The Titanium Physicists Podcast

Teachers take things from an unrefined state to a point where they are wonderous. Poets are apt at describing both of these. This episode of TiPhy aims to teach genius poet Taylor Mali about where the planets in our solar system came from. Taylor's time with us was a little short, and our conversation broached many topics. listen after the end music to hear some crazy conversations. My physicists are Catherine and Dave!

Direct download: Ep_40_Snowlines_and_No_Rhymes.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:41am PDT

So. If someone comes up to you and tells you that there are planets out there made of ice and water, you'd go "yeah". and if they said "there are planets made of diamond", you'd probably shrug. what if I told you there were stars made of pasta? well there aren't. theyr'e made of protons and neutrons and electrons that are shaped like pasta! 

PASTA PHASES OF MATTER IN NEUTRON STARS!!!!

My guest is my old pal  sean martin. My experts are Jocelyn Read and Andrew Steiner. FUN!

Direct download: Ep_39_Pasta_Stars.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 9:59pm PDT

So Tia and Ken and I talk with Dave Shumka from Stop Podcasting Yourself! we talk about accelerators. how they work. what they get used for. whether aspiring supervillains sould invest in a particle accelerator or a giant laser. How Congress is in the pocket of big chud. (we have too much fun). um. listen past the end song to hear more conversation. 

Direct download: Ep_38_Trons.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 10:23pm PDT

Q-Bits! 

we're talking about quantum computers today!

ha. Okay! our guest today is comicbookgirl19, and my experts are Omair Taibah and Katherine Brown.

This episode is fun, but the audio quality is BAAD. 

After weeks of obsessive work, I had to make poor john give up on trying to fix this thing. sorry. 

Direct download: Ep_37_Quantum_Shave_And_A_Haircut.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 9:59pm PDT

So.

One day we will be a space-faring species. 

currently, we're more of an "earth orbit" faring species. 

anyway. we'll need large structures to help us get into space, and maybe to help us live in space.

MEGASTRUCTURES IN SPACE.

Mur Lafferty joins Jocelyn Read and Jacob Stump and myself. WHAT FUN.

Direct download: Ep_36_Useless_Spheres_And_Wasteful_Rockets.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 2:31pm PDT

Hooooooohh! It's Natasha Allegri! The Creator of Bee and PuppyCat! and also Fionna and Cake! We're going to talk about Craters! CRATERS! how they form! I've recruited Charlie Barnhart (from science sort of) and Lissa Ong to explain everything  to us!

Direct download: Ep_35_Crater_I_Hardly_Know_Her.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 10:50pm PDT

Mookie Terracciano! James Silvester! Amanda Bauer!

Lets talk about the methods we use to figure out how far stars are away from us. 

the answer is: LOTS OF CLEVERNESS.

Direct download: Ep_34_Ladder_To_The_Stars.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 7:05am PDT

“Into this wild Abyss/ The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave--/ Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,/ But all these in their pregnant causes mixed/ Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,/ Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain/ His dark materials to create more worlds,--/ Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend/ Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,/ Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith/ He had to cross. ”

I went to meet Ben Caplan, notable indie rock musician, and I asked him what he wanted to learn about. He told me "Dark Energy", so I laid my plans. This EPISODE: the return of Rupinder Brar! The return of Vicky Scowcroft! Ben Caplan! Dark Energy! ALLEZ! 

Direct download: Ep_33_His_Dark_Materials.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 8:59pm PDT

Reuben: "Hey dad, why is the sky blue?"

Steve: "Sky Marlins. probably."

Reuben: "You're not sure?"

Steve: "umm. lets ask the Titanium Physicists."

So When Steve asked if we could teach his 10 year old kid physics we were like "YESS!" because it's like we are training our own encyclopedia brown. So. If you have a mystery that needs solving, go ask Reuben.

So this episode we have Amanda Bauer and Ken Clark.

*note: I'm sorry Ken fans. Ken gets dropped from the call, and we couldn't get him back. T_T sorry everyone.*

okayy! Lets talk about why the sky is blue!

Direct download: Ep_32_Sailors_Take_Warning.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 6:01pm PDT

Lets Talk about the Casimir Effect! The difference between the vacuum between two mirror and the vacuum beyond them sucks the mirrors together! Vacuum Energy! Negative Mass! Warp Drives! Quantum mechanics! Tia Miceli, Mike Zemcov! I SUMMON YOU! explain quantum field theory to Megan Harns!

Direct download: Ep_30_Pushing_Mirrors.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 5:07pm PDT

Particle Detectors! Tia Miceli! Ken Clark! I summon you! Explain geiger counters, scintilators, cloud chambers, bubble chambers, photomultipliers, CCD's, and CERN's mighty ATLAS detector to our guest Gareth L. Powell, author of Ack-Ack Macaque! this episode is a little long, but it's a lot great. 

Direct download: Ep_30_Subtle_Pursuits.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 9:48pm PDT

Alasdair Stuart joins Jocelyn and Dave on this episode. We talk about black holes and time: specifically how black holes affect time.Everything we say will make sense, because we will introduce the Equivalence Principle.  the movie "Twins" is referred to about 1,000,000 times this episode. BE WARNED. 

this episode is rated explicit because sometimes I don't want to cut the mildly dirty jokes, okay?!

Direct download: Ep_29_Dark_Equivalence.mp3
Category:physics -- posted at: 7:00pm PDT

Episode 28: Smoke Like Swirls on the Moon

"Conceiving my heart as gutter broke,

 my sweet love grants me a boon,

and  joy rose up, grey billowing smoke,

smoke like swirls on the moon" 

-no quality poem ever.

So back when i started the show I sent Catherine an email. She's always been one of my most gifted astronomy friends. I said "hey, give me a topic for the show." I expected her to say like "variable stars that wobble because of acoustic waves" or something. she said "lunar swirls". i said "I'll get back to you". 

Anyway.

she persisted. 

i gave in.

and we put together a show about SWIRLS ON THE MOON. 

apparently there are swirls on the moon. and they're AWESOME.

So my experts today are Catherine Neish and Sebastien Besse. and we explain everything to Jordan Harbinger, who hosts the Pickup Podcast.

Life is fun.  

Direct download: Ep_28_Smoke_Like_Swirls_On_The_Moon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:40pm PDT

1