Quirkcast

Quirkcast

By QuirkcastSciencePhysics
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Quirkcast episodes

  • The Nuclear Warden: Gluon

    What keeps our nuclei stuck together? It's the somewhat less well-known particle, gluon. They reason we don't see it very much is because it is doing a superb job at jail-keeping its nuclear constituents. Gluons' peculiar abilities to keep things together may also provide us unlimited clean energy in the future. In this episode we'll describe just how the gluon manages to do its jobs and its importance for our Universe.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    35 min
  • The Unstoppable Particle: Graviton

    What is the one particle that cannot be stopped? The answer would have to be the graviton. While the graviton interacts with everything, it also passes through everything mostly unscathed. This unique property makes graviton one of the greatest messengers of the Universe.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    32 min
  • What the Higgs Boson is: A Keystone Particle (Not the God's Particle)

    The God's particle is a misnomer in particle physics: The Higgs Boson doesn't participate very much in the creation of our Universe.

    A more proper title for the Higgs Boson would be the Keystone particle, as it is the key that sets the interaction strength and relevant energies in our Universe.
    This episode we'll explore what that means.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    30 min
  • The Loneliest Particle

    In this special Valentine Day's episode, we’ll introduce what may be considered the loneliest particles in the Universe -- magnetic monopoles, if it exists.

    Indeed, on this very same day in 1982, Prof. Blas Cabrera uncovered a potential signal for such a lonely wanderer. Unfortunately the findings were never repeated. Still monopoles can be hiding important secrets of nature, and its loneliness may critically impact the structure of our Universe.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    31 min
  • Going Beyond Particles: Fields

    In particle physics, particles aren't necessarily the most important object. It turns out, physicists really are interested in the concept of fields, which will be the focus of this episode.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    32 min
  • Why Particles are Doomed

    If there's anything that could last forever, it might be fundamental particles. However, even that may not be true. In fact, particles can and do lose their identity over time, and their existence may ultimately be doomed.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    31 min
  • Heat Death is Not the End

    It has been widely popularized that our Universe will end in a heat death, where all interesting activities will cease.

    But is this really what will happen? With the inclusion of quantum physics, it turns out that heat death may not be so deadly after-all. In fact, there can still be interesting interactions after heat death, and in some cases, new universe can even emerge from the remains...

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    Discord: ⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    39 min
  • How Time is Weird in the Quantum Realm

    Unlike the ordinary time we experience, time in quantum systems behave rather differently. From unitarity to quantum recurrence, we explore just how weird quantum times can be, and how our macroscopic notion of time can merge from such a drastically different notion of quantum time.

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    Discord: ⁠⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    32 min
  • When Does Time End?

    While time seems to always flow forward, is it ever possible for it to end? As it turns out, there might be more than just one ending.

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    Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    31 min
  • Can Time Flow Backward?

    If our laws of physics look symmetrical both forward and backward in time, is it then possible to have time flow backward instead of forward? What would our world look like it the flow of time does change? From the big bang to anti-particles, we explore the physics behind the reversal of the flow of time.

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    Discord: https://discord.gg/7c6myZ8Z

    32 min

About Quirkcast

From the publisher's feed

Quirkcast is a biweekly (subject to change) online podcast that breaks down complex science topics to a wide audience. Hosted by Tim Lou, Saahil Shenoy, and Michael Park, we aim to advance scientific…