Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

History of Science & Technology Q&A (81 videos)

Biweekly ask-me-anything about the history of science & technology

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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (September 8, 2021) »

1 hour 7 minutes

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Who is the most snubbed scientist/inventor? Did you ever meet Martinus Veltman? Did you use his computer algebra system Schoonschip? What computer language were you using when you were doing early particle physics research? What is your perspective on Theranos? Did you have awareness/skepticism of the company before it collapsed? What are tensors and where did they originate from? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (August 25, 2021) »

1 hour 31 minutes

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History of computer algebra systems What was the jet development computer program? What was the main thing you learned from working with Dick Feynman? Have you attended any of the ICMPs? ​What is the history of the university system in the US? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (August 11, 2021) »

1 hour 21 minutes

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What did doctors learn from Henrietta Lacks's cells? What do you think of the Higgs boson controversy? Did you know Steven Weinberg? Did you ever meet Bryce DeWitt? What was Feynman's opinion of supersymmetry? Does your Physics Project deal with gravitons and how to avoid non-renormalizability? Millennium prize problem (probably created by friend Arthur Jaffe) and the Yang–Mills theory... View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (July 28, 2021) »

1 hour 33 minutes

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The history of the computer before the Apple 2 What is the fine-structure constant, and why was Dirac so interested in it? Any "what could have been" moments in computer development that could have taken off had the right decisions or factors occurred? What do you think would have happened if Archimedes had discovered calculus in 200 BC? Do you agree that physics and science have made minimal progress in the last 25 years? Did you ever meet Howard Georgi and Sheldon Glashow? How did you get on with John Conway? Any stories? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (June 15, 2021) »

1 hour 8 minutes

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How was DNA discovered? History of musical digital instruments, like synths and computational music... Can you build a cellular automaton for each sound font? Memeification of science and origin of COVID-19... Thoughts on improving "strict/closed" science groups to a broader and more "open-minded" philosophy? Did summer school and incubator programs exist hundreds of years ago? Do you think the relationship between the scientific community and media/business/government is fundamentally different today or close to what we've seen in the past? View Less »
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History of Science & Technology Q&A:
History of Science and Technology Q&A (June 2, 2021) »

1 hour 29 minutes

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What appeared first in math, complex numbers or vectors? What is the relationship between them? Square root of negatives... Real variables, rational numbers, analysis... why not just stick to integers? What's the largest number you've ever used in practice in a computation? Did moving from Roman numerals to Hindu-Arabic help merchants back in the day? Was tau used before pi? Did Feynman overestimate Fredkin? Have string theorists underestimated Fredkin? Did you work much with Murray Gell-Mann? Any shareable stories? What is your opinion on the resurgence of UFOs? View Less »
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