The Thought Experiment

The first episode of the new joint podcast, "Questioning the Cosmos" is online. Check it out and stuff!

Shedding Light on Dark Matter PowerpointI've added as supplementary material here, my actual printed powerpoint presentation slides for the 4-part 50-minute lecture. Although the incredible animation effects that went into the Barry Bonds segment aren't alive on the .pdf document, the images provide backup to all those times that I say, "search this or that." It may also be helpful to scroll through it while listening.Also, I may as well attach my paper, Dark Matter Versus Modified Newtonian Dynamics, for those who are interested in my segment in the series that covered it. I went over the topic briskly and may have skipped some things, so the paper is also in this post for everyone to gawk over.

Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 4)In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this final part of the series, we go over a very brief history of Dark Matter and some of its competitor theories, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs).

Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 3)In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this third of 4 part series, we go over candidates for dark matter particles and detection techniques.Next installment goes over the history of Dark Matter and its competitors.

Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 2)In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this second of 4 part series, I do a thought experiment involving Barry Bonds and detail the origin and nature of matter.Next installment deals with detecting candidates of Dark Matter.

Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 1)In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this first of 4 part series, I give a brief introduction and go over distinguishing Dark Matter from what isn't Dark Matter.Next installment deals with properties of matter and Dark Matter and how they apply to baseball.

The Strong Nuclear ForceThe Thought Experiment podcast has been kind of stagnant lately. Largely because I've been so busy here on campus with Dark Matter research and so on and hopefully this video, a talk I gave recently on the strong nuclear force that holds atomic nuclei together, can shed some light on just how jam packed my schedule has been these last few days.The recording quality is rather lacking, yes, but my placement of the microphone in the lecture hall I guess was less than strategic. Plus it has more buttons to confuse an astronaut! Enjoy!

Quantum TunnelingTunneling is a very, very mathematical process by which a particle can 'leak' out into its surroundings. This has to do with all sorts of things called wave functions, probability densities, and so on, but the real aspect behind them is: how can we use this for our macroscopic advantage?

Intro to Quantum MechanicsIronically, the delay for this week's quantum mechanics podcast was brought on by quantum mechanics homework. In any case, this week I delve into the beginnings of what quantum mechanics is, opening up the playing field into the zany world of the small.

Borel's Infinite MonkeysReturning triumphant for a second season of thought experimenting, we continue on our history of thought experiments into the later 1920s with Borel's mathematical analysis of what happens when you get a ton of monkeys in a room with a ton of typewriters. A Borel of monkeys for sure!Baxiden is by Liquid Tension Experiment

Q&A With Brian GreeneLast week string theorist and physicist at Columbia University, Brian Greene came to my university as a part of a lecture series featuring distinguished lecturers. He did a question and answer session for a small group of us (about 20 or so people), as well as a planned lecture event. This week is the Q&A session.Theme music by Liquid Tension Experiment

Heisenberg's Uncertainty PrincipleWhat can a retired basketball player and a cannon full of paintballs teach us about quantum uncertainty? A lot, actually. Have a listen in on why we can't tell where a proton is at the same time when we know its momentum: the quintessential uncertainty principle. For a link to the blog post I mouth off about, see the exposé on Ramtha and What the Bleep Were They Thinking?New and permenant theme music: Baxiden by Liquid Tension Experiment

The Banach-Tarski ParadoxA mouthful no doubt! This week we go over just how a mathematical universe differs from a physical one on the basis of the Axiom of Choice. More interestingly, if we exploit this paradox, we can clone anything we want with the exact same properties as the original. As per Andrew's note, you can see an example of a fractal here. Really amazing stuff to say the least. Barbarian Horde is by Hans Zimmer

Rachel Cooper's OverviewRachel Cooper, a lecturer at the University of Lancaster, provides for us an overview as to what thought experiments are and what they are used for. As a side note, she refers to Lucretius' Spear, an earlier podcast.Debussy Reverie is by David DeLucia

Einstein's RelativitySo many topics to cover in so little of time! Time dilation, spacetime continuums, all the sorts of fun stuff you learn in upper-level cosmology courses. Alas, we can't do justice to Einstein's theories or results here, but we can take a sure enough stab at it. The book I keep referring to is Einstein, His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. It's really a great read and I don't want to sound like I'm just telling you to buy a book just for the sake of buying it. If you want to learn about relativity, but are too intimidated by Einstein's own book that he wrote on the subject, Isaacson covers it in depth as well as more than you ever bargained for. A New Hope is by John Williams

Poincare's ConjectureAmidst more recording troubles, I had to do solo again this week. Alas, the show must go on and this week I talk about how extra dimensions can be rooted out of lower dimensional fields. A great book to check out on this topic is Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland. Specifically on the Poincare Conjecture, there are tons of math books abounding on the subject, since it was only just recently solved. It's worth a look and is on the cutting edge of the fascinating world of topology!We Want a Rock is by They Might Be Giants

Kent Hovind's Last DebateWell, this week we had originally planned to go over Maxwell's Demon, but a screwup in the recording prompted us to ditch the file. Perhaps it was for the better, given that it is the 1 year anniversary of our debate with famed creationist Kent Hovind. Perhaps one of our few PDFcasts, the debate is about 20 some odd pages in length, but filled with comedic gold. As a toast to the convicted tax evasionist and 'scientist', we are putting up for free download a transcript from our debate with an intro included.The feed has now been updated. Hopefully it should work at this point. If any other podcasts are not up and running, please alert me and I'll fix 'em.

Mach's MachineCourtesy of StanfordErsnt Mach proposed that perpetual motion machines went against common sense. In this solitary episode, I talk about various claims of pseudo-scientific energy companies and talk about why their murky science is, at best, flawed. From tachyon theory of gravity to consciousness-energy, a short list of problems is noted.White Army, Black Baron is by the Soviet National Choir

Can Life Be Patented?A deep philosophical question indeed, arisen from the recent episode of Science Friday's discussion on ethics of cloning. Andrew and I are joined by members of the Skype community in the form of a skypecast in which we discuss the ideas and let the fans of the podcast get a word in as well, live. Despite off-topicness and quality issues (Skypecasts have been under repair as of late), we venture forth into a discussion about whether or not life as we know it or not can indeed by patented.'The White Tree' by Howard Shore

Olbers' ParadoxDetailing how the universe, if infinite, should be as bright as the surface of the sun, Andrew and I also talk about whether or not if theory is ahead of testability and the feasibility thereof. Sorry about the overlap between Andrew and I's speaking, it was a latency error with the recording program used. It gets annoying, but just listen to what Andrew has to say.I only realized at the last possible second that I needed some sort of July 4th theme music, and due to the fact I was lacking some 1812 Overture, I tossed in the most patriotic song that wasn't a Hans Zimmer work. Fight For Freedom is by Manowar.

Paley's WatchSpecial guest of the Big Bang and Creationism Podcast and colleague of mine, Robert Lippens joins returning co-host Andrew and I on a discussion about Intelligent Design. William Paley engineered his thought experiment about the watch and the watchmaker close to the turn of the 19th century. Since then, Intelligent Design has gotten lots more public media attention. The three of us roundtable it out on various claims by Intelligent Design proponents.No skypecast for this week, sorry. We had millions of troubles and skypecasting was one of them. I realize there was a crowd trying to get in and get it to work, but they're being fixed right now, servers are down, etc. Perhaps next time!