Episode 2.25.6: Supplemental-The World's Most Interesting Physicist, On The Mesa
A continuation of the biography of Richard Feynman covering his time with the Manhattan Project.
Nov 29, 2015•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 49
The Scientific Odyssey
An examination of scientific inquiry through a discussion of the history and philosophy of the scientific endeavor.
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Episodes
Episode 2.25.5: Supplemental-The World's Most Interesting Physicist, Getting Schooled
A continuation of the biography of American physicist Richard Feynman through his years in higher education at MIT and Princeton.
Nov 22, 2015•50 min•Season 2Ep. 48
Episode 2.25.4: Supplemental-The World's Most Interesting Physicist, From Far Rockaway to Least Action
The first part of a biography of American physicist, Richard Feynman.
Nov 15, 2015•39 min•Season 2Ep. 47
Episode 2.27: Philosophical Epilogue, Part #2-Instrumentalism
A discussion the positivist positions of the equivalentists and the energetists as represented in the ideas and writings of Marcellin Bertholot, Ernst Mach, Wilhelm Oswald and Pierre Duhem. From this the instrumentalism of American philosopher John Dewey is developed and contrasted with scientific realism.
Nov 08, 2015•48 min•Season 2Ep. 46
Episode 2.26: Philosophical Epilogue, Part #1-Positivism
A discussion of epistemology in the philosophy of science. Topics include scientific realism, idealism, phenomenalism, representationalism and positivism.
Nov 01, 2015•29 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Episode 2.25.3: Supplemental-The Bohr-Einstein Debate, Entanglement
In this episode, we continue to look at the Bohr-Einstein Debate beginning with the light box thought experiment, moving to the EPR paper and then to the work of David Bohm. The episode concludes by looking at Bell's Theorem, the experiments to measure the Bell Inequality and the work of John Cramer.
Oct 25, 2015•49 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Episode 2.25.2: Supplemental-The Bohr-Einstein Debate, The Road to Brussels
In episode we discuss the meeting of Einstein and Bohr and the initiation of the Bohr-Einstein debate at the 1927 Third Solvay Conference.
Oct 15, 2015•48 min•Season 2Ep. 43
Episode 2.25.1: Supplemental-Erwin Schrodinger and the World's Most Famous Cat
A discussion of the life and scientific work of Erwin Schrodinger. Specific attention is paid to the "gedankenexperiment" known as "Schrodinger's Cat" and the implications for the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Oct 10, 2015•36 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Episode 2.25: Putting the Puzzle Together
A discussion of the creation of the Standard Model including the work of Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg.
Oct 02, 2015•46 min•Season 2Ep. 41
Episode 2.24: Through the Looking Glass Darkly
A discussion of the process of beta decay, the Fermi Interaction and the work of Lee and Yang, Wu and Leon Lederman.
Sep 17, 2015•33 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Episode 2.23: The Force is Strong in this One
In this episode, we follow the development of the strong force from Yukawa through to the work of Murray Gell-Mann and Georg Zweig and the first quark-gluon model of matter.
Sep 03, 2015•36 min•Season 2Ep. 39
Episode 2.22: Renormalization
A discussion of the development fo renomalization to save quantum field theory from the problem of the various infinties that arise in it. Particular focus is devoted to the work of Hans Bethe, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger, Richard Feynamn, Freeman Dyson and Ernst Stueckelberg.
Aug 27, 2015•40 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Episode 2.21: A New Era
A discussion of the physics of creating a self-sustaining fission reaction and building the first atomic weapon.
Aug 20, 2015•41 min•Season 2Ep. 37
Episode 2.20.2: Supplemental-Enrico Fermi, The Pope in America
Part #2 of the biography of Enrico Fermi tracing his work on developing nuclear energy technologies.
Aug 10, 2015•37 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Episode 2.20.1: Supplemental-Enrico Fermi, The Pope in Italy
Part one of a biographical sketch of Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. The episode discussed Fermi's childhood, education and Nobel Prize winning work prior to his fleeing to the United States. Also discussed is the ride of the Italian Fascist party including personal accounts from Enrico and Laura Fermi.
Aug 03, 2015•37 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Episode 2.20: Of Fascism and Fission
A discussion of the developments in nuclear physics that led to the discovery of fission. These include Francis Aston's development of the mass spectrometer, George Gamow, Neils Bohr and Charles Weisacker and the development of the Liquid-Drop Model of the nucleus, the work of Otto Hahn at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch in discovering nuclear fission and both H. G. Wells and Leo Szilard's prophetic predictions of the development of atomic weapons.
Jul 26, 2015•49 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Episode 2.19: Into the Nucleus
A discussion of both the theoretical and experimental work of Enrico Fermi in the field of nuclear physics. Additional material on the invention of the cyclotron by Ernest O. Lawrence and the first creation of artificial radioactivity by Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie.
Jul 19, 2015•33 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Episode 2.18: Of Fields and Particles
In this episode we discuss the development of the first quantum field theories including quantum electrodynamics for the electromagnetic interaction, quantum flavordynamics for the weak interaction and quantum chromodynamics for the strong interaction. We also touch on the work of Enrico Fermi and Hideki Yukawa.
Jul 12, 2015•43 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Episode 2.17.2: Supplemental-Paul Dirac, The Magician
Part Two of the scientific biography of Paul Dirac. This includes a discussion of the development of the Dirac Equation, work in quantum field theory, a theory of magnetic monopoles and the first ideas of string theory.
Jul 04, 2015•43 min•Season 2Ep. 31
Episode 2.17.1: Supplemental-Paul Dirac, The Mathematician
In this episode we take a look at the early life and education of engineer, mathematician and physicist Paul Dirac.
Jun 26, 2015•30 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Episode 2.17: Of Matter and Anti-Matter
A discussion of the work of Paul Dirac to produce the relativistic wave equationand the discovery of anti-matter as he theorized by Carl David Anderson.
Jun 14, 2015•37 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Episode 2.16.5: Supplemental-Heisenberg-Conflict, Accommodation and Rehabilitation
The final part of a three episode biography of Werner Heisenberg. In this podcast, I focus on the life and work of the Nobel Prize winner from the time of the ride of the Nazis to power in Germany to his death in 1976.
Jun 07, 2015•59 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Episode 2.16.4: Supplemental-The Copenhagen Interpretation
A clear setting out of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory and a discussion of some of the philosphical issues it brings forward.
May 19, 2015•39 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Episode 2.16.3: Supplemental-Heisenberg-The Revolutionary
A discussion of Werner Heisenberg's amazingly productive period of work from 1920 to 1932.
May 15, 2015•42 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Episode 2.16.2: Supplemental-Heisenberg-The Pathfinder
A discussion of the early life of Werner Heisenberg.
May 04, 2015•34 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Episode 2.16.1: Supplemental-The Scourge of God
A biographical sketch of the life and work of Wolfgang Pauli
Apr 25, 2015•27 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Episode 2.16: The Mathematical Atom-Part #2
We begin with the wave mechanics approach of Erwin Schrodinger and work through the Fifth Solvay Conference held in October of 1927.
Apr 13, 2015•40 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Episode 2.15: The Mathematical Atom: Part #1
In this episode we address the crisis in atomic physics, the work of Louis de Broglie and the matrix mechanics of Werner Heisenberg.
Apr 05, 2015•33 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Episode 2.14: Beyond Bohr
In this episode, we discuss the contributions of Gilbert Newton Lewis, Irvine Langmuir and Arnold Sommerfeld and push the Bohr Model of the Atom to the breaking point.
Mar 29, 2015•31 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Episode 2.13.1: Supplemental-Niels Bohr
A discussion of the life and influence of Niels Bohr.
Mar 23, 2015•39 min•Season 2Ep. 20
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