closing and Nobel week

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING
AMANDA in Antarctic ice (2001): https://doi.org/10.1038/35068509
IceCube detector and instrumentation (2017): https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/12/03/P03012
First PeV neutrinos (2013): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.021103
Astrophysical neutrino evidence (2013): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1242856
Blazar TXS 0506+056 (2018): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat1378
Archival blazar neutrino emission (2018): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat2890
Milky Way neutrino map (2023): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adc9818
Gamma-ray burst constraints (2012): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11068
IceCube overview: https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/icecube/

EDITORIAL NOTES
Intro: the 2013 breakthrough was high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. Lower-energy supernova neutrinos were detected in 1987.

On-screen clarifications:
06:45 Beta-minus decay produces a proton, electron and electron antineutrino.
11:10 Davis studied solar neutrinos; Koshiba's team detected SN 1987A neutrinos.
17:50 The cosmic-ray knee and ankle are not fixed distance boundaries.
19:38 Required accelerator size depends on magnetic-field strength.
24:18 Ground-based telescopes also detect gamma rays through air showers.
27:48 W interactions produce charged leptons; Z scattering preserves neutrino flavor.
34:06 The underwater concept dates to 1960; DUMAND developed in the 1970s.
36:09 Baikal holds about one-fifth of unfrozen surface freshwater.
38:53 Earth filters muons but also absorbs many very-high-energy neutrinos.
41:26 Pressure converts air bubbles into clathrates, reducing light scattering.
42:28 Construction finished in December 2010; full operations began in May 2011.
44:27 Sensors are DOMs; DeepCore is a densely instrumented detector region.
45:47 Timing gives direction; light yield and pattern help estimate energy.
49:44 Upgoing events can still be atmospheric neutrinos.
53:12 TXS 0506+056 is about 3.7 billion light-years away.
56:38 Long GRBs often involve collapsing stars; short GRBs often involve mergers.

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From First Principles: Breaking down science news so it makes sense to curious people everywhere.

How do you prove what a brain cell actually does? The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine celebrates a remarkable answer: give cells a light-sensitive protein, then switch their activity on or off with light.

In Episode 61 of From First Principles, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary explain optogenetics from the ground up and trace the discoveries of Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel and Karl Deisseroth. We follow the story from algae swimming toward light to channelrhodopsins, precisely controlled neurons, and experiments probing memory, reward and behavior. Then we explore heart-brain connections, early attempts to restore vision, and what these experiments can and cannot tell us.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The discovery that put brain cells under light control

02:34 Hello Internet

03:28 2026 Medicine Nobel and optogenetics

05:38 Understanding the brain

08:42 From correlation to causation

18:13 Controlling neurons with light

21:25 Early optogenetics and the chARGe system

24:17 Light-sensitive microbial proteins

26:26 Algae and phototaxis

31:42 Discovering channelrhodopsins

34:42 Nagel and light-gated ion channels

40:55 Controlling mammalian neurons

50:19 Expanding the optogenetic toolkit

56:10 Neural circuits and behavior

59:02 Memory, reward and reinforcement

1:02:53 Heart rhythm and emotion

1:04:02 Beyond the brain and toward medical treatments

1:06:56 Implications and limits

1:09:10 Closing and Nobel week

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING

Full paper list: https://ffppod.com/episodes/ep61

Nobel Prize announcement and background:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2026/summary/

Optical control of neurons: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1525

Memory recall in mice: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11028

Partial visual recovery: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01351-4

EDITORIAL NOTES

On-screen clarifications are included at these timestamps:

13:46 The Jennifer Aniston neuron was recorded in human patients. Selective firing alone did not establish that it causes recognition.

30:34 Vertebrate rhodopsin is a GPCR. In rods and cones, light closes cGMP-gated channels and causes hyperpolarization.

35:12 Xenopus oocytes are immature frog egg cells, not embryos.

39:52 Calcium entry triggers neurotransmitter release; neurotransmitters carry the signal across the synapse. ChR2 conducts several positive ions, not just calcium.

52:17 Halorhodopsin is a light-driven chloride pump, not a channel.

1:03:18 The heart-pacing study expressed ChRmine in mouse heart muscle cells, not neurons.

Animal studies and early clinical results are distinguished from established treatments.

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Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/PKAYqhy8xf8

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Breaking down science news so it makes sense to curious people everywhere.

Who could win the 2026 Nobel Prizes? From the science behind Ozempic to quantum interference and droplets inside living cells, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary make their picks for Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, and explain the discoveries behind them.

In Episode 60 of From First Principles, we explore seven research areas with a case for Nobel recognition: GLP-1, optogenetics, optical coherence tomography, the Aharonov–Bohm effect, atomic force microscopy, biomolecular condensates and Buchwald–Hartwig coupling. We also discuss Michael Berry’s geometric phase and the awkward question of how a prize limited to three people recognizes discoveries built by larger teams.

These are our predictions, recorded before the 2026 announcements. Medicine, Physics and Chemistry will be announced October 5–7. Which discovery, and which researchers, would you pick? Tell us in the comments, then join us for our Nobel week breakdowns.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The science that could win a Nobel Prize

00:57 Hello Internet: our 2026 predictions

02:03 Medicine: GLP-1 and the science behind Ozempic

07:41 Medicine: optogenetics and controlling neurons with light

13:16 Medicine: optical coherence tomography

16:28 Golden Goose Awards and FFP updates

18:39 Physics: the Aharonov–Bohm effect and geometric phase

27:37 Physics: atomic force microscopy

32:04 Chemistry: biomolecular condensates

36:36 Chemistry: Buchwald–Hartwig coupling

38:42 Your predictions and our Nobel week plans

RESEARCH & FURTHER READING

Foundational papers and background for the discoveries discussed:

GLP-1: Mojsov, Weir & Habener (1987)

https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI112855

Optogenetics: Boyden et al. (2005)

https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1525

Optical coherence tomography: Huang et al. (1991)

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1957169

Aharonov–Bohm effect (1959)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.115.485

Berry’s geometric phase (1984)

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1984.0023

Atomic force microscopy: Binnig, Quate & Gerber (1986)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930

Biomolecular condensates: Brangwynne et al. (2009); Li et al. (2012)

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172046

https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10879

Buchwald–Hartwig coupling: Paul et al. (1994); Guram et al. (1995)

https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00092a058

https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.199513481

Official Nobel announcement schedule:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/about/prize-announcement-dates/

EDITORIAL NOTES

19:30 David Bohm later held a professorship at Birkbeck, University of London (1961–1987); he did not spend the rest of his career in Brazil.

33:23 The ribosome-producing compartment discussed is the nucleolus, not the nucleosome. These corrections also appear on screen.

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Breaking down science news so it makes sense to curious people everywhere.

What connects a noise complaint, holiday lights seen from space, and the physics of a coffee stain? Three unexpected paths from basic research to discoveries with real-world impact.

Krishna Choudhary and Lester Nare explore the science behind the 2026 Golden Goose Awards: Zhen Xu's work on histotripsy, NASA's Black Marble nighttime satellite data, and Sidney Nagel's discoveries in soft matter physics.

We start with focused ultrasound and the tiny bubbles that can break apart targeted tissue, tracing the journey from early laboratory experiments to clinical research on liver tumors. Then we look at how Earth's nighttime lights reveal power outages, disaster recovery, and changing human activity. Finally, falling drops, coffee stains, and jammed grains open up a world of robotic grippers and materials that can be trained and retrained.

The thread connecting all three stories is the unexpected value of federally funded basic research. Part 2 will feature conversations with the award-winning researchers and AAAS CEO Sudip Parikh.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Golden Goose Awards trailer

01:19 Introducing our Golden Goose special

02:42 Zhen Xu: From a noise complaint to histotripsy

05:57 The early ultrasound experiments

13:42 Controlling cavitation with microtripsy

20:29 Tumor destruction and the immune response

28:33 Histotripsy through the skull

37:23 The HOPE4LIVER clinical trial

43:55 Why basic research needs time

47:17 FFP updates and supporting the show

49:20 NASA Black Marble: Holiday lights from space

55:29 Turning night lights into reliable data

1:01:36 Hurricane Maria and unequal recovery

1:08:12 COVID-19 and changing nighttime activity

1:10:16 Mapping access to electricity

1:15:20 Where Earth is brightening and dimming

1:32:57 Sidney Nagel and the physics of everyday life

1:37:07 The science of a falling drop

1:46:02 Why coffee leaves a ring

1:51:04 Jamming: When grains become rigid

1:53:35 A robotic gripper filled with grains

1:55:39 Why air pressure changes a splash

1:58:55 Materials that can be trained and retrained

2:03:26 The payoff from curiosity

2:05:29 Coming in Part 2

2:07:06 Outro

FEATURED RESEARCH

Histotripsy: The #HOPE4LIVER single-arm pivotal trial (Radiology, 2024)

https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.233051

NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite (Remote Sensing of Environment, 2018)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.017

Training and retraining liquid crystal elastomer metamaterials for pluripotent functionality (PNAS, 2025)

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504304122

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What does it mean to solve an equation that describes almost every fluid around us, from the air over a wing to the water swirling down a drain?

In Episode 58 of From First Principles, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary build the Navier-Stokes equations from the ground up before digging into OpenAI’s claimed breakthrough and the debate surrounding it.

Summary

• How Newton’s laws become equations for a moving fluid
• Velocity fields, incompressibility, pressure and the nonlinear convective term
• Why viscosity smooths a fluid while nonlinear motion can create finer structure
• What finite-time blowup means, and why simulation is different from proof
• How forced and unforced equations differ, and why those assumptions matter
• Earlier work on Euler, Boussinesq and related fluid equations
• OpenAI’s claimed result, Lean verification and the scope of the theorem
• The dispute over scientific credit and the human research behind AI-assisted work
• The METR investigation of the Hugging Face incident
• Emergence World and long-running multi-agent experiments
• AI-assisted biological discovery, oversight and recursive self-improvement
• Separating demonstrated capabilities from claims and future scenarios

Chapters

00:00 Can AI solve Navier-Stokes?
00:34 Episode introduction
02:20 Navier-Stokes: Mathematics Meets AI
10:20 Building the Equations of Fluid Motion
21:34 Velocity fields, divergence and incompressibility
34:33 Acceleration and the convective term
52:18 Why Fluid Motion Is Nonlinear
1:02:08 Pressure, Euler and the Missing Physics
1:14:50 How Viscosity Changes Everything
1:33:36 Solving Equations vs. Simulating Fluids
1:44:59 Can a Smooth Fluid Blow Up?
2:13:52 The Road to the Claimed Breakthrough
2:31:13 Inside the Claimed Navier-Stokes Proof
2:48:26 The Dispute Over Scientific Credit
3:07:23 From Chatbots to Agents
3:08:57 The METR report and Hugging Face incident
3:23:23 AI Risk, Oversight and the Race Ahead
3:38:51 AI Discovery Beyond Mathematics
3:52:47 Why “just turn it off” gets complicated
4:06:47 Closing thoughts and what comes next
4:08:46 Outro

Featured Research

OpenAI’s Navier-Stokes announcement
Tristan Buckmaster’s statement
METR investigation
Emergence World
AI-assisted enzyme discovery

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