Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (160 videos)

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

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New episode streaming Friday, July 25, 2025 at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [Episode 154] »

1 hour 16 minutes

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My question is, When we transfer an electric charge to a conducting sphere, does this charge cause some metal atoms to become ions? If they do not become ions, where do the electrons go? If they become ions, then their chemical properties must also change. Which answer is correct? In the recent LA fires, I've seen buildings burned but plants and trees next to them just fine. Is there some physical or chemical reason why the plants are fine and buildings not? Do photons collide? The light coming to us and the light going back to the source? I have a question about antimatter. What do we use to contain antimatter? How would you think about photons as a 10-year-old? What's an easy explanation? What is antimatter anyway? Is it supposed to be something that pairs up with matter to maintain some kind of conservation law? Are we unintentionally leaving behind a time capsule with light waves? Will scientists of the future be able to look back in time through light? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [Episode 153] »

1 hour 27 minutes

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What is computation? How does matter go from randomly moving particles to something that starts "computing"? My son watched The Matrix for the first time the other night. He asked me, "Are we living in the matrix?" How can we know one way or another? ​​Is binary the most effective form of computation? Do you think we will ever be able to observe a graviton? Is it possible a "universe" exists that has no equivalent of "mass," which could be in the same place and time as we are but is not observable by us? Any thoughts on the developing situation with dark matter? Why do all objects take a spherical shape in space, but the solar systems and galaxies take a disc-like shape? Please share some more insights while you and Christopher were working on the movie Arrival as science consultants. Tell us more about the ideas from the movie and how they are currently being developed. If there's antimatter, is there antimass? Can we build a massage chair based on gravitational waves? Could the differences in time perception between ourselves and aliens affect our abilities to interact and be a contributing factor or solution to the Fermi paradox? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [Episode 152] »

1 hour 22 minutes

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In class, we learned that light behaves like both a wave and a particle. How is that even possible? My teacher said there's no "up" or "down" in space. Why is that, and how do astronauts navigate? Is the universe as small as it is big? When will we reach the physical computer chip size limit? I heard in two, three years. I also heard that quantum computer chips are still far away. Is this true? Can you elaborate on it? How do you expect propagation of light in your model to work out? Will you get frequency-dependent propagation like in a normal elastic solid or independent propagation? If light has no mass, how can gravity, like from a black hole, pull it in? Doesn't that break the rules? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [Episode 151] »

1 hour 20 minutes

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​​​​As a computer scientist and now physics student, I would love to ask you what makes you think that our universe is an automata, and how does it run if the medium is itself? Does the universe have a halting probability or the ruliad? Aren't we just describing our perception of the universe instead of the actual universe? What would Kant say about the ruliad? What is your view on atoms being able of cognition and self-awareness in the human brain by just assembling themselves? The ruliad contains its own encoding function and it is instantiated. The simpler the function, the better. Can we look at free will as probability distributions in the ruliad? What happens in the ruliad during overlap of two free wills? What "runs" the ruliad? Computers run computer programs. Mathematicians do thinking and write on paper to prove theories. In every case I can think of, for information to be "processed," there has to be some sort of processor intelligence doing the work. What is it the equivalent for the ruliad? If there isn't an intelligence running it, why does it follow rules? ​​​​What if the observer is a computational system? Maybe each species of observer conflates all their threads into a different identity mapping of the ruliad. Each species' encoding function is a distinct identity mapping, speciation's blueprint. Perhaps we should replace school grades with "extent to which you have captured the ruliad." Could you explain what infinity is? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [Episode 150] »

1 hour 27 minutes

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May I ask a simple question? What aspects or elements of a probability distribution can be computed or quantified, and how are these computations used to describe the distribution? Why are some creatures nocturnal? Why aren't humans? Is the normal distribution related to the complexity of the dynamics, or is it found equally at all scales? ​​Does pi have a normal number distribution? ​​​​Google says the average human height is 5'9"—​​it's 5'10" in the US. I read that there is a puzzle over why no new body plans developed since the Cambrian. In your machine learning view of adaptive evolution, what's happening here? Apparently Japanese kids are getting taller, correlated with red meat consumption. ​​Do you think there are so many variables that it's impossible to figure out? Everyone knows about corn syrup, but there are also things like smoking was very common, etc. ​​​​What kinds of diseases that have afflicted humanity for almost all of our history would stunt growth? If you consume less energy, your processes including various damage and aging slow down, right? Could we have evolved out of needing an appendix because of diet? Is it possible to measure somehow the intelligence of dinosaurs? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [Episode 149] »

1 hour 26 minutes

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​​​​Can machine learning find a pattern in all animal languages? ​​Cat: "Meow." Translation: "What a glorious day to be alive. I think I will frolic in the fields and catch myself some field mice for my tea. Then I shall sit down and ponder the nature of the universe." What is time? ​​If the rules repeat a state, does that mean time has gone backwards? ​​So less computation allowed for the progression of time? Time slows down the faster you go? ​​Communication speed between Mars and Earth is not instantaneous. So wouldn't both the sender and the receiver never have real-time data of what was happening on both planets? We on Earth may only find out that something terrible happened on Mars after it's too late, correct? ​​​​Is there an "objective" time in Wolfram physics? Is the "frame rate" the same everywhere? How do I prove that matter is made of atoms? How would you solve 100/4(2+3)? View Less »
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