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Science
Why and How Do We Dream?
Episode Date: August 24, 2022Dreams are subjective and fleeting, but laboratories have developed ways of getting into the minds of people while they are dreaming. In this...
The Joy of Why
“The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the cosmologist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. New episodes are released every other Wednesday. Quanta Magazine is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, editorially independent online publication launched and supported by the Simons Foundation to illuminate big ideas in science and math through public service journalism. Quanta’s reporters and editors focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences, emphasizing timely, accurate, in-depth and well-crafted articles for its broad discerning audience. In 2023, Steven Strogatz received a National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications partly for his work on “The Joy of Why.”
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Science
What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete?
Episode Date: August 10, 2022Quantum field theory may be the most successful scientific theory of all time, but there's reason to think it's missing something. Steven Str...
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Why Do We Get Old, and Can Aging Be Reversed?
Episode Date: July 27, 2022Everybody gets older, but not everyone ages in the same way. In this episode, Steven Strogatz speaks with Judith Campisi and Dena Dubal, two...
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How Do Mathematicians Know Their Proofs Are Correct?
Episode Date: July 13, 2022Just as scientists test hypotheses, mathematicians prove or disprove conjectures. But what makes a proof stronger than a guess? What does evi...
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Can Computers Be Mathematicians?
Episode Date: June 29, 2022Artificial intelligence has bested humans at problem-solving tasks including games like chess and Go. Is mathematics research next? Steven St...
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What Is Life?
Episode Date: June 15, 2022Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astro...
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How Could Life Evolve From Cyanide?
Episode Date: June 1, 2022How did life arise on Earth? It's one of the greatest and most ancient mysteries in all of science - and the clues to solving it are all arou...
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Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Another Earth?
Episode Date: May 18, 2022With the December 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, one of the most expensive and ambitious scientific initiatives ever attempte...
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Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From?
Episode Date: May 4, 2022Einstein's description of gravity as a curvature in space-time doesn't easily mesh with a universe made up of quantum wavefunctions. Theoreti...
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Why Is Inflammation a Dangerous Necessity?
Episode Date: April 20, 2022We've heard a lot about the immune system during the COVID-19 pandemic, but of course our immune system fights off much more than the coronav...
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Untangling Why Knots Are Important
Episode Date: April 6, 2022Everyone knows what a knot is. But they have special significance in math and science because their properties can help unlock hidden secrets...
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Why Do We Die Without Sleep?
Episode Date: March 23, 2022Why do we need sleep? In the search for answers, scientists have uncovered more thought-provoking mysteries central to what sleep is, how it...