The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

Sharing Space with Astronaut Cady Coleman, Part 2

We jump right back in where we left off in Part 1 of our interview with Dr. Cady Coleman, astronaut, chemist, engineer, flautist, and most recently, the author of “Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change.” (If you missed it, listen to Part 1 here.) 
Chuck asks Cady to tell us more about NASA’s decision to not include small and extra-large spacesuits to “save space.” She explains how, a few months later, they reinstated the extra-large suits, but not the small suits that affected about a third of the women, and the serious impact that decision had.
Chuck and Cady discuss the importance of diverse perspectives in the exploration of space. And then Cady offers her ideas about how to change the world for the better and the importance of doing what you can to help the people who come next. You’ll hear about astronaut Ron Garan and his nonprofit’s efforts to provide millions of filter straws to allow people in Africa to have access to safe, clean water. And you’ll hear about how you can purposefully shift your own perspectives.
For Part 2’s first question, Anne W. a student at “The School Without Walls” in Washington, D.C., asks, “What are some common reasons as to why people don’t become astronauts after starting training?” Cady explains why that rarely happens, mostly due the quality of the candidates who make it that far. But Cady then talks about why some people who should get selected to become astronauts don’t, and she shares some of her reasoning for the applicants she’s selected. The reason Cady stresses most is that if you don’t show them who you really are on the application, they cannot pick you. And she also explains the surprising reason why some astronauts who have flown already don’t get selected to go again.
The conversation circles back to diversity and bias in NASA. Allen shares the story of test pilot Ed Dwight, which he believes reflects some racial bias. Cady, who knew Ed, talks about some of the political factors in the choice, but also what an amazing artist he became. She reflects on the importance of Sally Ride in her life, and wonders what would have happened if the original Mercury 13 had been allowed to become astronauts back in the 60s.
Charles and Allen bring up Valentina Tereshkova, the cosmonaut who became the first woman in space in 1963, and how it took until 1983 for Sally Ride to take her famous flight as the first American woman. And yes, Cady does bring up “For All Mankind!” and “the role that art and storytelling can play to move the needle a little faster.”
For our final question, Allen shares a question from our podcast producer Leslie M., who asks, “Would materials behave differently in a different universe?” Cady, a chemical engineer who studied chemistry at M.I.T. and then got her Ph.D. degree in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says yes. And that kicks off a discussion of the impact of different physics on different materials. But Cady also talks about the importance of using the compelling nature of space to drive kids to want to become more educated and to improve life here on Earth.
In addition to Cady’s new book, Cady was recently in a documentary on PBS, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV, along with her family, NASA personnel and other astronauts. It’s called “Space: The Longest Goodbye” and it’s about how we are going to send people to Mars and put the human into human spaceflight.
You can find out more about her new book and everything else she’s up to on her website, https://www.cadycoleman.com/.
To find the kind of bookstore you love that carries “Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change,” you can go to www.bookshop.org.
 
Follow Cady on Instagram, Twitter (X), and Threads: @astro_cady.
 
And please be sure to check out People Love Art, which shares 50% of their profits with their artists and donates 10% to causes of the artist’s choice: https://peopleloveart.com/. 
You can also find out more about AstroAccess (mentioned in Part 1) here: https://astroaccess.org/.
(Please note that The LIUniverse receives no compensation for these links and mentions. We just like what they’re doing in the world!)
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
3 crew members in a Soyuz space capsule – NASA/Bill Ingalls, Public Domain
Ron Garan on the space station – NASA, Public Domain
Eileen Collins in command of the Space Shuttle (STS-93) – NASA, Public Domain
Ed Dwight in the Air force – USAF, Public Domain
Bronze by Ed Dwight – Photo by Carol M. Highsmith (Public Domain), art by Ed Dwight
Jerrie Cobb of the “Mercury 13” – NASA, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #CadyColeman #NASA #astronaut #SpaceShuttle #ISS #SharingSpace #spacewalk #PeopleLoveArt #RonGaran #EileenCollins #EdDwight #JerrieCobb #Mercury13 #SpaceTheLongestGoodbye #SallyRide #ForAllMankind

Sharing Space with Astronaut Cady Coleman, Part 1

What is the overview effect? Why is slow fast when you’re spacewalking? And what would happen to Chuck and Allen’s hair in space?
 
To get the answers to these and other questions, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome back astronaut, chemist, engineer, flautist, and most recently, the author of “Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change,” Dr. Cady Coleman.
 
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a micrometeorite pit 2 microns across found on a tiny volcanic glass beat that was part of the lunar regolith collected by China’s Chang'e 5 Lunar Sample-Return Mission. On the surface of the pit is a trace of Di-Titanium Oxide (TiO2) in mineral form that can’t exist on Earth.
 
Cady, who is a material scientist, talks about how this new discovery may not be as “new” as it seems, because we have much better detection technology for detecting it in lunar samples than we had during the Apollo lunar missions. She also explains how creating materials in space, unfettered by gravity, can be very different than here on Earth. She recounts the liquid physics experiments they did on her first Space Shuttle mission and how they could lead to innovations in the development of space toilets, among other things. (To find out more about space toilets and how to pee and poop in space, check out Appendix 1 of Cady’s new book!)
 
Our first student question today comes from Violetta, a student at “The School Without Walls” in Washington, D.C., who asks, “What is your outlook on the overview effect? Cady defines the effect, and how it changes people who go into space and see the planet below them. For her, she explains, “I knew I was going to go to space, and I just thought I’d be going to a different place. Then, when I got up there, I looked back at Earth, I still felt at home. It’s just that the whole place felt like home, and home was closer than I thought.”
 
Allen follows up Violetta’s question for Cady with one from Anne W., a fellow student, who asks, “How is Space?” Cady’s answer: “Space is Awesome!” She explains that here on Earth, we grow up with limits on what we can do, how far we can run, or how fast. But, in space, we’re constantly discovering more things that you can do: ”I love the flying.”
 
You’ll hear Cady share what it was like in space during her two Space Shuttle missions and 6 months on the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 26/27. She talks about her work schedules and experimentation and the self-induced tendency to work too much, to more personal activities like looking out the window, social media posting, and even shopping – or ordering a pizza from Domino’s like Ron Garan did, hoping to earn a free pizza since there was no way they could deliver it in 30 minutes or less! What would she do differently if she went back? Sleep more and take better care of herself, which she reminds us in equally important to all of us here on Earth.
 
Next, Chuck turns to some of the big ideas in Cady’s book, starting with “Slow is fast.” While holding up the very first copy of the book Cady ever got, she talks about spacewalking and how haste can be problematic. She takes issue with the phrase, “There’s no I in TEAM” and how in real life, it’s actually about what each individual member brings to the team.
 
Part One of our interview with Cady ends with a discussion of the t-shirt she’s wearing from “People Love Art” who she met through her work with AstroAccess, a project dedicated to promoting disability inclusion in human space exploration by paving the way for disabled astronauts.
 
There’s plenty more of our interview with Cady, so please tune in in two weeks for Part 2. But, until then, you can find out more about her new book and everything else she’s up to on her website: https://www.cadycoleman.com/.
 
You can also find out more about AstroAccess here.
And please be sure to check out People Love Art, which shares 50% of their profits with their artists and donates 10% to causes of the artist’s choice.
(Please note that The LIUniverse receives no compensation for these links and mentions. We just like what they’re doing in the world!)
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Micrometeorite pit on lunar sample – Xiaojia Zeng et. al., CC BY 4.0
– Cady working on liquid experiments on the Space Shuttle – NASA, Public Domain
– Tracy Caldwell Dyson viewing Earth from the ISS – NASA, Public Domain
– Cady at work on the Shuttle – NASA, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #CadyColeman #NASA #astronaut #SpaceShuttle #ISS #SharingSpace #spacewalk #Change5 #LunarSampleReturnMission #DiTitaniumOxide #liquidphysics #Slowisfast #AstroAccess #PeopleLoveArt

Chuck GPT 3.0: Gravity, rocket Propulsion, space Tethers, and more!

Does sound travel faster in space? Is the multiverse theory true? Can gravity escape a black hole? In our latest episode of our popular “Chuck GPT” series, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome our Social Media/Patreon Community Director Stacey Severn to answer fan questions collected from Patreon patrons, students, Facebook and YouTube.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the recently released Euclid space telescope image of galactic cluster Abell 2390, which is about 2.7 billion light years away from Earth, in which more than 50,000 galaxies are visible. You’ll also hear about the Coma Cluster, the Virgo Cluster, the closest galactic cluster to us, and the planned Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Our first fan question comes from Emil R. on Patreon: “I wonder what would happen, if you tied one end of a really, really long rope to the International Space Station and have the other end hang down all the way down in the Earth's atmosphere. Would the current speed of the ISS circling the globe counteract the fact that the rope is in the atmosphere and experiencing drag? Would people on airplanes be able to see a rope swing by? Would the end of the rope on the ISS be stretched out or loose, and would it drag the ISS down in its orbit?”
Allen, who loves this question, addresses orbital velocity, drag, momentum, conservation of energy, space tethers, sky hooks, space elevators, and the ISS. Chuck talks about having seen the Tethered Satellite System trailing behind the Space Shuttle through the telescope he was using for his doctoral dissertation in the 1990s!
Our first student question comes from Michael L.: “Is the multiverse theory true?” Chuck’s answer involves eternal inflation, bubble universes, quantum mechanics, many worlds, and, somehow, Schrödinger’s cat.
From Facebook, Steven B. asks: “We all know that warp drive is still science fiction. But what is developing with other kinds of propulsion? Have we reached the limit of chemical propellants? What is happening with ion drives and nuclear systems?” Allen reviews the state of the art, including Ad Astra’s VASIMIR engine, which we covered in our 2-part episode Star Trucking with Franklin Chang-Diaz and Miranda Chang.
Our next student question is from Roberto J.: “How was gravity created?” Chuck says that while we just don’t know for certain, gravity may have come into existence during the “Plank time” at the very start of our universe before cosmic inflation began.
YouTuber @UnexpectedBooks asks, “How can gravity be “transmitted” via gravitons? It seems that a black hole would have no mass, because gravitons, like everything else, couldn’t escape it.” Chuck explains that even though definitely black holes have mass, if gravitons exist, they must be able to leave the event horizon, and Allen points out that gravitational waves do just that.
Our last student question is from Omar: “Does sound travel faster in space?” Chuck describes how sound waves travel, and why there’s enough particulate matter in space to still allow it, possibly even faster than here on Earth.
We end on a Patreon question from Eric S.: “The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a casualty of the particular mathematics we have used to explore the quantum world. If we were to adjust those mathematics to a less consistent but more complete axiomatic viewpoint, could it be possible to 'see deeper'?” Chuck and Allen’s answer involves high-order math, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, string theory and quantum mechanics.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images This Episode:
– Euclid telescope image of Abell 2390 – ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi, ESA license
– Virgo Cluster of Galaxies – Chris Mihos (Case Western Reserve University)/ESO, CC BY 4.0
– Coma Cluster of Galaxies – Nielander, Public Domain
– Hubble telescope image of Abell 2390 – NASA, ESA, & Johan Richard (Caltech, USA), Public Domain
– Roman Space Telescope under construction – NASA/Chris Gunn, Public Domain
– Space Elevator Artist’s concept – Andrei Sokolov
– The ISS in orbit – NASA, Public Domain
– The Tethered Satellite System – Space Shuttle – NASA, Public Domain (Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:STS-46_TSS-1_fully_extended.jpg)
– Many-worlds depiction of Schrödinger’s cat – Christian Schirm, Public Domain
– NEXIS Ion thruster – Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Public Domain
– Design of NASA & DARPA’s DRACO nuclear rocket – DARPA, Public Domain
– History of the universe diagram – NASA/WMAP Science Team, Public Domain
– Artist’s animation of gravitational waves – LIGO/T. Pyle, free to use
– Fourier transform of a signal – Wawo1102, Public Domain
– Waveform of same signal – Made with Desmos, Attribution
– Wavelet (Gabor) transform of same signal – Wawo1102, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #Euclidspacetelescope #galacticcluster #Abell2390 #VirgoCluster #ComaCluster #darkmatter #darkenergy #orbitalvelocity #momentum #conservationofenergy #spacetethers #skyhooks #spaceelevators #ISS #InternationalSpaceStation #TetheredSatelliteSystem #SpaceShuttle #multiverse #theoryofthemultiverse #eternalinflation #bubbleuniverses #quantummechanics #manyworldstheory #schrodingerscat #soundwaves #blackhole #gravitons #gravity #Planktime #BigBang #Heisenberguncertaintyprinciple

Composing the Cosmos – Musical Explorations of Deep Space with Bruce Lazarus

Is there really a music of the spheres? And why is space so inspirational for creativity? To ponder these cosmic questions, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome noted composer and pianist Bruce Lazarus.
 
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, this time in honor of our guest: the fact that the movie “Oppenheimer” won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Chuck mentions some other incredible musical scores, especially John William’s soundtrack to “Star Wars.” Bruce points out that Williams also did the theme song and soundtrack to the 1960s TV series, “Lost In Space.” And of course, his soundtracks for “Jurassic Park,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
 
Bruce has composed many musical pieces inspired by and about the cosmos, including
“Musical Explorations of Messier Star Clusters and Nebulae” and “Starry Messenger.”
 
He talks about how the early U.S. space program and the Mercury 7, and the U.S. World’s Fair in 1964 inspired him. And while he got away from space-themed music for a while after his time at Juilliard in the 1970s, Bruce estimates that about two thirds of his work over the last 20 years has been astronomy themed. He talks about being inspired by other musical works, from science fiction movie soundtracks like “Arrival” to a few classical pieces like “Colors of the Celestial City” and “Visions from Beyond” by Olivier Messiaen.
 
For our first student question, Ariella asks, “Is there really a music of the spheres?” To answer, Bruce quotes the 5th Century Roman philosopher Boethius, who wrote about how everything is vibrating, so everything has sound. We then listen to a portion of Bruce Lazarus’s piece, “Boethius Said.” Allen talks about how many aspects of our existence involve vibration and sound while Chuck brings up the Cosmic Microwave Background and Gravitational Wave Background.
 
Bruce talks about his cycle of 14 pieces for the solo piano inspired by the most commonly referenced Hubble images of the celestial objects found in the Messier Catalog (not to be confused with Messiaen), including Andromeda Galaxy (M31), Ring Nebula (M57), Eagle Nebula (M16), Sombrero Galaxy (M104), and the Pleiades (M45).
 
Our next student question comes from Gino, who asks, “Did you ever want to be a scientist before you became a composer?” Bruce explains that he’s always liked building things, so he began building music the way he’d built model airplanes, and at 14 years old decided he wanted to be a composer and also focused on the piano, for both composing and making money! The trio ends up discussing the original “Tron” – and believe it or not, it’s Bruce who brings it up, not our Geek-in-Chief Chuck!
 
Our last student question comes from Wally, who asks, “Why is space the most inspirational thing to you when writing music?” Bruce describes how space has been a large part of his life for as long as he can remember. He talks about the Veil Nebula, and why he didn’t include it in his Messier cycle. He also shares his experience watching the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, and how the reality of seeing it with his own eyes impacted him unexpectedly.
 
If you’d like to know more about Bruce, you can visit his website at www.brucelazaruscomposer.com.
 
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– NASA’s first astronauts, the “Mercury 7” – NASA, Public Domain
– Olivier Messiaen – Dutch National Archives, Public Domain
– Andromeda Galaxy (M31) – Kees Scherer, Public Domain
– Ring Nebula (M57) – NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell, Public Domain
– Eagle Nebula (M16) – NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Public Domain
– Sombrero Galaxy (M104) – NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Public Domain
– Pleiades (M45) – NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory, Public Domain
– Crab Nebula (M1) – NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll, Public Domain
– Veil Nebula –  Giuseppe Donatiello
– The April 8 2024 Total Solar Eclipse – NASA Headquarters / NASA/Keegan Barber
 
Credits for Music Used in this Episode:
– “Boethius Said”; Original Lyrics by Boethius, Music & Lyrics by Bruce Lazarus, performed by Cantabile Chamber Chorale, Directed by Rebecca Scott. Used with permission from Bruce Lazarus.
– “M1 Crab Nebula” from “Musical Explorations of the Messier Catalogue of Star Clusters and Nebulae.” Composed and performed by Bruce Lazarus. Used with permission from Bruce Lazarus.
 
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #BruceLazarus #MusicoftheSpheres #CharlesMessier #MessierCatalog #Boethius #BoethiusSaid #MusicalExplorationsoftheMessierCatalogue #StarClusters #Nebulae #ColorsoftheCelestialCity #OlivierMessiaen #CelestialObjects #HubbleSpaceTelescope #SolarEclipse

Cosmic Pathways with Dr. Ronald Gamble

Do gravitons exist? What are blazars? How did our universe begin? To grapple with questions on a cosmological scale, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Ron Gamble, a theoretical astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the gravitational wave background. Luckily, we have the “cosmological - gravitational wave - black hole meister dude” Ron on board as our expert to unpack the concept. Ron’s explanation involves pulsars, pulsar timing arrays, and gravitational waves. You’ll hear about how ripples in spacetime can help us date the age. Ron compares the gravitational wave background to the cosmic microwave background, how both compare to sound waves, and how we decipher them.
We interrupt Ron’s flow for an audience question from Kelly for Dr. Gamble: Do gravitons exist? Ron explains why gravitons should exist for the force of gravity the same way that particles exist for each of the other fundamental forces. (And yes, bosons and fermions get discussed.)
Next, Chuck asks Ron about his journey to NASA, a path that began when he was 4 years old with a question and continued as a search for answers to this day. You’ll hear how he learned grad school level math 2 years before grad school so he’d be ready when he needed it to study non-linear gravitational wave theory. He explains why he had to relearn how to learn math and science, and how, after that, everything else was just like “building Legos.”
He's currently studying little understood objects called “black hole lasers” – relativistic black hole jets, or blazars. You’ll hear all about them, as well as learning about the work of Roger Penrose and Dr. Reva Kay Williams, the first black woman to get a PhD in theoretical astrophysics in the U.S. which lead to a Nobel Prize in Physics –unfortunately awarded only to Penrose, as Chuck and Ron discuss.
Our next cosmological question comes from Nicholas, who asks, “Is the big bang theory in trouble?” Not in trouble, Ron says, but incomplete. We have a pretty good idea of cosmology, but we’re still testing it, and we don’t know exactly what happened or what we might find.
Ron is also a wide-ranging artist, and he shows off some of his work on the walls of his office, from artistic depictions of equations to visions of urban decay. (Sorry, podcast listeners – but Chuck does his best to describe what they look like!) If you’re interested in his work, you can find it in his new online store at www.theartoftheory.com.
Finally, Chuck asks about what it’s like to be an artist and a NASA scientist. Ron talks about his role as the Director of the NASA Cosmic Pathfinders Program.
You can keep up with Ron on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter (X) at @dr_gamble21. Or you can visit his website at www.theoreticallydrgamble.com.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Animation of a Pulsar – NASA SVS, Public domain
– The planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) – NASA, Public Domain
– The four fundamental forces – NASA, Public Domain
– A 4x4 matrix representing a tensor – Public Domain text
– A Christoffel Symbol – Public Domain text
– Illustration of a black hole jet – NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public Domain
– Dr. Reva Kay Williams – (Fair Use)
– A cosmology timeline of the universe – NASA/WMAP Science Team, Public Domain

Volcanoes on Earth and in Space with Dr. Samantha Tramontano

Volcanoes in space...supervolcanoes here on Earth... and lava lakes everywhere! To get an expert opinion on eruptions, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Sam Tramontano, a Post-Doctoral researcher in geology and Earth sciences at The American Museum of Natural History.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the Juno spacecraft’s two recent close passes (under 1000 miles) of Jupiter’s moon Io and the amazing images of volcanic activity and Io’s lava lake “Loki Patera” with an island in its center!
Allen and Samantha dive into the fascinating and little-understood mechanics of lava lakes, which continue to remain liquid at their surface and persist for years at a time despite tidal fluctuations. You’ll hear about the Erta Ale lava lake in Ethiopia and the Kilauea lava lake in Hawaii.
For our first audience question, Ellis asks, “Are there volcanoes on Venus?” Sam explains how studying volcanism on Venus is a promising avenue but that we don’t yet have a clear answer to that question. She talks about how scientists are only now untangling the Magellan mission data that suggests geologic activity on Venus.
You’ll find out how Sam, a sax player who went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (the school in Fame), ended up falling in love with geology and never looking back. And you’ll hear all about the interesting geology – including billion-year-old rocks and “mica book crystals” – that you can find in and around New York City.
Our next audience question is from Bianca, who asks, “How did global warming begin?” Samantha explains the difference between normal climate cycles and the climate crisis we’re in now as a result of human activity. We discuss the impact of volcanic super-eruptions on atmospheric CO2, including prehistoric eruptions like the three Yellowstone eruptions and the rifting of the Atlantic ocean and splitting of Pangaea. Dr. Tramontano, a self-described “Ash Lady” who is currently studying active volcanoes on Iceland’s Reykanes Peninsula, explains how we would have at least a year’s notice if something that large were to happen in the future. We end the episode with Sam describing what eruptions and cooling lava flows sound like.
If you’d like to know more about Sam, you can follow her on Instagram @samtramrox and X @samtramrox. And if you’re a young undergraduate in Earth Sciences, you should check out her YouTube channel @EarthOpticsVideos to see what rocks look like under the microscope.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Columnar basalts in the Palisades – Mark Wyman, CC BY 2.0
– The Staten Island Ferry – Estormiz, Public domain
– Jupiter and Io seen by the Juno spacecraft – Andrea Luck, CC BY 2.0
– Io’s lava lake “Loki Patera” and its island – Cropped from NASA/JPL/SwRI/MSSS/Simeon Schmauß, CC BY 3.0
– Erta Ale lava lake in Ethiopia – Alton Chang, CC BY 3.0
– Magellan Spacecraft leaving the Space Shuttle – NASA, Public Domain
– Rocks near Orchard Beach – Peter Romano, Public Domain
– Ash fall from the “Lava Creek” Yellowstone eruption – Metrodyne, Public Domain
– Volcanic calderas in Yellowstone – National Park Service, Public Domain
– January Eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula – Veðurstofa Íslands, Attribution
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #Palisades #SuperVolcano #SpaceVolcano #EarthScience #Geology #Venus #Io #ErtaAle #Kilauea #LavaLake #LokiPatera #Iceland #ReykanesPeninsula #VolcanicEruption #YellowstoneEruption #Volcanism

Neurobionics with Dr. Nicki Driscoll

How does the brain actually work? And is there anything we can do when it doesn’t? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Nicki Driscoll, CTO and Co-Founder of NeuroBionics.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the recently announced discovery of Super-Earth TOI-715 b that is within its star’s habitable zone. It’s roughly 1.5x the diameter of Earth and orbits an M-4 Red Dwarf star in a zone where liquid water could exist and be stable on the surface of the planet. And where there’s liquid water, there is the possibility for life.
Charles and Nicki quickly move from the search for intelligent to the actual activities inside the brain itself that give rise to consciousness. As Nicki points out, as incredible as it is that our brains can ponder what’s out there, it’s equally incredible how little we know about what’s inside them... especially when things go wrong in the brain.
Dr. Driscoll explains stochastic processes and brain complexity, with over a billion neurons, each behaving like its own little computer with thousands of connections with other neurons called synapses.
You’ll hear about white matter and gray matter, and what they have in common with the interstate highway system. Nicki points out how humans frequently create systems that mirror efficient systems found in nature. Chuck points out that when we map the large scale structure of the universe, including the cosmic background radiation and dark matter, it looks like a brain!
Then it’s time for a question for Nicki from the audience. Madison H. asks, “What is the most interesting thing about the brain that impacts the way humans think?” Nicki settles on the fact that the brain uses multiple mechanisms for signaling, from electrical signals in the neurons to chemical signaling via neurotransmitters and chemicals in the brain, and how they can vary due to minute differences.
Nicki explains the field of neurotechnology, where her company NeuroBionics creates devices that allow us to interact with the brain, recording and even stimulating activity in the brain. She describes the two different areas of neurotechnology.
The first, the domain of Elon Musk’s company Neuralink, is recording neural activity with brain computer interfaces that use electrodes to record brain activity and then try to decode that activity to try to help people with paralysis or who are unable to communicate.
The second area, which involves stimulating the brain, is called neuromodulation and is very useful for therapy for people with epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. NeuroBionics has developed a technique for neuromodulation that doesn’t require invasive surgery by feeding very thin fiber devices into the brain through catheters in blood vessels using the same process that neurosurgeons already use in treating strokes.
Our next question comes from Elene, who asks Nicki, “Since you have your PhD, do you think it was worth it or gratifying going through that many years of schooling?” Nicki answers with a resounding yes, for herself, but explains that it depends on your career goals.
Elene also asks, “Do you think AI will ever reach a point where it will start dangerously affecting our day to day life such as job opportunities?” Charles and Nicki agree that AI is a useful tool, especially for scientists, but that the ability to generate misinformation and deep fakes is already troubling and that, like nuclear power, we should be able to maximize the positive use while minimizing the worst excesses.
The subject turns to AI and brain science in games and science fiction, and Nicki describes the first book in a series she’s reading, called “Children of Time.” In it, a character uploads their consciousness into a computer, and act which is still most decidedly in the realm of fiction. You’ll hear about the still incomplete efforts to map the 212 neurons in the brains of C. Elegans, a simple primitive worm with a simple brain structure that scientists use to study the activity of individual neurons and small quantities of synapses.
Before we run out of time, Chuck asks Nicki whether he should freeze his brain when he dies and whether supercomputers could  be used to recreate who he is – but to find out the surprising answer to that question (or perhaps not so surprising after all), you’ll need to watch or listen to the episode.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Driscoll, follow NeuroBionics on LinkedIn or visit neurobionics.io.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Illustration of Super-Earth TOI-715 b – NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public Domain
– Map of “white matter” in the brain – Xavier Gigandet et. al. CC BY 2.5
– A growing slime mold – Christian Grenier, Public Domain
– A large-scale simulation of the universe – Andrew Pontzen and Fabio Governato, CC BY 2.0
– C. Elegans worms – ZEISS Microscopy, CC BY 2.0t
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The Great American Eclipse

The total solar eclipse is almost here! In this special episode of The LIUniverse, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu bring you both the basics and some more in-depth investigations of how eclipses work, how to see them, and what makes them so unique. This episode includes clips from Chuck’s recent public talk at the College of Staten Island to a packed house. So, if you hear some background chatter, it’s the audience getting as excited about the eclipse as we are.
 
Today’s joyfully cool cosmic thing is, of course, the eclipse itself! Dr. Liu discusses why total solar eclipses are so rare at any given spot on the planet, and how illustrations of eclipses can miss the mark. While a total eclipse will happen somewhere on Earth every year or two, each is only visible in a narrow band, so to see one you need to get lucky – or travel.
 
With a path over land stretching from Mazatlán, Mexico (where Dr. Liu saw a previous eclipse in 1991) through Newfoundland, Canada, there are already tens of millions of people in place to see this astronomical wonder this time around. Millions more will travel to join them. Since the Moon’s shadow races across the landscape at about 1,000 miles per hour, Chuck likens the visual effect to something out of Lord of the Rings.
 
Speaking of rings, the “diamond ring effect” and the “Baily’s beads” will become visible right before totality as the sun peeks through the Moon’s valleys. Chuck and Allen talk about how to protect your eyes so to enjoy these last rays of sun safely.
 
Dr. Liu shares how best to get yourself into the ~100 mile wide path of totality. One piece of advice: Don’t try to battle the traffic driving up on the morning of the 8th!
 
What if you can’t reach totality? Charles explains that 99% of the best parts of an eclipse happen in that last 1% of the eclipse where the Sun becomes completely covered. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the path of totality – Charles and Allen share cool stuff you can watch for including a method for calculating the true size of the Moon (link below).
 
Dr. Liu also explains his idea about how to have the most fun with the eclipse, and why his favorite 2017 eclipse photo isn’t a masterpiece.
 
If you’re a fan of the LIUniverse, you know we love questions. At Dr. Liu’s recent public talk at the College of Staten Island, he fielded live questions from the audience which we’ve included here. The first is about a comet called 12P Pons-Brooks that you can spot in the direction of the sun during the eclipse, perhaps just on the edge of visibility with your unaided eye.
 
The next question is about how we are able to predict eclipses so far in advance. Allen explains how the Babylonians used Lunar eclipses (or “Blood Moons”) as the key to predict Solar eclipses. Allen also adds his own calculations about where else in the solar system you can see a total eclipse – it’s often said that the Earth is the only planet where total eclipses happen, but that might only be partially correct. Also, find out where you’d need to park a spaceship to create your own eclipse whenever you want!
 
Our last question ponders why the Sun throws out such large and bright flares and coronal streamers which become visible as fiery red and ghostly white spikes coming from the Sun during an eclipse. The answer explains how the Sun is like a pot of boiling water, with some fun science terms thrown in for flavor! Can you say “magnetohydrodynamics” three times fast? We conclude the discussion with a little more Solar physics: how we’ve recently sent a space probe into those very same coronal streamers, and how the Sun is nearing the peak of its 11 year cycle, offering some bonus chances to test out your eclipse glasses.
 
The LIUniverse wants to help you have the best, safest, and most informed experience for the celestial display of the decade. We hope you enjoy this episode. Please support us on Patreon.
 
How to measure the Moon’s size.
 
Smarter Every Day’s ISS video. 
 
Credits for Images Used in Episode
– Baily’s beads, 2017 total solar eclipse – NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public Domain
– Diamond ring, 2017 total solar eclipse – NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public Domain
– The ISS in front of 2017 eclipse – NASA/Bill Ingalls, CC BY 2.0
– Comet 12P Pons-Brooks – Nielander, Public Domain
– A Total Lunar Eclipse in January 2019 – Giuseppe Donatiello, Public domain
– Phobos in front of the Sun (from Perseverance rover) – NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI, Public Domain
– Jupiter and Galilean Moons (photos combined) – NASA/JPL/DLR, Public Domain
– The bubbling surface of the Sun – NSO/NSF/AURA, CC BY 4.0
– Solar Flare seen from Skylab in 1973 – NASA, Skylab 4 crew, Public Domain
– Coronal streamers seen by Parker Solar Probe – NASA, Public Domain
– The giant sunspot in Feb. 2024 – NASA SOHO space probe, Public Domain
 
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #TotalSolarEclipse #GreatAmericanEclipse #eclipse #sunspot #coronalstreamer #solarflare #Sun #Comet12PPonsBrooks #Baily’sbeads #Diamondring #magnetohydrodynamics #Jupiter #GalileanMoons #Moon

ChuckGPT 2.0 – Three Body Problem Q&A

What is the science behind the science fiction in Three Body Problem? In our second episode of “ChuckGPT” Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome two members of our production team: Jon Barnes, our Editor, and Stacey Severn, our Social Media/Patreon Community Director, to delve into the questions and answers posed by the award-winning novel and new series on Netflix.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the recent discovery of an exoplanet by high school students in Mountain View, California in collaboration with the SETI Institute.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence and exoplanets that could bear life brings us to the topic of our second episode of ChuckGPT: Three Body Problem. Dr. Liu will be answering questions about the Hugo award-winning Chinese novel by Liu Cixin and new television series on Netflix.
Jon, it turns out, is a big fan of Three Body Problem and he has a bunch of questions about the scientific reality of the science fiction in the story, which Chuck and Allen are happy to answer. (NOTE: We tried to avoid any spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the book or seen the first three episodes of the series yet, except for the last question, which comes with a mild SPOILER ALERT.)
Jon’s first question deals with the giant antenna on Radar Peak in the story. In the series, the antenna is turned on and a flock of birds flying by drop dead as they pass.
Chuck dives into the physics of both microwave radiation and radio waves, and why even our most powerful transmitters don’t emit enough energy to have that kind of impact. Allen describes the difference between ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, further pushing the answer into the realm of science fiction, not science. Stacey asks about the relationship between magnetic fields and bird migration – Chuck explains that it is possible that magnetic transmissions could disorient the birds, but not kill them.
The next question is about whether suns can come in different colors like in the “Three Body” VR game in the story. The answer, according to Dr. Liu, is, yes – but primarily only because of their surface temperature, not their chemical makeup. Allen brings up the impact of the viewer’s atmosphere on their color perception of the star’s light.
Jon’s next questions is about lifeforms that can dehydrate themselves to survive unstable, life-threatening weather cycles and atmospheric conditions. Allen brings up the fact that tardigrades can do exactly that, allowing them even to survive in the vacuum of space. He also discusses some of the chaotic orbits we know about that could result in stable and unstable orbital periods.
Next up, Stacey asks one of Jon’s questions about whether snowflakes could be made of nitrogen and oxygen if the atmosphere is cold enough. The answer takes us from the nitrogen glaciers on Pluto to the methane rivers on Saturn’s moon Titan. And yes, depending on atmospheric pressure and temperature, there is a specific range where you could end up with nitrogen and oxygen snow.
For his last question (SPOILER ALERT), Jon asks about whether an advanced civilization could send out a message at the speed of light, and if so, could they use their sun as an amplifier to increase the strength of the signal. Allen and Chuck discuss how you might be able to use the sun for gravitational lensing, but that it would be more likely to drown out the signal than amplify it.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– The Electromagnetic spectrum. Higher energy is to the right. – Edited from NASA, Public Domain
– Janus and Epimetheus viewed by the Cassini probe – NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Public Domain
– Orbit of 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, an Earth quasi-satellite – NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public Domain
– A tardigrade – Peter von Bagh, Public Domain
– Pluto with its heart shaped Tombaugh Regio – NASA/JHU APL/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker, Public Domain
– The surface of Titan from the Huygens lander – ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; processed by Andrey Pivovarov, Public Domain
– A galaxy acting as a gravitational lens – ESA/Hubble & NASA, Public Domain
 
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #ThreeBodyProblem #microwaveradiation #radiowaves #transmitter #electromagneticspectrum #ionizingradiation #nonionizingradiation #magneticfields #birds #aliens #SETI #searchforextraterrestrialintelligence #tardigrade #nitrogensnow #Pluto #Titan #Saturn #gravitationallens

Ancient Astronomy with Hannah Liu

What does the study of archeology, the study of the human past, offer to the astronomers of today? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome archaeology expert Hannah Liu, MEd, to connect the past, the present, and the future of astronomy in an episode Allen has described as, “A Fistful of Lius.”
 
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a recent scientific paper just published by archaeologist Federico Bernardini and astronomer Paolo Molaro which suggests that a 3,000-year-old stone tablet discovered near Trieste, Italy may be the oldest European star chart yet discovered.
 
Hannah, who is an expert in archaeology, takes us back to the hilltop area where the tablet was found, which had been occupied since the Iron Age, and was more than likely a farming area. She explains how early civilizations used the stars to keep track of planting and threshing seasons, which could support the theory that the tablet has an astronomical purpose.
 
Then, it’s time for our first question. Hannah teaches History at the Pingree School in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, which is where we got the questions we answer on today’s episode. Maeve asks, “Are we the only living things on earth who have a sense of how small we are in the universe?”
 
The Lius answer includes ancient Greeks, sea turtles who use stars for directions and moths that fly towards light thinking it’s the moon, and the beginnings of astronomy and astrology! Hannah explains how constellations and asterisms are cross-cultural, even though they have different names. In particular, The Pleiades is an example of star cluster relevant to cultures around the world.
 
Coming back to that 3000-year-old star chart, Hannah breaks down the 29 markings on the tablet, and how 28 of them are connectable to constellations that we know like Scorpius, Cassiopeia The Pleiades, and Orion. However, the 29th marking, near Orion’s Belt, still remains a mystery, and until we can pin it down, we can’t definitively claim it’s really a star chart.
 
Our next question comes from Abby, who asks, “Where do you think human involvement in space exploration is going?” Allen runs down the planned manned missions beyond low Earth orbit, where we haven’t gone since our last trip to the moon in 1972, along with the reasons we haven’t. We also hear how the stars were very important to ancient explorers like the Greeks and the Phoenicians, as well as the ancient Polynesian Wayfinders, who used the stars as their guides in their ongoing excursions around the world.
 
After brief sojourns into Star Trek and The Odyssey, we dive into ancient alien visitors, gods, and supernatural forces. Hannah points out the inherent Western biases in theories that “ancient aliens” were responsible for building the Pyramids and other impressive accomplishments that just happened to have been created in non-Western cultures of the past.
 
Charles explains that in the past, some people who used science and astronomy, like midwives and scientists, were accused of witchcraft and other equally disparaging and unfounded claims. This could create a divide between science and religion, but luckily, not an unbridgeable one – you’ll hear about Gerbert of Aurillac, a scientist who became Pope Sylvester II and brought the Abacus back to Europe, and how the Catholic Church itself established the Vatican Observatory which has made numerous discoveries over the years.
 
Finally, we get into the history and anthropology of museums, a subject about which Hannah will be teaching a course in the upcoming semester. What is the role of a museum? Is it science, education, or something else? Is it a place where we hold our treasures, or, increasingly, one where we recognize we hold other people’s treasures, some of which were once plundered and taken from those people against their desires? And yes, we do bring up situations like the Elgin Marbles and the British Museum’s refusal to return those artifacts to Greece... especially in light of the new U.S. law regarding repatriation of artifacts.
 
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– 3,000-year-old stone tablet from Italy – Bernardini et al., CC BY-SA 4.0
– Trieste in Italy – F l a n k e r, Yiyi, and Allen Liu, Public Domain
– Sirius (bottom) in the night sky – Akira Fujii, Public Domain
– A thresher (Thanks Jon.) – SteveStrummer, Public Domain
– NASA’s SLS Rocket – NASA/Joel Kowsky, Public Domain
– SpaceX’s Starship rocket under construction – NASA, Public Domain
– Austronesian societies range – Obsidian Soul, CC BY 4.0
– Gerbert of Aurillac, Pope Sylvester II – Meister der Reichenauer Schule, Public Domain
– Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona – Andromeda321, Public Domain
– Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum – Ejectgoose, Public Domain
– Map of Latin-descended languages in Europe – Servitje, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #starchart #astrology #astronomy #TheOdyssey #Scorpius #Cassiopeia #ThePleiades #Orion #OrionsBelt #GerbertofAurillac #PopeSylvesterII #CatholicChurch #VaticanObservatory #NASA #SLS #SpaceX #Starship #ElginMarbles #BritishMuseum #PolynesianWayfinders #Greeks #Phoenicians