In September, a group of particle physicists working in Italy made a dramatic announcement. They announced results — and not just one or two outlier results but a metric truckload of results — that suggested that beams of particles known as neutrinos created at CERN in Switzerland were violating the laws of physics established by […]
Tag Archives: Chrissie Giles
The Trouble With Neutrinos
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Tagged Albert Einstein, Big Science, CERN, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, faster than light, Fermi, Gran Sasso, leptons, MINOS, neutrinos, OPERA, particle physics, Pauli, physics, Resonance FM, Ryan Nichol, science, special relativity
How to build a brain
In a recent lecture at Imperial College London, Stuart Parkin — research fellow at IBM’s Almaden Research centre, and the guy who perfected the spin-valves that make modern computer hard disks work — discussed some of the challenges faced in trying to build artificial an brain. He quoted some amazing things about the differences in […]
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Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, central nervous system, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, neuroscience, Oliver Sacks, proprioception, Resonance FM, Richard Wingate, science
It’s a Small World after all
In 1929, Frigyes Karinthy wrote a short story suggesting that everyone is connected to everyone else by six or seven degrees of separation. In 1967, the Harvard social psychologist Stanley Milgram, inspired by the story, set out to test the idea. He sent packages with folders of instructions to 160 random people living in Omaha, […]
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Tagged Big Science, Chrissie Giles, Duncan Watts, Ed Gerstner, Kevin Bacon, László Barabási, mathematics, Paul Erd?s, Resonance FM, Samuel Hansen, science, six degrees of separation, small world networks, social networks, Stanley Milgram, Steve Strogatz
Understanding the Cosmos, Part 1
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Special In 1917, Albert Einstein added a constant — a sort of ‘fudge factor’ — to his Theory of General Relativity to counteract the force of gravity and keep his Universe static — that is, not expanding, not contracting. A few years later, Edwin Hubble proved the Universe wasn’t, in […]
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Tagged Adam G. Riess, Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Brian P. Schmidt, Chrissie Giles, cosmological constant, cosmology, dark energy, Ed Gerstner, Einstein, Hubble, Nobel Prize, Ofer Lahav, physics, Resonance FM, Saul Perlmutter, science, supernova
History of an Ancient Sponge
Geological evidence suggests that around 650 million years ago, the Earth was covered in ice. It was believed only single-celled organisms could have survived ‘Snowball Earth’. Until Princeton professor, Adam Maloof, found a fossilized sponge predating this by millions of years. The find inspired Lola Perrin and Alexis Kirke to compose an evening of film, […]
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Tagged Adam Maloof, Alexis Kirke, Anna Armstrong, Big Science, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, fossils, geology, ice age, Lola Perrin, origin of life, palaeontology, Resonance FM, science, Snowball Earth, sponges
Green car tech
In recent shows we’ve been talked a bit about alternative energy technologies. Most times when people discuss the future of energy, they talk about how to generate it. Of course, that’s an important subject. But most alternative generation technologies aren’t likely to be ready for the big time for decades. What are we going to […]
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Tagged Anna Armstrong, batteries, Big Science, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, electric cars, electricity, formula one, fuel cells, global warming, hybrids, hydrogen, physics, Ralph Clague, Resonance FM, science
Fukushima update
On the 11th of March this year, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Tohoku, Japan. It was the largest recorded earthquake to hit Japan and in the top 5 anywhere in the world since 1900. It, and the tsunami that followed, killed more than 15,000 people. And it […]
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Tagged Anna Armstrong, Big Science, China syndrome, Chrissie Giles, earthquake, Ed Gerstner, Fukushima, Geoff Brumfiel, Japan, meltdown, nuclear power, physics, Resonance FM, science, tsunami, uranium
What’s your poison? The science of anaesthetics
From alcohol to ether and beyond, in this episode we explore the science of anaesthesiology with clinical anaesthetist, Dr Katie Grant. What are the dangers? What kinds of chemicals are in a modern anaesthetist’s drug cabinet? How do they work? How do decide what cocktail to give? Do patients under a general anaesthetic dream? And […]
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Tagged anaesthesia, anaesthetics, Big Science, Chrissie Giles, Ed Gerstner, Katie Grant, medicine, pain-killers, Resonance FM, science, surgery
