Stephen Wolfram Livestreams

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others (159 videos)

Weekly ask-me-anything about science & technology

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New episode streaming Friday, May 23, 2025 at 3:30pm ET. Submit your questions

Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 147] »

1 hour 28 minutes

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How do galaxies form? Is it true that animals can sense earthquakes? How? Why can't humans? I always found it fascinating how birds pick up those fields to "get directions" on where to fly. People with joint pain can often sense air pressure and humidity changes, and some develop a sense for when the weather will change as a result ("My knee hurts; the weather will change soon."). What is the difference between speed and acceleration? If energy is conserved, how we do we run out of it? How do mutations or radiation effects affect biological evolution? How size dependant is the universe? Could it be possible to create a mini-galaxy within a controlled environment here on Earth? Is there fusion going on in a black hole? Closet-sized black holes would explain all the missing socks... View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 146] »

1 hour 35 minutes

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What is muography? How are elements created? Are they finite? I wonder if graphene might be useful in neutrino detection, but maybe I'm underestimating how small a neutrino is. So if a chunk of a neutron star fell off, then all the neutrinos fell off? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 145] »

1 hour 20 minutes

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If you had to explain your "Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive Processes" blog to middle-school students, how would you begin that discussion? What is convergent evolution? Different genotypes come to the same phenotype—did I remember that right? Regarding your blog, ​​I think it might be interesting to run rules toward each other from opposite sides and adaptively evolve them for length. Cells that both rules would affect are won by the rule with more width. ​​Do you think life existed before it did on Earth? What is the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems in biological evolution? ​​About life: follow the water. ​​​​Did microorganisms have teachers? Who was the Einstein of microorganisms? If you put A LOT of laser in ONE spot, would that create matter? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 144] »

1 hour 8 minutes

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How rare was the recent New Jersey earthquake? How can we predict future earthquakes? The Indian Plate is moving very fast. It's increasing the height of Mt. Everest by six centimeters every year. I wonder if digging for oil and fracking, etc., have any effect on the plates? How do earthquakes cause tsunamis? It seems like studying underwater earthquakes vs. those on land might be a good way to investigate the "lubrication effect." Solitary waves were discovered by the naval architect John Scott Russell in 1834. Anything particularly interesting or surprising from the solar eclipse? It appeared that leading up to it, between the book and website, it was better understood than any previous solar eclipse before it happened. Now that it has happened, what interesting findings have there been, if any? What causes Earth to have different biomes? Why is there only one species of human? What happened to Neanderthals? How do astronomers determine the composition of planets and stars that are light years away from us? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 143] »

1 hour 13 minutes

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Can you explain eclipse prediction like I'm in middle school? High school? College? Is it possible to view an Eclipse from space? Do astronauts on the space station see anything during eclipses? ​​​​Related to the eclipse, it is interesting that the Moon always shows the same side to Earth. Why is that? (I've heard about commensurate frequencies, but I'm not sure about the origin of this fact.) ​​​​How are orbits in the solar system so stable over time? I wonder if it would have any effect if the Moon did rotate with respect to the Earth? If the Moon were spinning fast, it would probably still have a liquid core, I think? ​​​​If the Moon were to be broken apart, leading to a debris field impacting Earth, what models exist to predict the scale of these impacts and their potential effects on global climate, ecosystems and people? Is predicting eclipses harder than predicting the motions of planets or comets? Can LLMs do math? When will the AIs start colonizing space? When we have large models of all sorts of other stuff, will LLMs' primary role not actually be as the interpreters between humans and our tools? Can't we look into the brain to find out what types of transformers or even other things we need in LLMs? View Less »
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Science & Technology Q&A for Kids & Others:
Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and Others) [Episode 142] »

1 hour 32 minutes

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What is the reason behind an eclipse? How does it happen? Can we still be wrong about the position of Earth and its motion, or is that debate over? Earth's moon is important for the tides and for the world climate. Weren't there experiments reflecting lasers off the Moon before the Apollo missions? Do other planets experience eclipses? View Less »
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