Amid the swirling vastness of galaxies, each a cosmic city of stars and planets, the silence raises a compelling question: could the very nature of galaxies themselves hold the key to why intelligent life remains unseen?

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Credits:
The Fermi Paradox: Galactic Great Filters
Episode 484; January 30, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images 
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Phase Shift, "Forest Night"
Chris Zabriskie, "Unfoldment, Revealment"
Stellardrone, "Billions and Billions"

The Fermi Paradox: Galactic Great Filters (Narration Only)

Velocity Vibes

Juno reveals a surprise about the interior of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, and the OG young variable star T Tauri is getting ready to fade from view thanks to its dusty neighbors to the south. Speaking of dust, that's what gets kicked up when comets collide, and a new survey examines the cometary belts around dozens of star systems, providing a detailed look at the outer reaches of exoplanetary systems. Join us for all this, sample return stumpers, and Top Quark trivia.

Exocomets, Io, and the Great Dimming of T Tauri

What is quantum computing? and how might it impact our society? In this episode of Talk That Science, we sit down with Pablo Cova Fariña, a PhD student at the research institute for quantum computing and quantum internet to unpack the core principles of quantum physics, like superposition and entanglement, and discover how they're being harnessed to build the supercomputers of tomorrow. Pablo also tells us about his cutting-edge research using chips to simulate real-world materials, giving us a glimpse into work as a researcher and the exciting future of quantum technology. Plus, we discuss this emerging field's potential benefits, risks, and challenges – all between some great music!

Tracks played during the episode include:

Computer World - Kraftwerk
Waves - Max Cooper
Depende - Jarabe De Palo
Sleepy Head - The Pillows

Hosts: Amity & Kira

As always, a big thanks to EchoBox Radio for hosting our show, and to the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam for supporting this project! Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation about quantum computing.

What Is Quantum Computing @ Echobox Radio

I wanted to try a pop song, but I also can't be serious, so here's a jokey science pop track.

Non-Newtonian

The more measurements we make of the expansion of the universe, the more it seems as though Hubble Tension is not a problem with our data but a problem with our understanding of the expansion of the universe. We'll talk about that, and some cool new observations closer to home, including a disintegrating exoplanet that is giving us a unique peak into a planet's insides. Join us for all this and more, including space news and trivia.

Hubble Tension Won't Go Away But Some Exoplanets Do

Muons
by Valhjim

They surge in the cosmic fires
and high-energy collisions
of supernovae—race 

    through deep

            space

through galaxies and worlds
both inhospitable 

and teeming with strange
existence,

pierce through stone and bone
marrow, flesh, and brain.

They body forth 
the world.

*******
Hope you like this piece, my friends.

Thank you for listening
and for your always kind and courteous
words.

Valhjim
*******
—(c) 2025 Jim Valero (all rights reserved).

Muons

Out there in the Universe, there are tremendous, uncountable numbers of planetary systems just waiting to be discovered. But stellar systems won't just consist of planets orbiting a parent star; there will be moons, asteroids, Kuiper belt-like objects, and many of them will be bound together into their own rich sets of systems, with both irregular and round bodies comprising these planetary systems.

Here in our own Solar System, we have at least three notable large, terrestrial-sized bodies with impressive lunar systems of their own: the Earth-Moon system, the Mars-Phobos-Deimos system, and the Plutonian planetary system. Pluto, interestingly, is orbited by Charon, which is very large and massive compared to Pluto, an unusual and possibly unique, or most extreme, configuration of all known such bodies. But how did it get to be that way? That's the topic of this podcast, and the research focus of this month's guest: Dr. Adeene Denton.

It's kind of amazing what variety can emerge in terms of surviving systems from ancient planetary collisions, but by running simulations and understanding the geology of these worlds, we can learn more about what's possible, likely, and unlikely in our Universe. Dive into this fascinating conversation and learn some cutting-edge science along the way!

(This composite image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was based on photographs taken by the New Horizons mission as it flew by the Plutonian planetary system back in 2015. Charon's appearance is vastly different from Pluto's, but both bodies are shown with the correct relative size and albedo. Credit: NASA, APL, SwRI)

Starts With A Bang 114 - Pluto And Charon

Looking through the window, beyond the glass
Red poppies trembling in the wind
Shimmering in the rays of sun
And you whisper to me: "It's not that simple!"

Three hundred thousand kilometers per second! (Wow-wow!)
Photons dancing, never at rest (Yeah-yeah!)
Spin is one, wave and particle
Quantum bit flies through space (Hop-hop!)

Photon

Lunar exploration continues to accelerate, and there's a new longest "structure" in the universe. Quipu is a quasi-alignment of clusters of galaxies stretching over 1 billion light years. Structure is in cynical quotation marks because these objects are not bound or connected to each other in any way, but their arrangement is a natural consequence of the evolution of the universe. If we happen to be in a Quipu-like structure ourselves, that may help us get out of our Hubble tension problem. Join us for cosmological mind-benders like this, and updates on ocean worlds and other moons closer to home, as well as space news and trivia.

Did You Quipu?

Talk That Science is an Amsterdam-based science show by a group of science and music enthusiasts.  We play the nicest tunes while talking about the coolest research!

Live on echobox.radio every month

Valhjim is a music composer with an eclectic approach to different genres: rock, pop, folk, New Age, and experimental electronic music. Greatly driven by imagination and poetic imagery, he combines multiple instrumental textures to fire the imagination of his listeners. 

His more experimental ambience and electronic music is built with layers of suggestive sound textures, rhythms, and melodic lines that stir the imagination into suggestive imagery and worlds unseen, true architectures of sound that open up limitless spaces to explore. Often Valhjim's melodies sail through genre thresholds, crossing over from one genre to another, from neo classcal to electronic, or from jazz to rock or new age.

New tracks tagged #physics