Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (158 videos)

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

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New episode streaming Friday, May 9, 2025 at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 8] »

1 hour 24 minutes

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​How Alan Turing Cracked the Enigma code? ​Can you explain Newton second law of motion, please? Hello, how much of Science is kept secret, either classified by the military or waiting for monetization inside private research labs? How should we understand the double-slit experiment with light? If light is made of particles whose quantum wave functions interfere, producing the diffraction pattern we see? Or is light an electromagnetic wave that produces an interference pattern like any other wave phenomenon? How does this work? Why does no time pass at the speed of light? Computers were inspired in particular by Turing works, right? Ada Lovelace, a woman that was the first programmer. Where does the word compute in English come from? Why is the Von Neumann CPU architecture still dominating instead of more parallel solutions? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 7] »

59 minutes

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​How does one imagine a colour they've never seen before? ​Why does blue light prevent you from sleeping? ​What advice would you give to learn real analysis? ​What happens when you cry in space? ​Who is the most underrated scientist? ​How did the early universe manage to get mixed up enough that it is roughly the same? ​Lights shining and X-rays and crystals, diffraction of something and arrangement of atoms in crystals [fourier transform]. ​How does one see colors? ​Radio waves from the planets, when transformed into the audio spectrum, sound so very strange. Why do they sound so spooky? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 6] »

1 hour 27 minutes

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​What actually happens with my computer when it crashes? ​How come that the humidity inside the cloud is 100% and right next to it is practically zero? What is the answer to that? ​What is your opinion Leonhard Euler or Albert Einstein? ​How important is money in science? ​Is there a maximum limit on temperature based on the fact that particles cannot reach or exceed the speed of light? How to choose what to work on? Any advice for someone who has just graduate college with a STEM degree and is interested in graduate school? I'm interested in molecular biology/biochemistry if relevant. What/who is Nicolas Bourbaki, and how was it created? Do you think only rich people can "do" science? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 5] »

52 minutes

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​Hello, why is the P=NP problem considered so difficult to solve? ​How can they solve Fermat's last theorem? How many hours do you spend reading everyday? How do I learn something? Stephen, do you prefer to read on paper or on a screen? ​How often do you use the book "A Latin Dictionary Lewis and short" doing science? is it useful? While learning new field, what's your opinion on whether it's better to start from modern digested source materials or going after origins and history when the field was just being formulated? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 4] »

1 hour 47 minutes

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​Considering the Star Trek Universal Translator, what size samples of an unknown language would be needed to begin to understand it? ​Is the best way to profit off mars exploration the selling of intellectual property gained from research done there? Can you think of any other ways? Latin had arbitrary order. Hello Stephen! I really admire your work, do you have an advice for all those teenagers who want to discover a new kind of Science? Just as you did! How do you feel about: Academia vs. Self made men. Is there a place for natural self-taught talent? Do you think language is evolutionary inevitability of consciousness, i.e if you find sentient life, you will find a language that the consciousness communicates in? As a corollary, given a language can you find a consciousness behind it? Hello, I am a physics teacher, what is your opinion about teaching physics today? ​Hi, thanks a lot for doing this, what's your take on autonomous cars and how long till they become feasible? ​What books would you recommend to a curious teen, looking forward to learning more about science and getting more concrete knowledge? ​How do you go about building a team around you to solve the problems you want to work on? ​Stephen, business is part of your life. Could you share some of your business knowledge with us, maybe writing some blog posts about it? ​What's the future of fiat currency? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 3] »

1 hour 41 minutes

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​What is about imaginary number are this real and what it represent? ​How can split atom and why is difficult? ​Is making an arc reactor (Iron Man) possible? ​Beryllium experiment resulted in a 5th force -> what is that and how does it work? ​From Thomas (age 10): Are there more substances or elements that work like palladium? ​Where does the energy come from to emit all these virtual gluons? ​Is helium3 and moon minerals will be useful for fusion? If a matter black hole collided with an antimatter black hole of the same mass, would the explosion be contained to a new black hole? Is there anything special about the size of animals on earth that makes us conscious? Could the weather system on large planets, or galaxies be conscious? How is something like a physical push or friction force explained in terms of the 4 fundamental forces? Has a question about "hard light" been asked? As in keeping photons still. (not a light saber, or laser beam, but like hard light that you could "walk on". Something along those lines) But it is still unknown whether antimatter gravitates or anti gravitates for certain? Thank you for streaming Stephen! Do you prefer Stephen or Steve or something else? View Less »
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