PhysicsCentral: Podcasts

Fish do it; birds do it; humans do it; even bacteria do it. They all detect the Earth's magnetic field. We actually know very little about the ways that many organisms detect the Earth's magnetic field. Humans use compasses, and in some cases, other organisms may take a similar approach.

David C Cassidy talks to Physics Buzz about his book "A Short History of Physics in the American Century," and the role physics played in making the US a world superpower in the 20th century.

Mike sees how Physics influenced comic creators Jorge Chaim (PhD Comics) and Bill Amend (Foxtrot)

Even though Hollywood films aren't known for being completely scientifically accurate all of the time, the writers of some of the biggest films and TV shows have been relying on their science advisors to make the science in science fiction all the more believable.

Physicist Enrico Fermi has his name attached to a number of monumental physics items, like Fermilab, fermions and fermium. Who was Fermi, what did he do to earn so much notoriety and the title of "universal physicist"? We'll try to find out in today's podcast.

Last week the ATLAS and CMS experiments announced that they had, i n fact, identified a new particle, which looks a lot like the coveted Higgs Boson. Today on the podcast we'll talk to some people who were at CERN when the announcement was made, we'll tell you why the identity of this particle is still up in the air, and we'll find out what's next for the particle physicists studying the new particle.

Twitter certainly has become an ever-present part of our lives. Twitter may even be able to tell us what people are really concerned about,what issues are grabbing their attention and what topics are generating the most discussion. Physicists have devised a method to gather this information and give it meaning beyond just a tweet.

Dr. David Kaiser, author of the book "How the Hippies Saved Physics" talks about how the culture of the 1970's influenced physics, and brought the philosophical exploration of quantum mechanics back into the mainstream.

The much-anticipated science fiction movie Prometheus recently opened in theaters. How much of the science presented in the movie was accurate, how much is still in our distant future, and how much was just plain wrong? We'll investigate a some of the science from the movie in this week's Physics Buzz podcast.

NASA's Kepler telescope reveals that planet formation might have begun earlier than previously believed.

A single sheet of paper is easy to tear, but why, then, do crumpled balls of newspaper work as cushioning in packing boxes? Physicists are studying this unique architecture that maximizes the inherent strength of paper.

Jim Ottaviani writes comic books (or graphic novels) about famous scientists including Richard Feynman, Niels Bohr, and those involved in the Manhattan Project.

Refrigerators and air conditioners are so common these days that many people never stop to wonder: how do we make things cold? Today on the physics buzz podcast we'll talk about some of the clever ways that physics keeps us cool.

Using visual imagery to describe sound can help us learn about music.

On April 23, the Space Shuttle Discovery was brought to the Smithsonians Udvar Hazy Center, its final home after 27 years of service.