Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (159 videos)

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

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New episode streaming Friday, June 20, 2025 at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 99] »

1 hour 22 minutes

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How do glaciers form? Is the orbit of the Earth constant around the Sun? Or is there a variation on a large time frame? Could it explain the ice ages? ​​Have you ever studied aerial photos of ocean waves to assess their evolution for irreducibility/pockets of reducibility? Do you think ocean waves are computationally universal? ​What are neutrinos for? Why do they exist if they don't interact with anything? Could aliens have a purpose for them? ​​Didn't some neutrinos cause hardware failure in airplanes? ​If technology could produce a small practical neutrino emitter and detector, would it be useful to send messages with them? Will holograms as seen in the Iron Man movie ever be available for widespread use? Why do some foods, like peanuts and crustaceans, cause deadly allergic reactions in some people, while others can eat them daily without harm? How many species have allergies? Do we know the mechanism behind this "training"? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 98] »

1 hour 14 minutes

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​​​What does the concept of the ruliad say about teleportation? ​​​ So are we experiencing a single state of the universe, or are we sampling different branches to build our experience? ​​​ ​If the speed of light emerges from propagation through discrete emes, then does the speed of light vary slightly? Could this be experimentally validated? ​​​ I've listened to live neurons in a lab, amplified and made audible—very strange experience. It would be the ultimate biofeedback experience to visually see one's own neuronal activations spatially. Engineering that might be tricky for a while. Would there be, in theory, a way to measure your relative position in rulial space? How do new concepts get created and integrated in the mind of humanity? What makes them robust over 1,000+ years? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 97] »

1 hour 5 minutes

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​​​How much does a cat's tail affect its ability to land on its feet? Do cats without tails tend to fall over frequently? ​​​​​Could a planet have "internal" rotation of its molten core while having a stagnant outer surface, or perhaps a slowly rotating surface? ​​​​What's the deal with the Dzhanibekov effect (the observation a cosmonaut had when a spinning bolt flipped in space)? ​​​The head and the shaft are rotating in unison. The head has more inertia around the axis. Don't forget the bolt is in a standing pressurized chamber of air. ​​​​Will the Earth eventually cool down enough to stop producing a geomagnetic field? ​​​​​Tails seem to be vestigial for many organisms. View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 96] »

1 hour 9 minutes

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​​​As the Wolfram Language grows, will the number of lines of code ever shrink? What could cause such a trend? ​​​​Scientists are trying to elucidate the origins of life on Earth. The current focus is exploring the "RNA world." This occurred 4.5 billion years ago. Could there have been dimensional fluctuations back then? ​​​Why are small children able to spin around so quickly without getting dizzy, while adults become nauseous? ​​​Do we still need the appendix? Are there any parts in our body that we "evolved away"? Is science getting harder? Are ideas getting harder to find? Yes, the more we've learned, the more we've learned that there's a lot more to learn! ​How ironic then, that Albert Einstein started his revolution in physics while working in a patent office! One thing that interests me is predicting what the future will look like (Alan Turing predicted computers would be capable of playing chess 50 years from when he said that, and sure enough, by 1997 they were able to do so). View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 95] »

1 hour 6 minutes

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​​What's the difference between bits and bytes? Can you talk about what a "sufficiently smart compiler" is? ​​​​Sometimes I wonder if a program can be "lifted" to an unrelated mathematical representation, in which certain transformation rules would discover a more efficient optimization than in the absence of such "lifting." I think this requires "multicompilation." View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 94] »

1 hour 2 minutes

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​​​Does evolution move toward complexity or simplicity? ​​​We should breed extremophile bacteria and algae to terraform planets by slowly exposing them to toxic atmospheres. ​​​ Can bacteria be diabetic? ​​Did Craig Venter indeed create synthetic life, or did he just change the existing species? ​​Maybe there are as many species on Earth as there are different CA rules that exhibit DNA patterns of the mechanical structure of an organism. ​​The fact that you can edit genes makes me think that so much can be done to cure disorders and diseases. ​​What if the malaria parasite has some kind of function in biological systems that we're completely unaware of? This is the kind of thing I'm always wondering about. View Less »
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