Physics

Every show filed under physics, ranked by what listeners actually play.

85
shows: 0
subcategories: 0
new this week

Most subscribed

audio · in physics · refreshed hourly

Newest episodes

audio · last seven days

The Quark Side - Quantum Physics Podcast
A New Theory Connects Quantum Spacetime to the Universe’s Dark Energy
Could quantum uncertainty in spacetime explain both dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the universe? Physicist Savvas Koushiappas proposes a new framework that could replace the Big Bang singularity with a cosmic bounce, offering a possible...
Today · 17 min
Sleepy Facts About the Universe
What Is a Force, Really? - From Newton's Push to Quantum Interactions | Sleepy Facts About the Universe
Most of us learn that a force is simply a push or a pull, and for everyday purposes that definition works well enough. But the concept has traveled through three centuries of tightening definitions, and what it meant to Newton, to Faraday, to Einstein, and to a particle physicist today are not the same thing at all. This episode traces how the idea of force became more exact—and more narrow—at each stage. I wanted to understand why a word that feels so intuitive in childhood, when we feel forces in our muscles and see them in colliding billiard balls, turns out to be one of the most carefully bounded concepts in modern physics. The closer physicists have looked, the less fundamental force has become. Newton treated it as an external agent that changes motion. Lagrange and Hamilton reformulated mechanics around energy instead. Faraday introduced fields. Einstein redefined gravity as geometry. Quantum field theory replaced continuous forces with statistical exchanges of virtual particles. What survives is a precise and useful tool with known limits, not a universal primitive. This episode is for anyone who has wondered what a force actually is once you move past the familiar arrows on a classroom diagram.
Yesterday · 27 min
Fakten zum Einschlafen – Das Universum
Was zieht unsere Milchstraße mit 400 Kilometern pro Sekunde durchs All? - Kosmische Strömungen: Vom Virgo-Haufen bis zum Großen Attraktor | Fakten zum Einschlafen - Das Universum
Wir spüren es nicht, aber wir sind in ständiger Bewegung. Die Erde dreht sich, unser Sonnensystem kreist um die Milchstraße, und unsere gesamte Galaxie stürzt mit vierhundert Kilometern pro Sekunde auf den Virgo-Galaxienhaufen zu. Doch trotz dieser gewaltigen Geschwindigkeit werden wir ihn niemals erreichen. Diese Episode untersucht, wie die Expansion des Universums unser lokales Fallen über kosmische Zeiträume hinweg überwindet, und erklärt das Paradoxon einer Bewegung, die real ist, aber niemals zu einem Ziel führt. Der Virgo-Haufen, eine gigantische Ansammlung von über tausend Galaxien im Sternbild Jungfrau, ist nicht nur eine passive Gruppe von Sternsystemen. Er ist ein gewalttätiger Ort, an dem extrem heißes Gas und Gravitationskräfte Galaxien umformen. Wir betrachten, wie der Staudruck in diesem intracluster-medium Spiralgalaxien ihrer Sternbildungsgasraubt und sie langsam zu roten, inaktiven Systemen werden lässt. Gleichzeitig blickt die Episode auf das supermassereiche Schwarze Loch im Zentrum der Galaxie M87 und auf die verborgene dunkle Materie, die den gesamten Haufen zusammenhält. Bei der Arbeit an dieser Episode kehrte ich immer wieder zu einer grundlegenden Frage zurück: Wie kann es sein, dass Bewegung nicht absolut ist, sondern vom gewählten Maßstab abhängt? Es fasziniert mich, wie unsere vertraute irdische Erfahrung auf kosmischen Skalen versagt und wir lernen müssen, mehrere Perspektiven gleichzeitig zu denken, um unsere tatsächliche Position im Universum zu begreifen.
Yesterday · 30 min
Quantum Curiosities & Tech Revelations
How Do We Control Something That Is Smarter Than Us?
In this epiosode, Anna and Professor Halloway discuss various approaches to managing these alignment challenges, exploring technical solutions like reward modeling and interpretability, governance frameworks for deploying AI safely, and philosophical questions about how to encode human values into systems that may and seem to be on the verge of surpassing human-level intelligence in specific domains. AI Alignment is the critical endeavor to ensure that artificial intelligence systems pursue objectives that are genuinely aligned with human values, intentions, and ethical principles. As AI systems grow increasingly sophisticated and autonomous, the challenge extends beyond simply making them perform tasks correctly—it encompasses ensuring they interpret goals as humans intend them, avoid unintended harmful behaviors, and remain beneficial even as they scale in capability. The field addresses fundamental questions: How do we specify what we actually want? How do we prevent AI from pursuing goals in unexpected or dangerous ways? And how do we maintain meaningful human oversight as systems become more complex? The challenge becomes particularly acute with advanced AI systems that might optimize for objectives in ways humans didn't anticipate, or that might develop capabilities making them difficult to control or redirect. Misalignment can range from subtle issues—like a recommendation algorithm maximizing engagement at the cost of user well-being—to existential concerns about highly capable systems pursuing goals orthogonal or opposed to human flourishing.
Yesterday · 20 min