Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

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

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

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New episode streaming Friday, December 27, at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 38] »

1 hour 14 minutes

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​Why does Occam's razor work? ​Stephen, do you know how to cook? ​How would you explain the goal of your physics project to a 5 year old? ​Yuval recently indicated that the next pandemic (crisis) will be an attack on the internet. What do you think? ​What did you think about that strange shaped asteroid passing the solar system, which caused speculation it was an interstellar voyager? ​Going back to the original thoughts of the "net" but based on new but now almost existing tech/Software? The important part of the attack on the Iranian Uranium system was that it was done through the electric grid and not the "internetgrid". Explaining how that is relevant and possible would be enlightening to many. That can be made a mainly physics answer. ​In the Wikipedia article for Outmuamua they say "it did exhibit non‑gravitational acceleration" - what does that mean? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 37] »

1 hour 30 minutes

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Why is there a size limit for a planetary body in the universe? Is the size of Jupiter the largest that is possible? What happens to the electrons before the sun fusion occurs? Why does it take up to 100,000 years for a photon to go from the core to the surface of the sun while only 8 minutes to reach earth? How does one solve more-than-one electron systems? When an atom absorbs a photon and then the same atom emit a photon... is that the same photon? Is it true that the speed of light as we know it is an accepted assumption and the "one way" speed of light could not be calculated because the time measuring instruments can never be synced due to relativity? so we can only measure the speed of light beaming and returning from an object and assuming that the speed in both ways is the same? So what happen to materials as metals if you cool them down in cooling fluids, for example we have Helium in a container with the metal and we cool it down to a fluid. Dirac talk a lot about the constants of nature and our inability to explain them. Have we come any further in explaining them since his passing? What about the triple/critical point? (i forget the name, but its the temp and pressure where a substance exists as gas & liquid & solid) How would you suggest getting a child interested in diving deep into science and tech? Not just web programming but something real. What if the kid's parents aren't very interested themselves? Can the kid be 'saved' so to speak? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 36] »

1 hour 34 minutes

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Is sociology a real science? Can it predict something? Should we use Inductive reasoning in science? What is a number? Would computer processing speed increase if we had a compendium of mathematical proofs? What's the worst computer bug you have ever had? What was the simplest computer bug that you couldn't figure out? How quickly is technology advancing at the moment? Is science reliable in the grand scheme of things? How is it possible to overcome this sort of self doubt? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 35] »

1 hour 10 minutes

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If you couldn't be a human, what animal would you want to be and why? What technology is necessary for us humans to be able to provide an evolutionary "update" to any of our sensory organs? Are there any implication of standardizing the identification of chemical signatures of odours? Is the fact that L-glucose and D-glucose taste the same mean that taste is not sensitive to chirality? Can the spectrometry for smell and taste be based on a saline scale? Do the neurons in the brain form a spatial manifold? Are the connections mostly local or non local? What happens with people with diabetes? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 34] »

1 hour 28 minutes

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How does the Bloomberg Terminal work? Did that guy find his satellite by the way? or did it just float off into space or lose power? What are Feynman Diagrams? How do holograms work and why don't we have more holographic technology? How do holograms work and why don't we have more holographic technology? How closely do you follow the field of AI? Is it possible, with quantum tunnelling, that eventually, long in the future, the universe will have mostly, or even a large proportion of, 'iron stars'? How would iron stars affect planets with iron cores orbiting these stars? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 33] »

1 hour 17 minutes

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What's that nested circular artifact on the shelf behind you (next to the spikey)? what math concept could it be used to teach? Does the pattern of shell formation have a mathematical 'scheme'? Do you think lifeforms have a baseline program that is informed and "coded" by our environment and experiences? if so is that baseline program evolving over generations or is it hard wired? Epigenetics if you don't chew on hard food for hundreds of years your jaws will get small your teeth will be crooked you'll have trouble breathing at night, etc. How did butterflies with their 4-stage life cycle evolve, where only the last stage is capable of reproducing? How do bean plants find their poles to climb up? How would you recommend developing a work ethic to get into science and technology as someone who is younger and a beginner? Why don't trees or plants resonate and break in high winds like tall buildings or towers? View Less »
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