Schrödinger’s Chat

Episode 14: Legends in Lab Coats: The Invisible Geniuses

Today, we are looking at the invisible geniuses: three scientists who have fallen into relative obscurity, or whose work was overshadowed by others at the time. But it’s time they get the recognition they deserve, so our three legends today are: Rosalind Franklin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Hopefully, this episode will enlighten you about some of these amazing scientists who you may not have heard of, and maybe highlight just how many unseen amazing people were really behind famous groundbreaking discoveries.

Episode 13: Unlucky for Some

Welcome to episode 13! Some would call it unlucky, dangerous even, and to others, it’s just another number.  But why 13? What did the number 13 ever do wrong, and why do we feel things are unlucky? In this episode, I want to explore why humans turn randomness into story and superstition; and is luck a real thing at all, or is maths and probability actually behind everything? There will be history, maths, and a bit of psychology, all to ask: what does ‘unlucky’ even mean?

Episode 12: Richard of York

Rare, beautiful, and almost magical. A rainbow is one of the few natural phenomena that doesn’t need any explanation to make you go ‘wow’. But understanding why it happens makes it even cooler. In this episode, we are taking a deep dive into a piece of physics magic: rainbows. How and why do they form? Why are they that shape? And could you ever find the end of a rainbow?

Episode 11: The Dark Side of Light

Light is great. It’s beautiful, a symbol of hope, positivity, knowledge, and imagination, and of course we need light here on Earth to survive. However, you can have too much of a good thing, especially when that thing is created by humans. This episode, we are looking at the impacts of artificial light on the environment, and on our ability to observe the cosmos, and how that affects us on Earth. This is the dark side of light.

Episode 10: Schrödinger's Cat

What if I told you there’s a cat that’s both alive and dead at the same time? Sounds like the start of a horror film, but it’s actually one of the most famous ideas in physics. To celebrate the tenth episode of this podcast, we are taking a look at the namesake of this podcast, Schrödinger's Cat!