Into the Impossible With Brian Keating Big Bang Productions Inc.

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How did life begin? What makes us human? Why do we get sick and grow old? 

For more than half a century, we've searched for answers to these questions in DNA. But after a series of groundbreaking discoveries, attention has turned to RNA, the long-overlooked molecule that is now at the heart of biology's greatest mysteries.

Here today, to shed light on this topic, is none other than the Nobel laureate Thomas Cech. Thomas shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. He discovered that RNA could cut strands of RNA itself, suggesting that life might have started as RNA, and found that RNA can not only transmit instructions but also speed up the necessary reactions. 

His upcoming book, The Catalyst, promises to bring years of pioneering research to the forefront, demonstrating how RNA holds the key to understanding life on Earth—from its very origins to our future. 

Join us as we explore the most transformative breakthroughs in biology and beyond on this episode of Into the Impossible! 

Key Takeaways:


00:00 Intro

01:17 What is life?

02:05 Judging a book by its cover

05:44 Does profit drive innovation? 

10:51 The RNA breakthrough 

14:40 Is DNA a one-trick pony?

24:54 Panspermia, DNA and RNA

29:25 RNA’s role in the end of life

37:01 CRISPR 

42:09 Are DNA and RNA the only two informational molecules? 

46:57 The future of education 

51:38 The greatest thing humans have ever done

53:08 What Thomas has been wrong about

54:22 Outro


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Additional resources:

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➡️ Learn more about Thomas Cech:
💻 Nobel Prize: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1989/cech/facts/  
📚 Get The Catalyst on Amazon: https://a.co/d/9oaErgg

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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

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Is there hope for humanity? 

In light of the numerous challenges we face today, from political to environmental crises, it seems like there isn’t. 

But according to today’s esteemed guest Marcelo Gleiser, there’s still hope! However, we need to shift our perspective, recognize our place in the universe, and rediscover our connection to the natural world. 

These are topics he thoroughly explored in his most recent book: The Dawn of a Mindful Universe: A Manifesto for Humanity's Future. I used our interview to ask him a few questions that came to my mind when I was reading this wonderful book. 

Tune in!

Key Takeaways:


00:00:00 Intro

00:03:11 Judging a book by its cover

00:09:44 Copernicus’ heliocentric model

00:15:57 The perfect cosmological principle 

00:21:14 Crises in cosmology 

00:26:38 Humans, the natural world, and biocentrism 

00:38:05 But what about technological progress? 

00:42:16 Information theory, panspermia, and exoplanets 

00:55:33 The origins of life and unifying theories 

01:00:39 On a more optimistic note 

01:05:28 AI’s impact on education 

01:11:30 Audience questions

01:26:21 Outro


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Additional resources:

👉 To try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/DrBrianKeating/ or click on the link in the description. You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

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➡️ Connect with Marcelo Gleiser:
💻 Website: https://marcelogleiser.com/

➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:
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✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 
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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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Why do physicists fight philosophers?

A couple of months ago, I was invited to Robinson Erhardt’s podcast to discuss the expansion and inflation of the universe, the relationship between theory and experiment in cosmology, gravitational waves, my brainchild, the BICEP experiment, and a lot more. Enjoy!

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in between: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxwneBx6apV1mQ7CbWKfXQ 

Key Takeaways:


00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:15 Brian the Builder

00:07:15 The Theory of Cosmological Expansion?

00:23:48 The Origins of Inflation

00:31:47 On Theory and Experiment in Astrophysics

00:41:55 On Gravitational Waves and Inflation

00:58:27 BICEP Tech Specs

01:12:01 What Did BICEP Find?

01:26:46 The Simons Array

01:30:37 On Eric Weinstein’s Theory of Everything

01:36:44 Outro


—

Additional resources:

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➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:
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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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Are experts failing us?

While there is no clear answer to this question, it is clear that there is a growing public distrust of experts and institutions, and even more clear that this has severe consequences for society and science. 

Join me and my colleague Eric Weinstein as we explore this issue, dig deep into the reasons for this skepticism, from political pressures to historical deceptions, and hypothesize potential solutions!

Eric Weinstein is an American managing director of Thiel Capital, Peter Thiel's investment firm, a position he has held since 2015. Though not an academic physicist, he proposed a unified theory of physics in 2013. He and his brother Bret Weinstein coined the term Intellectual Dark Web to refer to an informal group of pundits. Eric is a vocal critic of modern academic hierarchies and advocates for advances in scientific theory over an emphasis on experimental results. We discuss funding, academic freedom, and theoretical vs experimental physics.

Key Takeaways:


00:00:00 Intro

00:00:33 Giving platforms to unorthodox thinkers

00:03:39 Eric on the collapse of institutional trust

00:06:25 The decline in the reputation of universities and their impact

00:11:49 Need for reconciliation over COVID-related lies

00:24:08 Dangers of misinformation 

00:28:04 The complicated relationship between national security and science

00:40:57 Eric’s vision for re-establishing trust in the scientific community

01:08:14 Outro


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Additional resources:

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➡️ Connect with Eric Weinstein
✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricRWeinstein/

➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:
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✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 
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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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You know what's better than a 250k sub celebration? 

Nothing! 

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. There is nothing I love more than engaging with all of you and sharing my passion for the impossible every day. 

To celebrate and commemorate this crazy milestone, I've asked for questions on all my channels, and today, I'm going to answer them all! 

So, without further ado, let’s get right Into the Impossible!

Key Takeaways:

00:00:00 Intro 
00:01:37 Does time have any relationship with temperature? 
00:07:18 On losing the Nobel Prize
00:14:07 How much do I get paid? 
00:16:43 Why do we prioritize studying the minutiae? 
00:22:35 How do we know that the CMB occurred 380,000 years after the Big Bang?
00:27:52 The greatest challenge of our educational system 
00:36:04 Why I’m not convinced by determinism 
00:41:52 The reality of podcasting and money 
00:50:01 Is it time to stop taking Sam Harris seriously?
00:56:24 Problems in our educational system and the prestige of physics 
01:08:30 How do I explain my work at cocktail parties?
01:11:56 Could gravity be massive? 
01:15:00 Could the universe be an infinite multidimensional fractal?
01:24:43 Gravitational lensing 
01:28:00 How many galaxies does the universe contain? 
01:30:57 Joe Rogan’s mini-me? 
01:36:37 Does dark matter even exist? 
01:39:50 My favorite meteorites, Starlink and the Simons Observatory
01:43:29 Extra interdimensional beings? 
01:48:30 Are there various ways to solve the Hubble tension? 
01:54:50 Outro

Additional resources:

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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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The acceleration of the expansion of the universe is one of the fundamental questions in cosmology. 

Scientists believe that dark energy is driving and accelerating the expansion; however, there is a discrepancy between the predicted amount of dark energy in the universe and our theoretical calculations based on the properties of fundamental particles.

To get to the bottom of this, today's guest, Professor Claudia de Rham, proposed a new theory of "massive gravity" that could solve this “impossible” riddle. 

Claudia de Rham is a Swiss theoretical physicist at Imperial College London. She is known for her work at the intersection of gravity, cosmology, and particle physics. She won the 2020 Blavatnik Young Scientist Award for reviving the theory of massive gravity and has made significant contributions to understanding dark energy, dark matter, and gravity. Her research focuses on modified theories of gravity, including massive gravity and Galileon gravity.

Join us as we explore the true nature of gravity and the beauty of falling!

Key Takeaways:


00:00:00 Intro

00:01:19 Mass of the graviton 

00:08:20 Judging a book by its cover

00:15:20 Could AI experience the joy of falling?

00:20:07 The speed of gravity 

00:22:55 How would a breathing mode manifest itself?

00:34:08 Extra dimensions  

00:40:00 Do we need a quantum theory of gravity? 

00:45:00 Nothing happens at the Planck length

00:50:27 Quantum nature of gravity 

00:55:34 Outro


—

Additional resources:

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➡️ Connect with Claudia de Rham:
💻 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-de-rham-b2b4b3274/ 

➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms:
✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 
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✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 
🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast

Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.

Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices