I'm on the competing experiment! :)

www.alienspeakphysics.com

What imagining aliens can teach us about philosophy of science Particle physicist Daniel Whiteson on his new book, ‘Do Aliens Speak Physics?’

Thinking about space aliens can be fun and exciting, but it can also teach us about human science and communication.

Particle physicist @danielwhiteson.bsky.social joins
@matthew.flux.community to discuss his new book, ‘Do Aliens Speak Physics?’

Perfect for your weekend queue:

Ding ding ding

Oil pipeline too slow you say? How about one that operates at 0.99999c?

High energy physicists, this is our moment!

Ok, we're on it!

Very cool, thanks for the pointers!

There's energy loss in that maneuver, but it's by the planet in that case, so it's not helpful for capture.

There has to be some kind of energy loss, meaning: friction from gas/atmosphere, or tidal forces, or a 3rd body like a large moon, or colliding with another moon or asteroid.

Great question! And your instincts are right. If there's no energy transfer, then the incoming kinetic energy is enough to escape the gravity well. So how does it get captured?

Are aliens real? Do they speak physics? Will we become aliens? @danielwhiteson.bsky.social and I are on the case!

If they read them and have any questions, I'm happy to answer!

If your middle schooler is into physics he may also enjoy @danielwhiteson.bsky.social 's books "Do Aliens Speak Physics?: And Other Questions about Science and the Nature of Reality", "We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe", and "Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe"

I have an article in this month's @skepticalinquirer.bsky.social

I don't know -- the distribution agreements are complicated!

a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a desk and saying `` i love it '' . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a desk and saying `` i love it '' .

Listener email:

"your podcast has been so inspiring that I will take an introduction to physics class at Community College. I have always been intimidated by physics but your show makes it seem very approachable"

Do you like braining? Listening to really smart people figuring things out together? Cool science? Funny and genial conversation?

Have I got a podcast for you! My pals @weinersmith.bsky.social and @danielwhiteson.bsky.social answer all my questions--literally!

Subscribe! All the cool kids do!

If plagiarism isn't an issue, problem should be solved in 2 seconds. "pip install gcc"

a man wearing glasses and a tie looks serious ALT: a man wearing glasses and a tie looks serious

Love the physics of The Expanse!

No, the difference is categorical. Massless objects move fundamentally differently from massive objects, even from massive objects moving near the speed of light as seen by you. It's comparing an orange-colored apple to an orange.

Third, this argument is tempting because it seems to extrapolate naturally from things moving NEARLY the speed of light, whose time appears to be slow as you see it, to things moving AT the speed of light. The difference is small, right, so we can dot-dot-dot our way from one to another?

But light has no experience, because there's nothing it's like to be in light's frame, at rest with respect to a photon.

So you can't calculate the rate at which time would appear to pass for light, because it has no frame. (And even if you did, it would only be the appearance for you, not the light's experience).

Second, this works for massive objects, which have inertial frames, frames where they are at rest. That's baked into the calculation, no avoiding it. Light has no mass and no inertial frame. There's no speed or frame in which light is at rest.

First, velocity is relative, and so is time dilation. The closer you get to the speed of light, as seen by someone else, the slower your time appears to pass as seen BY THAT OBSERVER. Your experience of time is unchanged. (It has to, since you have many relative velocities)

This is a commonly repeated bit of sci-comm, because it sounds delicious. But I think it's misleading.

The Universe is not a Computer When we want to predict the future, we compute it from what we know about the present. Specifically, we take a mathematical representation of observed reality, plug it into some dynamical equations, a...

If anyone wants some follow-up reading, here's a link to my popular-science-level essay on the topic that Daniel mentioned in the podcast: arxiv.org/abs/1211.7081

How Close Are We to Teleporting? - Part-Time Genius Teleportation is a major mode of travel in science fiction, but when will it become a reality? To find out, Mango and Gabe are grappling with the history and theoretical science behind one of humanity...

Today we're tackling a listener question: how close are we to making teleportation a reality? The answer includes a very catchy song about quantum physics, and a chat with @danielwhiteson.bsky.social about wormholes!

omny.fm/shows/part-t...