PBS Space Time - podcast cover

PBS Space Time

PBS
Space Time explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth with our astrophysicist host: Matthew O’Dowd. For all business inquiries and sponsorship opportunities please reach out to: pbsspacetime@lighthouseagents.com Matt O'Dowd spends his time studying the universe, especially really far-away things like quasars, super-massive black holes, and evolving galaxies. He uses telescopes in space to do it. Matt completed his Ph.D. at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute, followed by work at the University of Melbourne and Columbia University. He's now a professor at the City University of New York's Lehman College and an Associate at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. Previous host Gabe Perez-Giz is an astrophysicist who studies black hole physics. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and also hosted PBS Infinite Series.
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Episodes

What If Dark Energy is an Undiscovered Quantum Field?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime What is Quintessence? Well we know that something is up with the way the universe is expanding - there’s some kind of anti-gravitational effect that’s causing the expansion to accelerate. We don’t know what it is - just that it competes against the inward-pulling effect of gravity. And it’...

May 31, 202620 min

What If Space is NOT Hollow?

To Learn More About Surfshark Check Out: http://surfshark.deals/spacetime PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Spacetime on its smallest scales is a seething ocean of black holes and wormholes flickering into and out of existence—or so many physicists think has to be the case. But why should we take this spacetime foam seriou...

May 31, 202620 min

Can Space Time Keep Memory?

Thank you to Raycon for supporting PBS. Go to https://www.buyraycon.com/spacetime for up to 30% off your order, plus free shipping! Brought to you by Raycon. There are cosmic events so powerful that they leave permanent marks on the fabric of the universe itself. Imagine two colossal black holes spiraling into each other, yes they send ripples in the fabric of spacetime—gravitational waves that we’ve only recently learned to sense. Ripples pass, leaving the pond … or the universe … unchanged whe...

May 31, 202618 min

Why Is All DNA Oriented Rightward?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE The molecular basis of all life is mysteriously asymmetric, only using molecules on one side of what should be the equivalent mirrored pairs. The universe has a similar mirror asymmetry, and it may be that our very DNA inherited its twist from the underlying handedness of reality. Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check ou...

May 31, 202625 min

How Will We (Most Probably) Discover Extraterrestrial Life?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime The first discovery of extraterrestrial life will almost certainly NOT be when it visits us, nor when we visit it. It won’t be when we see it’s stray TV signals. It’ll be in the excruciatingly faint changes in the color of alien sunsets glimpsed hundreds of light years away. Today we’re go...

May 31, 202623 min

What If The Universe Is Arithmetic?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime In his essay “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics”, the physicist Eugine Wigner said that “the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious”. This statement was inspired by the observation that so many aspects of the physical...

May 31, 202622 min

Why The Multiverse Might Actually Be Real

The episode dives into the compelling idea of the multiverse, exploring its origins in physics theories like eternal inflation and string theory, and its role in explaining the universe's fine-tuned parameters via the anthropic principle. It rigorously challenges criticisms that label the multiverse as "bad science" due to perceived unfalsifiability or violations of Occam's Razor, arguing for its potential scientific validity when derived from robust theories and offering avenues for indirect testing.

May 31, 202625 min

The NEW Ultimate Energy Cap of the Universe

Remove your personal information from the web at https://joindeleteme.com/SPACETIME and use code SPACETIME for 20% off DeleteMe international Plans: https://international.joindeleteme.com Is there a limit to how much energy you can cram into, or pull out of one patch of space? Well, we thought so, but the James Webb Space Telescope has found a quasar that simultaneously breaks a century-old theoretical limit and may explain the conundrum of gigantic black holes in the early universe. Sign Up on ...

May 31, 202622 min

What If Gravity is NOT An Elementary Force? | Entropic Gravity

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime There are four fundamental forces - the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity. Except maybe gravity is no more fundamental than the force of a stretched elastic band. Maybe gravity is just an entropic byproduct—an emergent effect of the universe’s tendency to disord...

May 31, 202619 min

Why Did Quantum Entanglement Secure the Nobel Prize in Physics?

Take the 2023 PBS Survey: https://to.pbs.org/pbssurvey2023d PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime The Nobel prize in physics is typically awarded to scientists who make sense of nature; those whose discoveries render the universe more comprehensible. But the 2022 Nobel has been awarded to three physicists who revealed that the...

May 31, 202625 min

What If Black Holes FUEL Dark Energy?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime We tend to imagine there are connectings between things that we don’t understand. Quantum mechanics and consciousness, aliens and pyramids, black holes and dark matter, dark matter and dark energy, dark energy and black holes. Usually there’s no real relationship whatsoever, but this last ...

May 31, 202621 min

The Evolution of the Modern Milky Way Galaxy

Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to :http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime When we scan the heavens with giant telescopes we see galactic cannibalism everywhere. We see moments that appear frozen on the human timescale, but are really snapshots of the incredibly violent process of galaxy...

May 31, 202626 min

Is There Support For a Vast Multiverse?

Learn More About Anydesk: https://anydesk.com/spacetime In 1987, Steven Weinberg wrote a cute little paper entitled “Anthropic Bound on the Cosmological Constant”. I say cute little paper because it feels minor in comparison to, say, electroweak unification theory that won him the Nobel Prize. Weinberg was foundational in establishing the standard model of particle physics, and represented an enormous leap in understanding how this universe works. But his little 1987 paper, though more obscure, ...

May 31, 202622 min

What Does An Electron ACTUALLY Seem Like?

Enjoy 10% OFF on all Hoverpens and free shipping to most countries with code PBS: North America / UK / Australia / International: https://bit.ly/pbs_novium EU: https://bit.ly/pbs_noviumeu Take the PBS Annual Survey Here: https://to.pbs.org/2024SurveyST What does an electron really look like? I mean, if we zoom in all the way. Is it a sizeless speck of charge? Is it a multidimensional vortex of quantum strangeness? Is it the boundary of a tiny universe with universe-electrons of its own? Let’s fi...

May 31, 202620 min

The Most Significant Satellite You've (Probably) Never Heard Of

Remove your personal information from the web at https://joindeleteme.com/SPACETIME One of the most important reasons we go to space is to know our own planet better. Today I'm going to tell you about an orbiting facility that literally watches Earth's biosphere breath and grow and die with incredible resolution. I'll talk about its profound existential and economic importance, and about why it's in danger of being lost. PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station...

May 31, 202619 min

What UNEXPLORED SCIENCE Would We Discover with a Moon Telescope?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime In order to see the faint light from objects in deepest space, astronomers go to the darkest places on the planet. In order to listen to their quite radio signals, they head as far from any radio-noisy humans as possible. But there’s nowhere on the earth, or even orbiting the Earth, that’s...

May 31, 202625 min

Are Room Temperature Superconductors UNACHIEVABLE?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Superconductive materials seem miraculous. Their resistanceless flow of electricity has been exploited in some powerful ways—from super-strong magnets used in MRIs, particle accelerators and fusion plants. And then there’s, their bizarre ability to levitate in magnetic fields. But the broa...

May 31, 202622 min

Does Infinity - Infinity = an Electron?

Thanks to Radiacode for sponsoring this video. Use the promo code "PBS" to get an exclusive 10% discount at: https://103.radiacode.com/PBS What do you get if you take something that’s infinitely massive and combining with something else that’s negative infinitely massive? You get a single electron, at least that’s what it looks like in our most precise way of describing the quantum world. 15% Off The Entire Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Spa...

May 31, 202621 min

What Makes The Strong Force Powerful?

Check Out The Bigger Picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnr4RJxDifw PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Quantum mechanics gets weirder as you go to smaller sizes and higher energies. It’s strange enough for atoms, but positively bizarre when we get to the atomic nucleus. And today we’re going nuclear, as we dive into t...

May 31, 202626 min

What If Humanity Ranks Among The First Spacefaring Civilizations?

Thank you to Squarespace for supporting PBS. Go to ​https://www.squarespace.com/pbs for a free trial, and when you are ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com/PBS to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Half of the universe is filled with expansionist alien civilizations...

May 31, 202626 min

Are there Unrevealed Elements Beyond The Periodic Table?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Adamantium, bolognium, dilithium. Element Zero, Kryptonite. Mythril, Netherite, Orichalcum, Unobtanium. We love the idea of fictional elements with miraculous properties that science has yet to discover. But is it really possible that new elements exist beyond the periodic table? Check out...

May 30, 202626 min

What If The Speed of Light Were NOT CONSTANT?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime One of the most fundamental physics facts is that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant for all observers. But can we really be sure that the speed of light wasn’t different in the past, or perhaps in other parts of the universe? In fact, variable speed of light theories have long be...

May 30, 202626 min

At What Point Does Spacetime Shift Into Quantum?

Learn More About Anydesk: https://anydesk.com/spacetime To observe the quantum nature of gravity and of spacetime itself, we need a particle collider the size of the solar system. Or we could just physics smarter and build one on a lab bench. Here’s how. Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special an...

May 30, 202625 min

Is It IMPOSSIBLE To Penetrate The Event Horizon? | Black Hole Firewall Paradox

Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime So you’ve decided to jump into a black hole. Good news: as long as the black hole is big enough you can sail through the event horizon without harm and get to experience the interior of the black hole before you’re annihilated by the central singularity. Or so we once thought. These days, quite a few physicists believe that the on...

May 30, 202622 min

Can 'Perpetual Motion' Exist in Superfluids?

Thank you to Brilliant for Supporting PBS. To learn more go to https://brilliant.org/SpaceTime/ PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime The weird rules of quantum mechanics lead to all sorts of bizarre phenomena on tiny scales— particles teleporting through walls or being in multiple places at once or simultaneously existing and...

May 30, 202622 min

What If Physics IS NOT Describing Reality?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Get your t-shirt at the Space Time Merch Store: https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Neils Bohr said, “It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.” Well it turns out that if we pay attention to this subtle difference, some of the most mysterious aspects of nature make a lot more sense. Sign Up on Patreon to ge...

May 30, 202625 min

Have We SOLVED The Black Hole Information Paradox with Wormholes?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Black holes are very real, but are also a theoretical nightmare. It turns out that in order to make sense of their paradoxical nature, every black hole has to be thought of as a multitude of imaginary black holes, all connected by wormholes. And you thought the universe couldn’t get any we...

May 29, 202618 min

Can We Generate New Elements Beyond the Periodic Table?

Go to https://www.buyraycon.com/spacetime for 20-40% off your order, plus free shipping! Brought to you by Raycon. Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Scientists have been slowly extending the periodic table one element at a time, pushing to higher and higher masses, and have discovered some incredibly useful materials along the way. But the elements at the current end of the table are so unstable that they decay almost as soon as they...

May 29, 202622 min

How To Observe Faster Than Light Travel

Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Warp drives may or may not be possible, but if they are then could a distant alien civilization’s warp fields produce gravitational waves that we could see here on Earth? According to a recent study.. Actually maybe, at least eventually. And we now know just what to look for and how to look for it. PBS Member Stations rely on view...

May 29, 202621 min

EMP Attack: The Factual Science of Electromagnetic Pulse

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime EMPs aren’t science fiction. Real militaries are experimenting on real EMP generators, and as Starfish Prime showed us, space nukes can send powerful EMPs to the surface. So what exactly is an EMP, and how dangerous are they? Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.co...

May 29, 202619 min
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