Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others: Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 56] »

1 hour 17 minutes

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Is programming essential for the next breakthroughs in neuroscience, both theoretical and practical? If yes, how, and is Wolfram Language enough to fulfill that purpose? Any opinions on "smart drugs" like custom-made neuropeptides that increase NGF (Dihexa, etc.)? Is the Crick–Mitchison theory of REM sleep essential for understanding how mammalian brains work? Can you comment on the history of plant breeding and computation? Or agriculture as a technology? It seems that old plant breeders think new molecular breeding techniques are a waste of time and money. Modern breeders are using genomic selection with SNPs and gBLUP models. The history of most of our crops is very complicated, usually involving strange hybrids. Will the future bring surveillance and all-knowing government or deep fakes and other things that could be used to fake identity, both physical and digital, in order to get rid of government presence? View Less »

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 55] »

1 hour 4 minutes

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Is doing science something intrinsic to the human species, so that if humanity were to be restarted, would science emerge afresh? Can Wolfram talk about pseudo-linear congruential random number generators? Stephen, do you think that we as parents should control how much time our kids spend on computers and smartphones? Is it possible to have "many internets"—internet outside of this current internet? Will nations be able enforce firewalls if someone is connecting to Starlink? What's your vision for the future and how do your current students fit into that vision? View Less »

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 54] »

1 hour 29 minutes

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Is it possible for there to be a different world or civilization deep in the oceans that we do not know about? What do you think about civilization going to Mars? Why do the planets orbit in the same plane? Are Phobos and Deimos also on the same plane, considering they're asteroids that were grabbed by Mars and now orbit it? What makes a planet a planet? Why do most planets, stars and galaxies seem to spin the same way? What did NASA do to avoid astronauts getting great amounts of cosmic rays? How exactly do you detect muons? I'm going to be taking a class next year that has a big, fun project at the end of the semester that includes potentially making something that detects muons. Why is water a good radiation shield if it has low atomic numbers inside? Why does an iron core result in a supernova? How do nuclear blasts affect computers? View Less »

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 53] »

51 minutes

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Hi, Stephen. Why does the universe exist? In a recent interview, you said that you have been considering this over the past month. When was the last time you weren't the smartest person in the room? If all knowledge about physics was to be lost, which theory would be most difficult to rediscover in your opinion and why? Wolfram|Alpha uses a curated knowledge graph rather than some Wikipedia crowdsourced approach. You had a bunch of people in an office authoring a lot of data for it, correct? Or does it draw from other databases? Kids and teenagers are less and less interested by mathematics. What do you think is the reason for this? How would you change it? View Less »

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 52] »

1 hour 15 minutes

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How can I, as a hobbyist computational explorer, experiment with multiway hypergraphs in areas other than physics? I am interested in information science, but have not taken computer science yet. How can one convince the scientific community it has inadvertently accepted a false result, when the bug is subtle? Can a virus mutate and replicate again and again in your own body while the immune system is fighting it? And every time the immune system figures out one form of it and kills it, there is already a new form replicating? A viral cat-and-mouse game, so to speak. Do you think that there could be some low-hanging fruit to be collected in biology? I feel like all the smartest people chose to study physics or math, and I wonder if more should go into biology. What techniques do you use to memorize information when studying in such broad fields? Thank you! Do you have any opinions as to why Mars One failed? They went bankrupt in 2019. Mars One had a massive recruitment drive from 2012-ish for people to go to and colonize Mars by 2023. How do we know that gravity is not a "pushing force" instead of a pulling force? Do we for certain know that "dark matter" is not caused by shielding of this pushing force ("dark matter" being an artifact in this case and not a real thing)? If time stops in a black hole, does that mean all matter in the black hole stops aging? Why do we need to super-cool materials (for superconductors or quantum systems)? Why can't we drive them mechanically at a set frequency, so "cool" them preferentially in one direction? What is the difference between science and technology and how do they complement each other? View Less »

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 51] »

1 hour 16 minutes

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Can you define the "scientific method"? What is a double-blind randomized control trial? What caused the split between the evolutionary paths of plant life and animal life? Why haven't any animals evolved to be the same size as large dinosaurs? For example, the T. rex and Brontosaurus were massive creatures. I'm only 12, but how do you deal with detractors? I hear some things about you—it does sound like jealousy, if I'm honest—but regardless, how do you continue on your path and disregard the critics? View Less »

Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (152 videos)