The First Humans on Mars

October 19th, 2016

Elon Musk’s SpaceX program proposes that 100 people could be sent to colonize Mars within 10 years. What might that colony look like? This episode was supported by CuriosityStream. Go to curiositystream.com/spacetime and use the promo code SPACETIME

Jake from Vsauce3 answers the question Why Mars?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAl8xATLzc&t=0s

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NASA recently announced that they plan to have astronauts in orbit around Mars within 25 years. Not to be outdone, Elon Musk boldly stated that he could prepare a mission to Mars within 10 years. Musk’s SpaceX plan would transport a hundred people to the red planet. Their mission wouldn’t be to visit Mars but to colonize it. In this episode of Space Time Matt breaks down the challenges that the first humans on Mars would face and how they could overcome them.

Links to Sources:

SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA&feature=youtu.be

There’s a video link for musk’s presentation we could include at ~1:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Uyfqi_TE8

Here is the transcript for the presentation:
http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-speech-transcript-2016-9

NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge:
http://3dpchallenge.tumblr.com/post/128777557703/team-searchclouds-architecture-office-design

Mars Dome’d Habitat by Bryan Versteeg: http://marsforthemany.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/66cd2f794a17ebf808c9a5f7b3b0e01e.jpg

Orion Spacecraft
https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html

Previous Space Time Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcv_tYcRgw4

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Comments answered by Matt:

Riya Sharma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcv_tYcRgw4&lc=z12vuhcpkqaldxd1t23qdhlr2vn3t5wia04

Kjpmi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcv_tYcRgw4&lc=z12sddfysuvddzvcy22rhb4i4t2yfxlmd

Posted in Physics |

Black Holes from the Dawn of Time

October 12th, 2016

Primordial black holes may be lurking throughout our universe. How large are they, how many are out there and what would happen if they moved through our solar system? To learn more about black holes, gravity and so much more check out The Great Courses Plus by going to http://ow.ly/JqPz30491TL

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Scientists believe that many black holes may have been created at the time of the Big Bang and and are still roaming our universe today. If we found them they would tell us a great deal about the origins of the cosmos.

Previous Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAoEnV3Zt_Q

How to Build a Black Hole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx4562gesw0

Do Events Inside Black Holes Happen?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaEBbFbvcY

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Comments answered by Matt:

Parameth Ratnasakha
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgJt6aIeNjKjG5lD9OH75Eg

Turcan Fred
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_gBta_f1xA4bPsdWVoMerg

Leonidas Pereira
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5JxQoYgHYrfttfKipfP5rQ

ZombieWelder
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsvZzjVBZ5PVhvhU4vMAbg

Goodsire
https://www.youtube.com/user/joshyman221

Arduenn Schwartzman
https://www.youtube.com/user/arduenn

Posted in Physics |

Are We Alone? Galactic Civilization Challenge

October 5th, 2016

The Drake Equation tells us the likelihood that there are other advanced technological civilizations waiting for us among the stars. In this episode of Space Time we challenge you to use the Drake Equation to help us determine how near or far these alien races may be. Links to reference material below.

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Everything we’ve learned about our universe tells us that it is very unlikely we are alone. Frank Drake and his Drake Equation compute exactly how unlikely this is. The answer may surprise you.

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

A New Empirical Constraint on the Prevalence of Technological Species in the Universe
Adam Frank & W.T. Sullivan III
https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08837

The Drake Equation
http://www.seti.org/drakeequation

G-type stars within 100 light years
http://www.solstation.com/stars3/100-gs.htm

Prevalence of Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars
Erik A. Petigura, Andrew W. Howard, Geoffrey W. Marcy
https://arxiv.org/abs/1311.6806

The Kepler Sample
http://kepler.nasa.gov/science/about/targetFieldOfView/

Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 – Where’s the Flux?
Tabby. S. Boyajian, et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03622

Posted in Physics |

Life on Europa?

September 29th, 2016

The Hubble Telescope found more evidence of vast plumes of water bursting through the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. What does this tell us about the potential for life on Europa?

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Previous Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafGL02EUOA

New findings have increased the likelihood that there is a vast ocean lying under the surface of Europa. Jupiter’s moon is emerging as one of the most likely places in our solar system to find life. Why do we think Europa is such a good bet for extra-terrestrial life? What would might that life look-like? And how soon will we be able to confirm this?

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Attributions:
Hydrothermal Vents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1koFEKfmLw

Winter Flounder – Antifreeze Protein
http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/ngl/ngl.do?pdbid=4KE2&bionumber=1

Sky Whale:
Hypothetical advanced underwater life such as might exist in Europa’s ocean.
Image: © Adolf Schaller
http://www.planetary.org/connect/our-experts/profiles/adolf-schaller.html

Comment Links:
Sandy Crotch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafGL02EUOA&lc=z13stvaxbkqcw11xv04ccnj5luy1gjyplu40k

Daniel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafGL02EUOA&lc=z12yihmivuf4j30v023vfppbkxfdglidp

David21686
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafGL02EUOA&lc=z13utpg5xq3ce5pgr04cdr15smqhzliy4dw

Posted in Physics |

Quantum Entanglement and the Great Bohr-Einstein Debate | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

September 22nd, 2016

For those of you in New York City you can check out Matt live at PBS Nerd Night at the NYC YouTube Space on Thursday night September 22nd. Hope to see you there. to.pbs.org/nerdnight

Albert Einstein strongly disagreed with Niels Bohr when it came to Bohr’s interpretation of quantum mechanics. Quantum entanglement settled the argument once and for all.

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Previous Episode – Self-Replicating Robots and Galactic Domination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H55wybU3rI

Veritasium’s video Quantum Entanglement and Spooky Action at a Distance at 7:36
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuvK-od647c

How the Quantum Eraser Rewrites the Past at 8:41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORLN_KwAgs

Einstein argued that elementary particles maintained their intrinsic values whether they were being observed or not. Bohr believed that in observing such particles we collapsed a wave function of probabilities. He asserted that it is only when these wave functions collapse that one of many probabilities is chosen and the particles take on distinct values. Quantum entanglement, John Stewart Bell and Alain Aspect eventually proved that Bohr was correct.

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Comments:

Borne Stellar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H55wybU3rI&lc=z13kddtono20c1h2g22kx1brstvvsthus

Strofi Kornego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H55wybU3rI&lc=z12vh34b2l2uxvagy04cg5swtqf0s3gb1o00k

Daniel Oberley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H55wybU3rI&lc=z12rsv2yszi5td21w22aytvhxvagg1giz04

Posted in Physics |

Self-Replicating Robots and Galactic Domination

September 14th, 2016

To check out any of the lectures available from Great Courses Plus go to http://ow.ly/dweH302dILJ

We’ll soon be capable of building self-replicating robots. This will not only change humanity’s future but reshape the galaxy as we know it.

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Previous Episode – Is there a 5th Fundamental Force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuvwcsfXIIo

Should we Build a Dyson Sphere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW55cViXu6s

Self-assembling robots are referred to as von Neumann machines after the man responsible for originally proposing them, John von Neumann. Since then, the potential of these machines and their ability to proliferate throughout known space has made galactic colonization seem not only possible but perhaps inevitable.

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd

Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

References:
von Neumann, John The Theory of Self-reproducing Automata, Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press. ed. A. Burks, 1966

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004;
http://www.MolecularAssembler.com/KSRM.htm

Robo3D R1 printing an upgrade for itself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_Bfo1fD3o

Posted in Physics |

Is There a Fifth Fundamental Force? + Quantum Eraser Answer

September 7th, 2016

Has a fifth fundamental force been discovered and how will this effect our understanding of the universe?

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Quantum Eraser Challenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uzytrooz44

Previous Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW55cViXu6s

New Fundamental Particle Discovered
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFOgIijPWGY

A laboratory in Hungary has has witnessed a startlingly strange reaction between Beryllium-8 atoms. It seems to point to the existence of a fundamental force beyond the four we already know. And this new force may have something to do with dark matter.

Nature Article on Radioactive Decay Anomaly
http://www.nature.com/news/has-a-hungarian-physics-lab-found-a-fifth-force-of-nature-1.19957

The associated Feng et al. 2016 paper:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.07411

Krasznahorkay et al. 2015 first report the anomaly
https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.01527

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd

Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

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Posted in Physics |

Should We Build a Dyson Sphere? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

August 24th, 2016

To check out any of the lectures available from Great Courses Plus go to http://ow.ly/Y8lm303oKJe

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The Kepler telescope recently noticed a strange partial eclipse that some have speculated could be a Dyson Sphere. Are Dyson Sphere’s possible? Are they practical? What other alternatives to futuristic energy capture do we have to choose from? Why not a kugelblitz – a swarm of black hole powered engines?

Previous Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uzytrooz44

PBS Space Time’s Interstellar Travel Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZGPCyrpSU

SciShow Kugelblitz episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNL1RN4eRR8

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd

Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Comments answered by Matt
David Stagg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORLN_KwAgs&lc=z13netla4knhtbje5223uph5ptf3thhq104

Posted in Physics |

Quantum Eraser Lottery Challenge

August 17th, 2016

Matt challenges you to use quantum physics to win the lottery. Are you up to the task?

Previous Episode on Quantum Eraser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORLN_KwAgs

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The Quantum Eraser experiment seems to show that information can travel backwards in time. On today’s episode of Space Time, we are going to create a time-traveling communication device and use it to cheat on the lottery!

Here’s Your Challenge question:
Why am I going to be sadly disappointed after turning on my invention? I do get a signal – nice work future me – and that signal DOES contain the interference patterns from my future choices with perfect fidelity. But for some reason I can’t read the numbers. What went wrong?

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd

Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Challenge Answers
Submit your answers with full work to pbsspacetime@gmail.com for a chance to win a Space Time t-shirt.
Make sure you use the subject title “Quantum Eraser Challenge question” to be in the running. Submit answers before August 24, 2016.

Posted in Physics |

How the Quantum Eraser Rewrites the Past | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

August 10th, 2016

Try Audible: http://www.audible.com/spacetime

Causality is meant to move in one direction: forward. But the Quantum Eraser experiment seems to reverse causality. How and why can this happen and what are the implications of this experiment on how we understand Quantum Mechanics and our greater universe?

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A Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser
Kim, Yu, Kulik, Shih & Scully, 2000, Physical Review Letters v.84 p.1
http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9903047v1

Previous Episode on Can We Survive the Destruction of the Earth? ft. Neal Stephenson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmlwdUK4RE

Previous Episode on The Quantum Experiment that Broke Reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-MNSLsjjdo

Gamma Ray Bursts by In a Nutshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLykC1VN7NY

Episode written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd

Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Comments answered by Matt

MirceaKitsune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmlwdUK4RE&lc=z12vfjjhemf1sxi5104cir5g2kisylrwdqw0k

tsjoencinema
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmlwdUK4RE&lc=z13axr1zmzygftjf522mwjaq5tyruty1p

Weapon Valhalla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmlwdUK4RE&lc=z133h3whrzi4sfqne23htd3hymjoylkyj04

Narigone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmlwdUK4RE&lc=z12bftwgfk3wwp4ia04cc3ar2xiuvpvhnqw0k