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 Mas…

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 …

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 candi…

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 o…

The Strong Nuclear Force The 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…

Quantum Tunneling Tunneling 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 Mechanics Ironically, 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.By Scott V. Burger

Borel's Infinite Monkeys Returning 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 Greene Last 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 …

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle What 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 Banach-Tarski Paradox A 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 …

Rachel Cooper's Overview Rachel 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 DeLuciaBy Scott V. Burger

Einstein's Relativity So 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…

Poincare's Conjecture Amidst 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 …

Mach's Machine Courtesy of Stanford Ersnt 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 …

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 qual…

Olbers' Paradox Detailing 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…

Paley's Watch Special 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 l…