Science of the Lambs

Gravitational waves, general relativity, economics...this months episode goes off to some interesting places. Join Danny & Mark as they discuss the 2017 Nobel prize in physics which was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish, and Kip S. Thorne for "decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

Note: There's some strong language at the start of this one. Also, we have a lot of respect for the field of economics.

Relevant Links:

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2017/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrutdQ5YCvs

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/

Danny & Mark talk about a type of communism based around a centrally planned economy. Yes, we know, we're scientists, not economists! But there are serious scientific challenges we have to face if this type of economy were to ever work.

Relevant links:

http://chris-said.io/2016/05/11/optimizing-things-in-the-ussr/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14515225

http://crookedtimber.org/2012/05/30/in-soviet-union-optimization-problem-solves-you/

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LinearProgramming.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9AdLnjP0M

Danny & Mark talk about nuclear weapons, and whether or not we should be worried that they exist. (We recorded this show on June 24th, 2017. 10 days later, North Korea tested a new type of missile, claiming they can now hit Alaska with a nuclear warhead. Maybe it's time for the doomsday clock to once again be updated).

Relevant Links:

http://www.dancarlin.com/

http://thebulletin.org/timeline

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

Have you ever picked up the phone and wondered if the person on the other end is real, or just a robot? Well, that type of technology is rapidly becoming a reality, and Danny & Mark talk about the companies that are combating fake voices and...a new way to go on dates?

Relevant links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y​​​​​​​

https://lyrebird.ai/demo

https://www.candyvoice.com/#/

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/adobe-voco-photoshop-for-audio-speech-editing/

http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/~niessner/thies2016face.html

Danny & Mark discuss technology which has been developed to read closed books, and then wonder if it could be used to read a human's mind.

Danny & Mark discuss how a scientific discovery goes from the lab to appearing in a published paper, and the issues with the current system.

Danny, Mark and special guest Anthony discuss the discovery of the exoplanet Proxima B, and what it means for sending your kids on a long interstellar voyage. (Note: sorry about the poor audio quality half way through this episode. We were having teething issues).