WHY WAIT decades and decades for us to get HOT? What The IF we sped up CLIMATE CHANGE so we could see it happening before our eyes, and under our feet? This week, we put more EFFECT into the GREENHOUSE EFFECT! Oh, lordy, it's gettin' hot in here! Be cool... click and listen to this SIZZLING hot episode.
Scientists have discovered a snail that NEVER NEEDS TO EAT because it grows a humongous, self sustaining BACTERIAL FOOD FACTORY in it's gut. What the IF you could do that, too? The MANY FACES and USES of BACTERIA, this week on What The IF! Oh, and yeah... that's sooooo icky!!!! But also kinda cool. ICKY COOL!
We shrunk the universe down to the size of a football field. We also shrunk your dorm room. And it's Friday night. Things are about to get downright WTiF! Put on your lampshade and let's party!
Are you enjoying your life in this SIMULATION we call... Earth? Is it a simulation? How would we know? Last week we began to ponder the mystery... and this week we set out... using REAL SCIENCE... to HACK it! Join us as we try to figure out how to FIND THE SEAMS and contact our DIGITAL OVERLORDS. We'll try anyway!
Elon Musk asked something many of us have wondered (while in various states of sobriety)... "Do we live in a SIMULATION?" Well, we figured if we dooooooo live in a simulation, maybe it's a REALITY TV SHOW or, much more fun, maybe it's a VIDEO GAME? How, how, how, might SCIENCE try to answer this question? Insert your quarter, hit play, and READY IFFER ONE!
WTiF the Earth was STUCK with ONE side always facing the Sun? Is there a battle between the DARK SIDE and the LIGHT? Are you a NIGHT person or a MORNING person? Join us and find just the right spot for you as we explore the SCIENCE behind a tidally locked planet.
49 - OUMUAMAUA Has It's Eyes On YOU by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
48 - The Girl Scouts Make A STARGATE by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
47 - The Early Bird Gets The WORMHOLE by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
46 - WTiF There's ANIMALS On MARS? Cute Ones! by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
(Apologies if you heard this episode earlier, it was accidentally uploaded last week for a brief time. Still... it's a fun one! Enjoy.)
Professor Brian Keating is an astrophysicist with UC San Diego’s Department of Physics. He and his team develop telescopes to study the Big Bang. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and holds two U.S.Patents. He received the 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House from President Bush for a telescope he invented and deployed at the U.S. South Pole Research Station called “BICEP". Professor Keating became a Fellow of the American Physic...
Professor Brian Keating is an astrophysicist with UC San Diego’s Department of Physics. He and his team develop telescopes to study the Big Bang. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and holds two U.S.Patents. He received the 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House from President Bush for a telescope he invented and deployed at the U.S. South Pole Research Station called “BICEP". Professor Keating became a Fellow of the American Physic...
43 - The World According To Greek Weirdos by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
42 - SuperMegaUltraHyperConnectedWORLD! by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
41 - M.I.T., The Mysterious Inter-Terrestrial by Philip Shane, Matt Stanley, Gabrielle Paniccia
Professor Matt returns to the WTIF Studios to drop some knowledge on all the questions and imaginary scenarios we generated in our last episode when we... whoops!... turned off all the FRICTION in the universe. Snap on your seatbelts and put on your helmet because we're joining the greatest lover of friction ever: Evil Kenevil for a high flyin' episode of big, big IF's!
Did you ever try ice skating? Did you fall, or did you fly??? This week, Philip flips the friction switch! What if we could TURN OFF FRICTION all across the universe? A slip sliding world like we've never seen before! Slap on your slippers and strap on your safety helmet, here we go, go, goooooooooo...!!!!
Super fan and fellow IFFER Eric is desperate to de-clutter his apartment and, gosh darnit, no matter how much he piles things together, the dagnabbit things don't get smaller... THE UNIVERSE REFUSES TO BE DECLUTTERED! Or... Does it? MAGIC MATT, aka Professor Matt Stanley, Chief Wizard of the IFFERS has a solution! Maybe. Click and listen... And find out if The Power (!!!) of Quantum Mechanics can help Eric turn his apartment from pigpen to Zen!
Astrology is super complicated and totally crazy. But! What The IF... Astrology were REAL? Would there be "personality rays" shooting out of the planets? So many, many questions. Our crack Crazy Elaborate Systems Construction Department is working overtime to make this Astrology thing work in a genuinely SCIENTIFIC way. Amazingly, our WIZARD OF SCIENCE AND SCIENCE HISTORY AND CRAZY OLD BELIEF SYSTEMS, Professor Matt, is an unstoppable font of REAL knowledge about everyone from Ptolemy to Newton ...
Edward Teller, creator of the Hydrogen Bomb wondered one day (smoke drifting from his pipe) could NUCLEAR BOMBS be used for (puff puff) PEACEFUL purposes? Could you build a harbor with the flick of a switch? Egomaniacs that we are, today we go even further and ask out loud to you and us.... Heck if BOMBS could be used for construction, what about BIG BANGS?! WTiF you could make a bang in your backyard? DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. But do listen, at home, or wherever you are most compelled to ask the...
In memoriam, we remember and celebrate Stephen Hawking by turning up his HAWKING RADIATION to eleven!!! What the IF would happen if, as Black Holes not only evaporate, as Hawking discovered, but they do it really really fast. What if Hawking Radiation was as bright and fast and mischievous as the man himself? In this very special episode, in which we also celebrate Pi Day and Einstein's Birthday, we explore and stand in amazement as we gaze upon one of the epic discoveries that made Stephen Hawk...
What The IF we experienced our world operating by the BIZARRO rules of QUANTUM MECHANICS? Matt is holding up an umbrella and urging us to join him on the street corner, where we'll team up by the buddy system, walk through the gate and enter QUANTUM STREET... where the ordinary is extraordinary. Grab your camera and your towel and we'll say the three magic words "What The IF!" and off we go!
What The IF the SPEED OF LIGHT were much much much much much s... l... o... w... e... rrrrrrrrrrrr? Like WTiF it were only 4 MPH, so that when you went walking, you were already rocketing along, step by measly human step, at HALF the speed of light? What if you RODE A BIKE and tried to pedal faster, faster, faster, could you push your way past the pokey 4 mph speed of light??? When he was a spry young 16 years old, Albert EINSTEIN imagined himself doing all kinds of crazy races with his bike aga...
From the pre-Harry Potter Scottish Enlightenment to public relations wizardry of Galileo to the classic anchor pairings of Fox News to genius of SETI and.... badda-BING we find ourselves asking What The IF there are alien civilizations who communicate using GRAVITY WAVES? They gotta bang a whole lotta BLACK HOLES together -- just to use A-Date for a fun Friday night! Join Grab your BONGOS and let's follow STEPHEN HAWKING to the clambake! TGIF, it's WTiF!!!
It's an epic WTiF DOUBLE FEATURE! The apocalyptic scenario served up to us by our imaginative listener Kyle, in which the Earth's core dances like a chicken at a chicken wedding... continues! In our previous episode, we dove deep, into the core, and into the workings of the mysterious magnetic forces which protect us from the radioactive spittle of the Sun. How could we survive when the Earth's SHIELDS ARE DOWN? We're gonna have to be clever. And might diapers be the savior of humanity? Find out...
Another awesome IF inspired by a listener! This week, listener Kyle asks, WHAT THE IF would happen if the Earth's magnetic pole FLIPPED? Birds depend on it, fish depend on it, and by golly WE depend on it staying STABLE. If it goes flippin' around, every electronic thing we depend on goes haywire. We live on top of a gargantuan spinning magnet, and sometimes it starts thinking outside the box, and that gives us a BIG BAD case of the IF'S.
ELON MUSK launched his own car into space, on a flight to Mars and beyond. What The IF we could ALL do that? And ride in our space cars wherever we wanted to go?
SALT is life. Potato chips are even better life! No salt, NO LIFE. What The IF all the salt in the world ran out??? A very special, very imaginative, spectacular episode, pulled straight out of our listener mail bag! And this is by FAR our most TASTY episode yet. Betchya can't listen to it just once! Do YOU have an idea for a WTiF adventure? A vision that wakes you up at night, or in the middle of your nap? A hope? A fear? What The IF, send it in and we might feature it on the show just like we ...
TODAY WAS CRAZY because GEOLOGY suddenly sped up like craaaaaazzzzy. No more waiting eons for mountains to rise, watch 'em before your very eyes. Heck, ride that mountain as it grows, grows, grows! The continents move at wicked speed under our feet. Earthquakes, earthquakes and more earthquakes Volcanoes, volcanoes, oh boy, so many erupting volcanoes! Come with us on this hair raising, and flaming, ride, it's super, super fun, if you can stand -- literally, can you stand? -- this volcanic visit ...
