What We Don't Know

Lana Howell
  • 5.0 (1)
  • SCIENCE
What We Don't Know

‘What We Don’t Know’ is a podcast series that explores the boundaries of human knowledge, investigating the unanswered questions and theories that unravel them at the frontiers of science. During this podcast I hope to get you interested in new areas of science, maths and technology, teaching you about existing concepts and igniting a curiosity for the things we have yet to know.

  1. 07/23/2022

    Core of a neutron star

    Neutron stars are one of the most extreme astronomical objects in the universe. They are so dense that a single teaspoon, if you were strong enough to collect it, would weigh 4 billion tons. They can spin as fast as 43,000 times per minute, and their magnetic field - for reference, Earth’s magnetic field is around 1 gauss - reaches a trillion gauss. The extreme conditions inside neutron stars suggest all kinds of unusual matter might make them up. From neutronium, to nuclear pasta, to so...

    19 min

  2. 04/30/2022

    The fifth state of matter: Bose-Einstein condensates

    Very early in our school career, we learn about the states of matter. This table is hard wood - it's solid. This water flows, we can drink it - it’s a liquid. And the air around us, even though we cannot see it, is a gas. But these three states of matter are not the only three. In fact, wikipedia describes around 20 different states of matter. One of these is the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In this state, a number of separate atoms or subatomic particles are cooled to near absolute z...

    21 min

  3. 03/28/2022

    The Cambrian explosion

    We often use the phrase ‘it’s the end of an era’ to signify some great change in our lives, like leaving school forever. But actual eras are far, far longer than our brains can comprehend, usually lasting several hundred million years, with dramatic, global ecological changes as their finale. Around 541 million years ago, there was such an ending. As the Neoproterozoic era came to a close, so did the Proterozoic eon, and nearly 3.5 billion years of bacterial rule. Suddenly the prokaryotic mat...

    20 min

  4. 02/28/2022

    Black hole information paradox (part two)

    When particles escape from a black hole via Hawking radiation, they only contain information on the mass, spin and charge of the black hole’s original material. Other information, that is needed to reconstruct the black hole’s past, seems to be lost permanently. This breaks the fundamental principle of unitarity which says that total information must be conserved, creating a paradox. This episode, we’ll examine potential solutions to the paradox, with particular focus on AdS/CFT correspo...

    13 min

  5. 02/28/2022

    Black hole information paradox (part one)

    Different areas of physics seem to be incompatible inside black holes. When combining general relativity, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, you get a paradox, which suggests that our knowledge of these areas is flawed. A solution, whatever it may be, would irreversibly shake up our understanding of the physical world. It may rewrite fundamental laws. It may unveil a new theory of quantum gravity.In this episode I will unravel what ‘information’ means in physics and how it relates to unita...

    13 min

  6. 01/18/2022

    Consciousness

    What is consciousness? Who experiences it? Why? How?In this episode, I will first offer a definition of consciousness and consider the aspects that make it up. Then I’ll summarise some of the main questions we can ask about consciousness, drawing a distinction between the philosophical and neuroscientific sides to the problem. I will look over different scientific models of how the brain produces consciousness, as incomplete and flawed as they may be, before finishing with the practical conse...

    12 min

  7. 12/12/2021

    Dark matter

    What is dark matter? Why do we need it, and how can we find it? Dark matter is notorious for how it evades detection, and its presence is one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology. Yet we think it must exist. Not only that, but we think it must make up 80% of matter in the universe.This episode I will explore how physicists discovered dark matter, what we know so far, and the particles which attempt to solve its secrets. Then I’ll consider what dark matter fails to explain and the possible al...

    17 min

  8. 11/09/2021

    Protein folding

    This episode is about protein folding, specifically the protein folding problem that has pervaded biochemistry since 1960, when the first atomic-resolution protein structure was presented. First I will explain what proteins are, why they are important, what they are made of - proteins 101 - then begin unravelling the problem of how they fold. We will explore the motivations behind the problem and its greatest challenges. Finally we’ll consider the existing methods for determining protein stru...

    17 min
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About

‘What We Don’t Know’ is a podcast series that explores the boundaries of human knowledge, investigating the unanswered questions and theories that unravel them at the frontiers of science. During this podcast I hope to get you interested in new areas of science, maths and technology, teaching you about existing concepts and igniting a curiosity for the things we have yet to know.

Information

  • Creator
    Lana Howell
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 What We Don't Know
  • Show Website
    What We Don't Know

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