PhysicsCentral: Podcasts

PhysicsCentral: Podcasts episodes:

• 12.23.2016

  Drag Racing Cubesats with the NASA CubeQuest Challenge

  In this edition of the PhysicsCentral podcast, we hear from a few teams who are still in the running for the CubeQuest Challenge: a contest for homegrown teams to build their own small satellites - cubesats - and compete against...

  
• 04.28.2016

  Star-chaeology: The Next Stellar Generation

  Join Dr. Anna Frebel and PhysicsCentral podcast host Meg Rosenburg in a search for the oldest stars in the universe!

  
• 03.31.2016

  Of Ice Cores and Isotopes

  Ice cores contain air bubbles that have been encased for close to a million years! Find out what we can learn from this ancient oxygen in this week's PhysicsCentral podcast!

  
• 02.22.2016

  The Truth About Gravitational Waves

  Host Meg Rosenburg journeys to the Hanford observatory for an exclusive interview with one of the scientists behind LIGO's detection of gravitational waves!

  
• 02.12.2016

  A New Ninth Planet?

  Is there a ninth planet in the solar system lurking somewhere in the inky depths of space? Learn about Vulcan, Planet X, and the history of planetary astronomy in this week's PhysicsCentral podcast!

  
• 01.27.2016

  Physics and the Smell of Snow

  Can we smell a snowstorm before it begins? On today's podcast, were joined by olfactory scientist Pamela Dalton, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, to explore the physics behind that crisp, snowy scent.

  
• 12.30.2015

  Lava in the Lab

  Join Meg Rosenburg on a journey from the jagged, active slopes of Kilauea to the "artificial lava" lab at Syracuse University in this week's PhysicsCentral podcast!

  
• 12.09.2015

  The Fluid Physics of Flocks

  This week's PhysicsCentral podcast dives into the fluid dynamics that govern collective motion, like schools of fish and flocks of birds.

  
• 10.29.2015

  What's in a (Martian) Name?

  This week's PhysicsCentral podcast takes a deeper look at the more notable name-drops in the new film The Martian.

  
• 10.22.2015

  Scaling Down the Solar System

  Meg interviews Wylie Overstreet, whose recent viral hit video "To Scale: The Solar System" gives us a glimpse of what the solar system would look like from the outside.

  
• 10.08.2015

  Meteorite Markings Offer Clues to their Past

  A slice of meteorite has a lot to say about where it came from, if you know how to listen!

  
• 09.16.2015

  A Time Capsule of the Universe

  The DASCH initiative, "Digital Access to a Sky-Century at Harvard", seeks to scan and upload tens of thousands of photographic plates, creating a comprehensive record of what the night sky has looked like over the past hundred years.

  
• 06.24.2015

  Science and Entertainment

  From the physics behind Thor's Hammer to the beautiful black hole renderings of Interstellar, science has a lot to offer the film industry and vice versa. What does it take to pull off a successful collaboration?

  
• 05.06.2015

  GRACE

  New satellite tracks Earth's changing climate from variations in its gravity.

  
• 04.22.2015

  Wine Physics

  Join us on a three part tour of the physics behind wine making and tasting.

  
• 04.15.2015

  The Muon Camera

  Learn how two undergraduate students made their own makeshift muon detector out of a digital camera.

  
• 04.08.2015

  Hollywood Earthquakes

  California may not be at risk of sliding into the ocean, but how realistic are disaster movie earthquakes? Geologists gave us the scoop on Hollywood earthquakes in anticipation for this summer's disaster flick: San Andreas.

  
• 04.01.2015

  Entropy

  How entropy explains how perpetual motion machines are impossible, why buildings crumble and the ultimate dark fate of the universe.

  
• 04.01.2015

  Entropy

  How entropy explains how perpetual motion machines are impossible, why buildings crumble and the ultimate dark fate of the universe.

  
• 03.25.2015

  How Robocats Land on Their Feet

  How do falling cats always land on their feet? Physicists have been uncovering the answer with some help from a robocat.

  
• 03.18.2015

  Manhattan Project Historical Park

  History and physics enthusiasts can now rejoice as the U.S. government has commissioned the Manhattan Project National Historical Park located at three important sites critical to the World War II-era program.

  
• 03.11.2015

  Bird Compasses

  Birds have an amazing, innate ability to sense where magnetic north lies, and scientists think they're closer than ever to understanding the secrets of their natural compass.

  
• 03.04.2015

  Supernova Neutrinos

  Using particle detectors across the world, physicists are tracking neutrinos emitted from supernovae to better track and understand exploding stars.

  
• 02.25.2015

  The Physics Behind the Silver Screen

  Explore the physics that makes film projection possible in all of its various forms.

  
• 02.18.2015

  The Impending Intergalactic Cloud Collision

  Outside our galaxy, there's a gigantic gas cloud drifting in our direction. It'll collide with the galaxy in about 30 million years, but astronomers aren't worried.

  
• 02.11.2015

  Quantum Mechanics in the Minecraft Universe

  Introducing quantum weirdness to the world of Minecraft with the  qcraft mod.

  
• 02.04.2015

  Hunting for Dark Matter

  Believe it or not, 85 percent of the matter in the universe is missing, unknown, invisible, and rather fittingly known as dark matter. Since the 1930s, the nature of dark matter has eluded our most sensitive telescopes and underground detectors,...

  
• 01.28.2015

  Which Way to Mercury?

  Although Mercury is much closer to Earth than even Mars, it's among the most difficult planets to study with space probes due in part to its proximity to the sun. A spacecraft launching next year will endure Mercury's extreme temperatures...

  
• 01.21.2015

  The Science of Shakespeare (Repost)

  Shakespeare grew up during the scientific revolution, and it may have directly influenced his works. Some even argue that his plays served as allegories for scientific debates. (Originally published on April 23, 2014).

  
• 01.14.2015

  Paleomagnetism 101

  What can Earth's magnetic field teach us about our planet's past?

  
• 01.07.2015

  Radioisotopes in Medicine

  Radioisotopes have been successfully used to treat a number of cancers, and they're still used today safely as well. But the unethical use of radioisotopes also left a black mark in the history of medicine.

  
• 12.17.2014

  Manh(a)ttan: Bringing Nuclear Physics to Primetime

  The new primetime TV show based on the Manhattan Project of WWII has drawn praise for its storytelling and scientific accuracy but also some critiques of its historical accuracy.

  
• 12.10.2014

  Citizen Science: Answering the Call

  When professional scientists have hit road blocks, they've recruited citizen volunteers to help unlock scientific mysteries ranging from the cosmos to the microscopic.

  
• 12.03.2014

  Understanding Our Solar System's Weather

  On March 13, 1989, millions plunged into darkness after a hot ball of plasma knocked out power grids in North America. Nowadays, several physicists are closely investigating the potentially dangerous solar wind.

  
• 11.19.2014

  Listening for Black Holes & Neutron Stars

  Scientists around the world are trying to catch some waves, some gravitational waves. Find out what these warps in space-time are, the ways to find them and how we could use them to "listen" to the movements of black holes...

  
• 11.12.2014

  Journey to the Center of the Earth

  How do scientists study the Earth's core without directly accessing it? And how does the Earth's formation influence a potential flip in its magnetic field?

  
• 11.05.2014

  Isaac Asimov's Nightfall: Could It Happen?

  Isaac Asimov dreamed of an almost night-less world with six suns around it in his short story titled Nightfall. So could such an exoplanet exist in the real world, and, if so, how would we ever find it?

  
• 10.29.2014

  October Physics News Roundup

  China's rocket to the moon, particle discoveries at the LHC, the physics behind the feel of a city, and several more stories roundup this month in physics news.

  
• 10.22.2014

  The Infinite Universe

  Is the universe infinite? Or is it confined to a finite amount of space? And how might the shape of the universe inform our answers to these deep questions?

  
• 10.15.2014

  Game of Thrones Weather (Repost)

  Note: We Originally published this podcast on July 24, 2013.In the fictional world of Westeros, the duration and severity of the seasons are entirely unpredictable. Is there a real planet that has a similar seasonal pattern?

  
• 10.08.2014

  The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

  We sat down with science writer Simon Singh to discuss his latest book, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets, which reveals the many math-related Easter eggs hidden throughout the iconic show's 25-year history.

  
• 10.01.2014

  September Physics News Roundup

  The age of water on Earth, neutrinos in the heart of the sun, and spintronic flashlights round up this month in physics news.

  
• 09.24.2014

  The Ig Nobel Prizes 2014

  The Ig Nobel Prizes reward the best research that first makes you laugh then makes you think. This year, we interviewed the winners who had research topics ranging from the the alignment of dogs with the Earth's magnetic field when...

  
• 09.17.2014

  The Venus Zone

  Earth and Venus share a number of striking similarities, so why is one planet a bastion for life while the other is inhospitable. Are the planets' differences solely due to their relative distances to the sun? Planets found outside our...

  
• 09.10.2014

  The History of Helium Crises

  You'll often find helium in balloons, but it's also a vital gas for physics research, medical devices, and computer manufacturing. But legislation and economic pressures have had and will continue to have an enormous impact on this precious gas.

  
• 09.03.2014

  Entangled Photons Illuminate an Object Without Touching It

  Scientists have capitalized on two mind-boggling quantum mechanics principles to achieve the seemingly impossible: illuminating an object using light that never interacted directly with the object.

  
• 08.27.2014

  August Physics News Roundup

  Speckled asteroids, spacecraft on comets, and an atomic clock on the International Space Station roundup this month in physics news.

  
• 08.20.2014

  How a Telephone Company Revolutionized Science Outreach

  Before Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, there was Dr. Research and Mr. sun, characters from the hugely influential Bell Laboratory Science Series.

  
• 08.13.2014

  Hypervelocity Stars

  Looking for a one-way trip out of our galaxy? Hitch a ride on a hypervelocity star if you're looking to escape our galaxy's gravity. Listen in this week to see how these super-speedy stars come to be.

  
• 08.06.2014

  The 2014 Flame Challenge

  We sat down with Youtube star and "Flame Challenge" winner Diana Cowern to discuss her sometimes wacky but always enlightening physics outreach videos.