The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

FromQuanta Science Podcast

Start listening View podcast show

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

FromQuanta Science Podcast

ratings:

Length:

22 minutes

Released:

Dec 3, 2020

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery.

Released:

Dec 3, 2020

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

In-depth news about mathematics, physics, biology and computer science.

Skip carousel

Visions of Future Physics: Nima Arkani-Hamed is championing a campaign to build the world’s largest particle collider, even as he pursues a new vision of the laws of nature. by Quanta Science Podcast
33 min listen
How the Body’s Trillions of Clocks Keep Time: Cellular clocks are almost everywhere. Clues to how they work are coming from the places that they’re not. by Quanta Science Podcast
31 min listen
At Tiny Scales, a Giant Burst on Tree of Life: At tiny scales, a giant burst on tree of life. by Quanta Science Podcast
20 min listen
Math Quartet Joins Forces on Unified Theory: A new breakthrough that bridges number theory and geometry is just the latest triumph for a close-knit group of mathematicians. by Quanta Science Podcast
31 min listen
The Incredible Shrinking Sex Chromosome: Nature offers species a panoply of ways to determine an organism’s sex. That flexibility suggests we need not be concerned about losing sex chromosomes, but it raises the question of why such a fundamental property is so variable. by Quanta Science Podcast
30 min listen
How Mutant Viral Swarms Spread Disease: A new understanding of viral swarms is helping researchers predict how viruses will evolve and where disease is likely to spread. by Quanta Science Podcast
28 min listen
New Letters Added to the Genetic Alphabet: Scientists hope that new genetic letters, created in the lab, will endow DNA with new powers. by Quanta Science Podcast
24 min listen
The Quantum Secret to Superconductivity: In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that underlies high-temperature superconductivity. by Quanta Science Podcast
24 min listen
How Life and Luck Changed Earth’s Minerals: How life and luck changed Earth's minerals. by Quanta Science Podcast
34 min listen
Nature’s Critical Warning System: Scientists are homing in on a warning signal that arises in complex systems like ecological food webs, the brain and the Earth’s climate. Could it help prevent future catastrophes? by Quanta Science Podcast
34 min listen
Gravitational Waves Discovered at Long Last: This week: Long sought-after gravitational waves are found and a proposed fuzzball fix for a black hole paradox. by Quanta Science Podcast
35 min listen
How Humans Evolved Supersize Brains: Scientists have begun to identify the symphony of biological triggers that powered the extraordinary expansion of the human brain. by Quanta Science Podcast
37 min listen
A Surprise Source of Life’s Code: A surprise source of life’s code. by Quanta Science Podcast
34 min listen
The New Laws of Explosive Networks: How explosive networks form. by Quanta Science Podcast
22 min listen
Mathematicians Discover Prime Conspiracy: A previously unnoticed property of prime numbers seems to violate a long-standing assumption about how they behave. by Quanta Science Podcast
26 min listen
Quantum Weirdness Now a Matter of Time: Bizarre quantum bonds connect distinct moments in time, suggesting that quantum links — not space-time — constitute the fundamental structure of the universe. by Quanta Science Podcast
34 min listen
Scientists Debate Signatures of Alien Life: Searching for signs of life on faraway planets, astrobiologists must decide which telltale biosignature gases to target. by Quanta Science Podcast
25 min listen
A New Design for Cryptography’s Black Box: A two-year-old cryptographic breakthrough has proven difficult to put into practice. But new advances show how near-perfect computer security might be surprisingly close at hand. by Quanta Science Podcast
25 min listen
After Black Holes Collide, a Puzzling Flash: A satellite spotted a burst of light just as gravitational waves rolled in from the collision of two black holes. Was the flash a cosmic coincidence, or do astrophysicists need to rethink what black holes can do? by Quanta Science Podcast
22 min listen
A Twisted Path to Equation-Free Prediction: Complex natural systems defy standard mathematical analysis, so one ecologist is throwing out the equations. by Quanta Science Podcast
32 min listen
Simple Set Game Proof Stuns Mathematicians: A new series of papers has settled a long-standing question related to the popular game in which players seek patterned sets of three cards. by Quanta Science Podcast
16 min listen
Theorists Draw Closer to Perfect Coloring: A theorem for coloring a large class of “perfect” mathematical networks could ease the way for a long-sought general coloring proof. by Quanta Science Podcast
20 min listen
Neutrinos Hint of Matter-Antimatter Rift: A hint that neutrinos behave differently than antineutrinos suggests an answer to one the biggest questions in physics. by Quanta Science Podcast
12 min listen
Landmark Algorithm Breaks 30-Year Impasse: Computer scientists are abuzz over a fast new algorithm for solving one of the central problems in the field. by Quanta Science Podcast
30 min listen
The Beasts That Keep the Beat: New insights from neuroscience — aided by a small zoo’s worth of dancing animals — are revealing the biological origins of rhythm. by Quanta Science Podcast
22 min listen
New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity: Scientists have figured out how microbes can suck energy from rocks. Such lifeforms might be more widespread than anyone anticipated. by Quanta Science Podcast
10 min listen
A New Map Traces the Limits of Computation: A major advance in computational complexity reveals deep connections between the classes of problems that computers can — and can’t — possibly do. by Quanta Science Podcast
27 min listen
How to Build Life in a Pre-Darwinian World: Perhaps chemistry played a more instrumental role in the origin of life than scientists thought. by Quanta Science Podcast
29 min listen
Einstein’s Parable of Quantum Insanity: Einstein refused to believe in the inherent unpredictability of the world. Is the subatomic world insane, or just subtle? by Quanta Science Podcast
24 min listen
Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life: A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi. by Quanta Science Podcast
30 min listen

More Episodes from Quanta Science Podcast

Skip carousel

During Pregnancy, a Fake 'Infection' Protects the Fetus: The placenta has a unique trick for keeping immune defenses on standby, even when no viral infections threaten a pregnancy. by Quanta Science Podcast
10 min listen
Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better: A recent neurological study provides an unprecedented look at how number sense works in the human brain. by Quanta Science Podcast
21 min listen
Inside Scientists' Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption: An Icelandic peninsula that hadn't seen any volcanism for 800 years has now awoken. Eruptions could continue for decades or even centuries. by Quanta Science Podcast
22 min listen
Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory: Physics is a rich well of inspiration for mathematicians to draw from. by Quanta Science Podcast
21 min listen
Tiny Language Models Come of Age: Using large language models to generate training data for smaller models might be more effective than vacuuming up text from the internet and filtering out the garbage. by Quanta Science Podcast
21 min listen
Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit: Astronomers have long known of rogue worlds - cosmic loners that drift through space, untethered to a star. Now JWST is spotting them in pairs. by Quanta Science Podcast
22 min listen
What Makes Life Tick? Mitochondria May Keep Time for Cells: We're all used to hearing about mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell. It turns out that they are also the timekeepers. by Quanta Science Podcast
24 min listen
An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated: Many discoveries in mathematics make things simpler, but a recent disproof instead creates a universe of new, complicated possibilities. by Quanta Science Podcast
17 min listen
Even Synthetic Life Forms With a Tiny Genome Can Evolve: Biologists have discovered that even one of the weakest, simplest self-replicating organisms on the planet can evolve. by Quanta Science Podcast
15 min listen
Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species: Genetic elements known as "Mavericks" may be responsible for transferring genes between different species throughout the history of life. by Quanta Science Podcast
13 min listen
Exoplanets Could Help Us Learn How Planets Make Magnetism: Earth has a magnetic field, but Venus, Earth's sister planet, doesn't. Why does one rocky planet have a magnetic field while the other does not? by Quanta Science Podcast
13 min listen
To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past: If you've ever entered a room, and then completely forgotten how you got there, you may have something in common with a quantum computer. by Quanta Science Podcast
16 min listen
Underground Cells Make 'Dark Oxygen' Without Light: In the groundwaters beneath Alberta, Canada, researchers have found microbes that can produce abundant oxygen, even in the absence of light. by Quanta Science Podcast
14 min listen
How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats: A system of sophisticated pumps and receptors protects the brain like bouncers at the door of an elite club. by Quanta Science Podcast
12 min listen
JWST Spots Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe: There's never been a more exciting time to study black holes. by Quanta Science Podcast
25 min listen
Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference.: A recent neuroscience study reveals how human brains differentiate between the imagined and the observed. by Quanta Science Podcast
18 min listen
Chatbots Don't Know What Stuff Isn't: Researchers still don't understand whether machines will ever truly know the word "no." by Quanta Science Podcast
17 min listen
Global Microbiome Study Gives New View of Shared Health Risks: A recent study found that the more time you spend with someone, the more likely you are to share strains of species in your microbiome. by Quanta Science Podcast
21 min listen
Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing: A recently demonstrated quantum protocol teleports energy from one location to another without violating any sacred physical principles. by Quanta Science Podcast
19 min listen
How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain: Loneliness doesn't just make people feel isolated. It alters their brain in ways that can hinder their ability to trust and connect to others. by Quanta Science Podcast
21 min listen
Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle: Our brains have even less in common with reptile brains than was once thought. by Quanta Science Podcast
20 min listen
Machines Learn Better if We Teach Them the Basics: To improve reinforcement learning algorithms, computer scientists are training them as if they were human. by Quanta Science Podcast
21 min listen
The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think: Better treatments for depression may require a clear-eyed look at the condition's nuance. by Quanta Science Podcast
22 min listen
Ants Live 10 Times Longer by Altering Their Insulin Responses: A tapeworm has evolved the ability to make its ant hosts live longer. Researchers recently discovered how the parasite does it. by Quanta Science Podcast
18 min listen
How the Brain Distinguishes Memories From Perceptions: The "blurriness" of remembered images may help our brains distinguish memories from current perceptions. by Quanta Science Podcast
14 min listen
What Causes Alzheimer's? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer. (Pt 2): Researchers investigating alternatives to amyloid plaques as the possible cause of Alzheimer's disease have faced resistance, but intriguing new theories have emerged. by Quanta Science Podcast
41 min listen
What Causes Alzheimer's? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer. (Pt. 1): For three decades, most Alzheimer's researchers have stuck by the theory that aggregations of proteins called amyloid plaques cause the disease. But unsatisfied with the slow pace of progress, some are now exploring other hypotheses. by Quanta Science Podcast
34 min listen
Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe's First Stars: Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, we may have just gotten a glimpse of the first generation of stars. by Quanta Science Podcast
15 min listen
New Chip Expands the Possibilities for AI: Chips that run on an analog spectrum of memory rather than 0s and 1s could transform energy-efficient AI. by Quanta Science Podcast
19 min listen
How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations: "Supergenes" lock several genes together into a single inheritable unit. This type of evolution offers both risks and rewards. by Quanta Science Podcast
19 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Quanta Science Podcast