Summary: The Supersized Science podcast features research and discoveries nationwide enabled by advanced computing technology and expertise at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Jorge Salazar, a science writer at TACC, hosts the podcast. Just milliseconds after the universe's Big Bang, chaos reigned. Atomic nuclei fused and broke apart in hot, frenzied motion. Incredibly strong pressure waves built up and squeezed matter so tightly together that black holes formed, which astrophysicists call primordial black holes. Did primordial black holes help or hurt the formation of the universe's first stars, eventually born about 100 million years later? Supercomputer simulations helped investigate this cosmic question, thanks to the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), part of The University of Texas at Austin. On the podcast to talk about their latest study using Stampede2 to simulate primordial black holes are astrophysicists Volker Bromm and Boyuan Liu. Bromm is a professor and chair of Department of Astronomy at UT Austin, Liu a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. Supersized Science is part of the Texas Podcast Network – the conversations changing the world – brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts, and not of The University of Texas at Austin. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/first-stars-and-black-holes Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/
