Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (151 videos)

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

New episode streaming Friday, November 15, at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 25] »

1 hour 29 minutes

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Can you explain computational irreducibility like you're telling a 6 year old? How different is nanotechnology manufacturing different from normal manufacturing? What is the historical relationship between chemistry and physics? Is chemistry a sub-branch of physics? Can aging really be cured? Isn't death a fundamental factor of evolution to more sophisticated beings? What about the "immortal jellyfish"? Is there anything more terrifying than living forever? If there is ethical problems with eternal life what kind of issues would it be is it about resources and if so are our resources finite? Will there be nanomachine that reprogram cells to prolong life or even make life go on forever? Is infinity a semi-theological concept? Is infinity beyond counting and measuring -- and therefore not fundamentally an empirical concept? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 24] »

1 hour 32 minutes

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Is there a physical principle that governs Moore's law? Why is there so much available computation? If F=ma, and photons have a mass of 0, how can light sails work? Do photons have some properties of having mass? As of right now, what do you anticipate will be the outcome of the Wolfram Physics Project? What practical applications will it have? What is more difficult for you to create things or to explain how they work to others? As your Physics Project shed any light on the protein folding problem? If you squint right, there seems to be a connection. How does black hole merging work? Is there any theory about what type of particles a potential black hole would be made off? What's your experience and opinion about Alchemy and is it possible to incorporate a modernized version of it into Mathematica? What do we know about the nature of time travel? Will time machines as depicted in science fiction stories remain fiction for the foreseeable future? Can there be architectures that do not seem to make sense that simply have higher order of complexity not dependent on binary arithmetic circuits? That will be used in future? I am currently in high school, what advice would you give to an aspiring mathematician? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 23] »

1 hour 23 minutes

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Why is that the sunspot cycle is important for shortwave radio? What aspects of the origin of life would be interesting to investigate with current computing tools? How does 3d printing work and what is its potential? How do you think like a mathmatician or scientist? Question about people being taught/educated by AI What is the difference between science and philosophy? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 22] »

1 hour 23 minutes

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Where were you in the dot com bubble burst and your wisdom was needed? What work did you do at Bell labs? Who did you meet? Was it the need in telephone grid that drove the innovation of the transistor? How many shirts do you own? Are there any string theorists who believe that nature is finite and digital? Great scientists typically have great students. Is it because something is transferred from a teacher to a student or because talented people try to reach outstanding supervisors? What age do you think is the best age to start coding? And why? What does it mean 'correlation does not imply causation'? Can you give an example what you will do with Wolfram language if you were 13 years old? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 21] »

1 hour 36 minutes

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I was wondering about your thoughts on Claude Shannon, information entropy, and information theory in general. I believe this field is responsible for so much technology and progress around us, but doesn't get its due praise in the mainstream. What books / exercises are best to take me from a high school level physics / mathematics understanding to being able to make sense of the wolfram physics model? Why is the core of the Earth as hot as the surface of the sun? Fusion or fission? Is this true of many planets/moons in our solar system? What good and bad aspects are there to being financially successful? How did your life change when you first became a millionaire? If you got a chance to talk to Richard Feynman, right now in 2020, and ask only one question, what would it be? It is 'easy' to make a bot for every video game? How god ant-bot detection methods can be? What outreach do you do for students in a similar situation as I was in, to help people succeed as I did? Any plans on increasing that outreach? View Less »

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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 20] »

1 hour 29 minutes

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For a math/science career, what is the most useful subject to study in school excluding math/science? What was your favorite non-science class(subject) in school? Does a charged battery weigh more than a discharged battery? How can scientist Measure Atomic number for every element, electron mass and speed? Is there an accessible book about the history of computation that you would recommend? If it's true sound can be transmitted more easily in solids compared to gases, why can we hear better through air compared to through walls or glass? Why are mirrors made with glass? Would a mirror made with a different material have different reflective properties? What was your first computer Dr. Wolfram? How long have you known Donald Knuth? Wow Stephen u went to Caltech and Oxford! Would you recommend them? Golf ball have dimples that allow them to move faster. Why cars and planes don't have dimples? When you say that in philosophy everyone can think about fundamental questions: why is that the case in philosophy but not in physics or maths? Why does philosophy not have a similar rigid corpus of theory as "harder science" have? View Less »

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