Exploring Scientific Wilderness

Follow Exploring Scientific Wilderness
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

Exploring Scientific Wilderness is a podcast miniseries showing all the magic tricks behind classic and bleeding-edge scientific tricks. Each episode is a short tour of some scientific puzzles and techniques for unlocking them.

ALG.CS.UMT.EDU

  • May 31, 2020 LATEST EPISODE
  • monthly NEW EPISODES
  • 17m AVG DURATION
  • 42 EPISODES


Search for episodes from Exploring Scientific Wilderness with a specific topic:

Latest episodes from Exploring Scientific Wilderness

Episode 41 (Letter of Recommendation: Patrick Kreitzberg)

Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2020 13:18


A letter of recommendation for Patrick Kreitzberg, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Montana.

Episode 40 (Letter of Recommendation: Kyle Lucke)

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2020 11:38


A letter of recommendation for Kyle Lucke, a masters student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Montana.

Episode 39 (Letter of Recommendation: Jake Rooster Pennington)

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2020 14:58


A letter of recommendation for Jake Rooster Pennington, a masters student in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Montana.

Episode 38 (Soooooooouuuul Surfer)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2020 41:59


Why does someone become a scientist? What would motivate a person to spend years to shave some time off of an algorithm? And what does this have to do with being a ``soul surfer''? A sincere thank you to our fellow soul surfers, Megan Louise and Johnny Jewel from the band Desire and the record label Italians Do It Better. You guys are great, and music is medicine. Listen to their catalog here.

Episode 37 (Going the Wrong Way Down a One Way Street)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2020 6:58


What is a ``one way'' function? What does it have to do with ``guess and check'' from grade school math? And what's that got to do with cryptography and how it's attacked?

Episode 36 (Meet a Scientist: Mark Kayll)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2020 69:21


A chat with Mark Kayll, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Montana, about his career in science.

Episode 35 (The Thomas Quine Affair)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2020 5:54


How do computer viruses spread themselves without access to their own source code? And what does this have to do with how human couples have kids? And what's that got to do with special programs called quines and Ouroboroses?

Episode 34 (Zeno's Bar Tab)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2020 8:08


When is an infinite number of things still finite in size? And what does this have to do with flipping a coin until it comes up heads?

Episode 33 (Meet a Scientist: Johnathan Bardsley)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2020 51:18


A chat with Johnathan Bardsley, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Montana, about his career in science.

Episode 32 (Random Karate Chops)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2020 12:43


Partitioning your Halloween candy into "clusters" of similar candy (e.g., chocolates together, hard candies together, etc.) is a difficult task. What does this have to do with finding duplicate songs and finding molecules with similar molecular structures? And how in the world could this be done without comparing every pair of candies to see how similar they are to one another?

Episode 31 (The Geographically-Detached Salesperson)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2020 13:09


Sometimes, searching a reduced state space makes things easier: finding the best Italian restaurant in town is a little easier than finding the best restaurant in town overall. But sometimes, this can make it more difficult. But what does this have to do with finding the most efficient order to visit several places?

Episode 30 (Meet a Scientist: Cory Palmer)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2020 63:34


A chat with Cory Palmer, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Montana, about his career in science.

Episode 29 ("Hey Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Hey, hey Mom!")

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 29, 2019 7:25


What does a bunch of pestering kids have to do with one of the most common attacks in modern cybersecurity? And how has this been used by nation states to attack on organizations with which the state disagrees?

Episode 28 (Onathem Fight Club Situations)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2019 8:12


What do a shell game and an old jazz song have to do with the design of programming languages? And what does that have to do with the tradeoff between the ability to implement complex data structures and the ability to implement high-performance code?

Episode 27 (Meet a Scientist: Douglas Brinkherhoff)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2019 39:03


A chat with Douglas Brinkerhoff, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Montana, about his career in science.

Episode 26 (Change Making You Can Believe In)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2019 9:08


How can we make $7.63 in change using the fewest coins and notes possible? And what does this have to do with greedy algorithms and figuring out which elements could be in a chemical compound?

Episode 25 (GCDLCMOMG!)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2019 15:37


Hot dogs are sold in multiples of 8 and buns are sold in multiples of 10 (or was it 10 hot dogs and 8 buns?). How can we get the number of hot dogs and buns to align? And what does this have to do with number theory and the cryptography used to protect you online?

Episode 24 (Meet a Scientist: Travis Wheeler)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2019 63:27


A chat with Travis Wheeler, Associate Professor of Computer Science, about his career in science.

Episode 23 (The Descent)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2019 9:50


How can rolling a ball downhill solve important multivariate problems? And what does it have to do with the core idea behind neural networks?

Episode 22 (The Flow of a Master MC)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2019 9:36


You've probably computed the area of a rectangle or a circle before. But how could you estimate the are of an irregular shape? And what does this have to do with throwing darts blindfolded?

Episode 21 (Made with Natural and Artificial Intelligence)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2019 6:45


You've probably gotten a spam email or two. So how do we detect if an email is spam? And what does that have to do with classifiers, machine learning, overfitting, CAPTCHAs, and the Turing test?

Episode 20 (Meet a Scientist: Alden Wright)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2019 34:50


A chat with Alden Wright, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Montana about his career in science.

Episode 19 (Happy Birthday? No Such Thing.)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2019 11:18


You're in a room with 99 other people-- what are the chances someone shares your birthday? And what are the chances that any pair of people share a birthday? And what does this have to do with cryptographic hashes and forging digital documents?

Episode 18 (Dude, Where's My Markov Model?)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2019 9:13


How can you figure out the identity of a baker by looking only at the cookies that they bake? And how can this be used to predict the weather or to do speech recognition?

Episode 17 (Meet a Scientist: Jesse Johnson)

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2019 47:59


A chat with Jesse Johnson, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Montana about his career in science.

Episode 16 (I Don't Wanna Write a Program)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2019 7:14


Should a barber shave himself? And what does that mean for making a program that defies anyone?

Episode 15 (How Do I Count Thee? Let Me Love the Ways.)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2019 6:39


How many ways are there to count the votes in a tied election so that one candidate is never behind? And what does this have to do with combinatorics and walking home on a grid of city blocks?

Episode 14 (4 Pigs vs. 4096 Chickens)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2019 10:27


How do we make computers faster every year? And what does it have to do with the rise of GPUs and the battle between 4 pigs and 4096 chickens?

Episode 13 (Meet a Scientist: Oliver Serang)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 29:26


A chat with Oliver Serang, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Montana about his career in science.

Episode 12 (Atomised: Les Sièges élémentaires)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 6:48


A diner has too many people dining alone, and so they can't seat a family of four. What does that have to do with why it's slow to copy a movie to your USB stick?

Episode 11 (I Vant to Scrape Your Data)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 5:46


There's a lot of data online: people's blogs, emails, and social media posts. So how do companies mine that text for information? And what does it have to do with the word usage in Dracula and Frankenstein?

Episode 10 (Free Ice Cream!*)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 10:15


Imagine you have a coupon for free ice cream, but you have to spend exactly $17.25. How can you solve this and get your free ice cream? And what does it have to do with chemistry?

Episode 9 (Let Them Eat Cake)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 11:16


Cutting things in half is such an important idea, it shows up all over the place. So what does it have to do with cake, wine cellars, cootie testing, and the number of particles in the universe?

Episode 8 (Start of Season 2)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2019 3:02


Episode 7 (End of Season 1)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2018 1:27


The end of season 1-- leave any feedback on iTunes or on Google Play... or on Tigr!

Episode 6 (Quantum Spaghetti)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2018 5:58


We've already heard about turning sausages back into pigs... But how can we use the world around us (e.g., half a box of uncooked spaghetti noodles) to do all the work?

Episode 5 (Let's Make a Deal)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 26, 2017 9:51


Someone offers you an envelope filled with cash... but there's chance that a second envelope has more $ in it. Do you switch?

Episode 4 (A Date With Ikea)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2017 6:36


You have a pile of bolts and a pile of hex nuts and they don't all fit together. How do you pair them up?

Episode 3 (Fibonacci Bunny Love & Eigendecomposition)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2017 9:35


Fibonacci numbers come up in the strangest places. What do they have to do with breeding rabbits, converting between miles and kilometers, and how Google works?

Episode 2 (Online Dating + Multiple Testing 4ever)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2017 5:22


Multiple testing failure is one of the biggest threats to scientific progress. But what does it have to do with online dating?

Episode 1 (Sausages, Pigs, and Bayesians)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2017 7:18


The word ``Bayesian'' is everywhere these days. But what does it mean? And what does it have to do with turning sausages back into pigs?

Episode 0 (Pilot)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2017 4:52


We all know that every good show starts with a pilot episode. So what exactly is ``scientific wilderness''? Well, the wilderness is all around you if you look closely...

Claim Exploring Scientific Wilderness

In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

Claim Cancel