Natural Sciences
**Into the Impossible With Brian Keating**

Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.
If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.
Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast

Latest Episodes:

Jim Al-Khalili Why I Love the Life Scientific! (#223) Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Jim is a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He received his PhD in nuclear reaction theory in 1989 and has published widely in the field. His current interest is in open quantum systems and the application of quantum mechanics in biology.

He is a prominent author and broadcaster. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. His latest book, The World According to Physics, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta nominated Chemistry: a volatile history, and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific.

Jim is a past president of the British Science Association and a recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. He received an OBE in 2007 and a CBE in 2021 for ‘services to science’.

In his latest book, The Joy of Science, Jim presents 8 short lessons on how to unlock the clarity, empowerment, and joy of thinking and living a little more scientifically.

In this brief guide, Professor Al-Khalili invites readers to engage with the world as scientists have been trained to do. The scientific method has served humankind well in its quest to see things as they really are, and underpinning the scientific method are core principles that can help us all navigate modern life more confidently. Discussing the nature of truth and uncertainty, the role of doubt, the pros and cons of simplification, the value of guarding against bias, the importance of evidence-based thinking, and more, Al-Khalili shows how the powerful ideas at the heart of the scientific method are deeply relevant to the complicated times we live in and the difficult choices we make.

Available on Amazon

https://jimal-khalili.com/

https://twitter.com/jimalkhalili

Topics in this interview include:

The tension between art (poetics) and science. What can science learn from poetry?
What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?
What does the phrase "follow the science" mean to you?
What is the "scientific method”?
What do you think about Karl Popper's philosophy and the falsification rule?
The problem with authority bias.
What's your philosophy regarding science outreach and popularization?

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If Darwin Had A Spaceship | Arik Kershenbaum: The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy (#222) Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

What would a modern-day 'Voyage of the Beagle ' be like? Cambridge zoologist Arik Kershenbaum evokes Charles Darwin's travels in a trip not confined to the earth's confines. Come along with us on a journey of discovery through the entire galaxy where we encounter aliens and their planets with supersonic creatures, a moon where aliens have a language composed of smells, and aliens who scream with fear, act honestly and have technology. The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space.

This is a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space.

But short of aliens landing in New York City, how do we know what they are like? Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution - which applies throughout the universe - Cambridge zoologist Dr. Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be like: how these creatures will move, socialize, and communicate. For example, by observing fish whose electrical pulses indicate social status, we can see that other planets might allow for communication by electricity. As there was evolutionary pressure to wriggle along a seafloor, Earthling animals tend to have left/right symmetry; on planets where creatures evolved in midair or in soupy tar, they might be lacking any symmetry at all.

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Topics discussed:

Why natural selection is both a universal and predictable process, the existence and results of which are likely to be present on alien planets.
What are Animals and What are Aliens?
Examines the definition of animals, from the historical definitions derived from observation (e.g. Aristotle), to modern phylogenetic relationships. The book argues that a purely phylogenetic definition of what is an animal cannot be sufficient for classifying alien life.
Movement – Scuttling and Gliding Across Space
How the constraints of physics and mechanics combined with evolutionary laws to produce the movement strategies we see on Earth, and why many of these strategies (e.g. legs) are likely to exist on other planets too.

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Follow Arik https://twitter.com/arikkershenbaum

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Brian Keating On The Leon Logothetis Podcast (#221) Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

The following is my appearance on the Leon Logothetis Podcast. Leon is the creator of THE KINDNESS DIARIES on Netflix and Amazon. He’s known for creating content around the world to highlight the best in humanity, and it was a privilege to be on his show. The show’s premise is that Leon does NOT know who is going to be his guest. That is why we start off with introductions. I was a bit nervous about going in blind, but Leon made it a great experience.

Subscribe to his podcast here.

From Leon’s show notes:

“My guest this week is Brian Keating, who is an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background, using it to learn about the origins and evolution of the universe.

Brian is an author, speaker, inventor and a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences (CASS) in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego.

It was a privilege to have Brian on the show and share his incredible knowledge about the cosmos. I left this conversation 38% smarter than before it!”

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Eve Vavagiakis: Inspiring The Next Generation (#220) Mar 22, 2022

Show notes

Dr. Vavagiakis is a postdoctoral associate in the Physics Department at Cornell University. She work on four collaborations: ACT, CCAT-prime, CMB-S4, and the Simons Observatory.

Eve got her PhD at Cornell University in 2021, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Provost Diversity Fellow on instrumentation and analysis for cosmology and astrophysics.

She designed Mod-Cam, a first light instrument for the CCAT Observatory‘s Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST). And is currently leading the development of Mod-Cam for first light on the FYST, located at 5600 meter elevation in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

In addition to building instrumentation, Dr. Vavagiakis analyzes maps of the cosmic microwave background to measure thermal and kinetic Sunyaev–Zel’dovich signals. These measurements probe the contents and evolution of galaxy groups and clusters and will constrain the fundamental physics of our universe.

Eve is an enthusiastic science communicator to a diverse public audience, and authoring children’s books with MIT Kids Press which will highlight modern physics and astronomy experiments. The first book is “I’m a Neutrino,” available on Amazon.

“I’m a Neutrino” is an accessible and visually arresting picture book about one of the universe's most mysterious particles for the youngest scientific minds.

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Sara Walker: The Origin of Life (#219) Mar 16, 2022

Show notes

Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist interested in the origin of life and how to find life on other worlds.

She is most interested in whether or not there are “laws of life’ related to how information structures the physical world that could universally describe life here on Earth and on other planets.

Walker is deputy director of the pioneering Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, which is devoted to confronting the big questions of science and philosophy.

She is Associate Director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems and Assistant Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. She is also Co-founder of the astrobiology-themed social website SAGANet.org, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Marble Space. She is active in public engagement in science, with appearances at the World Science Festival and on "Through the Wormhole" and NPR's Science Friday.

Sara’s provocative paper: Origins of Life: A Problem for Physics can be found here

https://twitter.com/sara_imari

https://beyond.asu.edu

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James Altucher chats with Brian Keating about news in science, and his upcoming audio book with Carlo Rovelli - Galilleo's Dialogue! (#218) Mar 12, 2022

Show notes

James Altucher chats Dr. Brian Keating on his new ventures, sciences, and he teased his upcoming book as well!

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Harvard Physicist Describes the Inside of a Black Hole | Shep Doeleman (#217) Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Sheperd S. Doeleman is an Astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and Founding Director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a synchronized global array of radio observatories designed to examine the nature of black holes. He is also a Harvard Senior Research Fellow and a Project Co-Leader of Harvard’s recently established Black Hole Initiative (BHI). The BHI is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary program at the University that brings together the disciplines of Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy, and History of Science to define and establish black hole science as a new field of study.

As one of the founding members of the BHI, Doeleman leads a team studying supermassive black holes with sufficient resolution to directly observe the event horizon itself. Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) methods, the EHT telescope networks observe astronomical radio sources at 1.3 millimeter (mm) wavelengths. These sources include the supermassive black holes at the centers of our own Milky Way, called Sagittarius A* (SgrA*), as well as in Messier 87 (M87), the supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo.

Doeleman is a Guggenheim Fellow (2012) and was the recipient of the DAAD German Academic Exchange grant for research at the Max Planck Institute für Radioastonomie. He serves as a peer reviewer for the Astrophysical Journal, Science, and Nature, among others. Doeleman leads and co-leads research programs supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) ALMA-NA Development Fund, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the MIT International Science & Technology Initiatives (MISTI), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation. He has taught at MIT and mentors students and post-doctoral fellows at MIT and Harvard.

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Hakeem Oluseyi: Quantum Leaps! (#216) Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

Hakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran, and humanitarian. Oluseyi was named a Visiting Robinson Professor at George Mason University in 2021, a distinction by which the university recognizes outstanding faculty.

In 2021, he published an autobiography titled: A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars co-authored with Joshua Horwitz.

His best known scientific contributions are research on the transfer of mass and energy through the Sun's atmosphere; the development of space-borne observatories for studying astrophysical plasmas and dark energy; and the development of transformative technologies in ultraviolet optics, detectors, computer chips, and ion propulsion.

Hakeem Is the president elect of the National Society of Black Physicists: https://nsbp.org/page/officers

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00:00:00 Intro
00:03:58 Judging the Book By Its' Cover
00:08:47 Why study the sun? It's so close! What makes observing it so diificult?
00:12:04 Hakeem's first space shot
00:17:26 Competition in Science - Hakeem V SOHO
00:20:41 The world of cutthroat competition in science!
00:30:12 The moral obligation for public science communication.
00:36:07 Art Walker and the importance of mentorship. Pioneering Black scientists.
00:49:47 About drugs and Hakeem's upbringing.
01:01:38 Would you change anything in your past if you could?
01:03:46 What would you put in a time capsule that would last a billion years?

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Marilyn Simons: Legion of Honor! (#215) Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

Dr. Marilyn Hawrys Simons received a B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from SUNY, Stony Brook and has volunteered in the non‑profit sector for the last thirty years. In 1994, she co‑founded the Simons Foundation together with her husband, Jim Simons, and served as its President until June 2021. Asteroid 10701 Marilynsimons is named after her!

The Simons Foundation is a charitable organization that was founded to fund basic research and educational programs in mathematics, physical and life sciences. The Foundation’s vision and generosity in also underwriting symposia, visiting lectureships and initiating programs at underserved institutions in the United States and abroad has helped to advance knowledge in a diverse spectrum of fields. She recently retired as President of the Simons Foundation and received the Legion d'Honaire, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained by all later French governments and régimes.

Her primary focus being education, Marilyn has served for the past eight years as the President of the Board of Learning Spring Elementary School, a school for children with autistic spectrum disorders. She also sits on the board of the East Harlem Tutorial Program, an after-school teaching program in East Harlem. In 2008, Dr. Simons joined the Cold Spring Harbor Board of Trustees.

At a personal level, Marilyn Simons has supported programs promoting an increased diversity and improved equity in science and economics. In 2013, she was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy, for her extraordinary and pre‑eminent role in philanthropy. Marilyn is involved in various education initiatives and serves as a board member for many prestigious scientific institutions, including the American National Museum of Mathematics.

Through the Simons Foundation, Marilyn Simons has played an essential role in supporting the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques's (IHÉS) ambition to develop greater financial independence. Over the course of two decades, the Simons Foundation has given more than $25 million to both specific projects, such as the building of the conference center that carries the names of Marilyn and Jim Simons, and to the Institute’s endowment, for example for the creation of the Simons Foundation Biology Fund at IHES. The Simons recently pledged an additional €25 million to support the institute over the next ten years.

In 2021, in recognition of her contributions and achievements, the French Ambassador to the U.S. Philippe Etienne awarded Marilyn Simons the French Legion of Honor during a special ceremony

Watch this fireside chat with Marilyn Simons held at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkfi6ZMMphk

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Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Mentors, Pulsars & Prizes (#214) Feb 16, 2022

Show notes

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell made an astounding discovery. On 28 November 1967, she detected a "bit of scruff" on her chart-recorder papers that tracked across the sky with the stars. The signal had been visible in data taken in August, but as the papers had to be checked by hand, it took her three months to find it. She established that the signal was pulsing with great regularity, at a rate of about one pulse every one and a third seconds. Temporarily dubbed "Little Green Man 1" (LGM-1) the source (now known as PSR B1919+21) was identified after several years as a rapidly rotating neutron star.

But as a young woman in science, her role was overlooked. Today's discussion is with one of the foremost astronomers of our time in a deep and revealing interview that shares a more personal side of her than ever before. In addition to describing her experimental research, we describe the surprising initial reaction to what was initially thought to be aliens, or Little Green Men.

Since then we reveal what we've learned about fascinating pulsars as well as what that may reveal about life in the universe. We also chat about her religion (Quaker) and mine (Jewish) and how her view of God has evolved. We discuss her book "A Quaker Astronomer Reflects: Can a Scientist also be Religious? ", the Multiverse and Quakers: influence of mentors like Sir Fred Hoyle, the Nobel Prize and answer audience questions.

Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who was president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and interim president of the Institute following the death of her successor, Marshall Stoneham, in early 2011.

In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Following the announcement of the award, she decided to use the £2.3 million prize money to establish the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund, to help female, minority and refugee students become physics researchers. The fund is administered by the Institute of Physics.

Bell on God "Recognising that there was not going to be any proof of the existence of God, I decided many years ago to adopt as a ‘working hypothesis’ the assumption that there was a God, a God that I will describe below, and to see how I got on with this picture of God. Perhaps evidence would accumulate that would lead me to decide that the hypothesis was wrong, that there was no God, or that God was very different from what I had imagined. Or perhaps evidence would accumulate that made it unquestionably clear that there was a God, maybe even evidence that God was much as I had envisaged."

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