

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Big Bang Productions Inc.
Think like a physicist. Wonder like a human. Into the Impossible is where Cosmic Conversations happen — uniting Nobel Prize winners, iconoclasts, authors, and technologists to explore reality’s deepest questions. From AI to aliens, from biophysics to the brain, from the cosmos to the multiverse, Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego covers it all.If you’ve ever asked What’s out there? or What’s next?, this is where curiosity meets clarity.Learn to think like this. 🎙 Full episodes, notes & more: briankeating.com/podcast
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 7, 2020 • 52min
Brian Keating Interviews Richard Panek about The Trouble With Gravity (#032)
Books mentioned:The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet Empiricism, heavens and earth, gravity in history, god, religion, and politics, a thrilling tour guide from ancient concepts to the very present. The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality Richard Panek is most recently the author of The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet, published in July 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. His previous book, The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, received the Science Communication Award from the American Institute of Physics. He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Antarctic Artists & Writers grant from the National Science Foundation, and a Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His own books have been translated into sixteen languages, while his collaboration with Temple Grandin, The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, was a New York Times best-seller and the recipient of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2013. He also co-wrote the giant-format 3D museum movie ROBOTS [[CUT: 3D]], a National Geographic production. He has been a monthly columnist for Natural History magazine and a regular contributor to The New York Times. Two of his previous books also cover the history of science for non-specialist readers, Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens (Viking, 1998), and The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud and the Search for Hidden Universes (Viking, 2004).EducationMFA in Fiction, University of IowaBS in Journalism, Northwestern University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 21, 2019 • 32min
UC San Diego Alumnus, Nanome.ai Co-Founder & CEO Steve McCloskey interviewed by Stuart Volkow (#031)
https://nanome.ai/@StevenMcCloskeySteve McCloskey is an Alumni from the first class of Nanoengineering at the University of California, San Diego. Steve’s work is focused on emerging technologies applied to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). During his time at UC San Diego Steve worked directly with the founding Chair of the Nanoengineering Department, Ken Vecchio helping set the foundation for the Nanoengineering Materials Research Center and developing thermodynamic processing methods for Iron-based Superelastic alloys. After graduating from UCSD he founded Nanome Inc to build Virtual Reality solutions for Scientists and Engineers working at the nanoscale, specifically protein engineering and small molecule drug development. Steve is also a founder of the Matryx blockchain platform which provides a secure framework for collaborative design and development for STEM. Nanome is transforming how we interact with and understand science, creating a virtual world where users can experiment, design and learn at the nanoscale. We’re building an open platform to solve age-old problems of collaboration, incentivization and siloed information – creating a world with open access to science & technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 20, 2019 • 37min
Brian Keating Interviews Jim Gates about Proving Einstein Right, supersymmetry and other mysteries (#030)
Proving Einstein Right on Amazon Jim Gates is the Ford Foundation Professor of Physics, and the Director of The Brown University Theoretical Physics Center. He is a 2013 recipient of the National Medal of Science He was a Distinguished University Professor, University System of Maryland Regents Professor, John S. Toll Professor of Physics, and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory. Gates is well known for his pioneering work in supersymmetry and supergravity, and his 1977 doctoral dissertation on supersymmetry earned him a prominent place in the early development of the field, as did the 1984 book he co-authored, Superspace, or One thousand and one lessons in supersymmetry, which is widely considered the first comprehensive book on the subject. His study of string theory and supersymmetry has recently led Gates to develop an interest in what are called adinkras. Adinkra symbols are graphical representations of supersymmetric algebras named after symbols created by the Asante people. Adinkras may help us understand the structure of the universe, although Gates cautions, “most of the time when we make up ideas, they’re wrong. However, when we get it right, it’s amazing.” Gates is also a pioneer in another respect, having been the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major U.S. research university. He comes to Brown with a mission to increase the participation of historically underrepresented groups in the sciences. Gates is a former scientific advisor to President Barack Obama, Gates is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the board of trustees of Society for Science & the Public, and one of the USA Science and Engineering Festival’s “Nifty Fifty.” More information on Professor Jim Gates https://sites.brown.edu/sjgates/ Other books by Cathy Pelletier@Dr_JimGates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 20, 2019 • 1h 6min
Brian Keating interviews Sean Carroll about his book Something Deeply Hidden & Many Worlds (#029)
Buy Sean’s books on AmazonFind Sean Carrol online and listen to his Mindscape podcast Sean Carroll on Joe RoganSean M. Carroll is a Research Professor of Physics at CalTech. He is a theorist who thinks about the fundamental laws of nature, especially as they connect to cosmology. His research involves theoretical physics and astrophysics, especially cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. He has worked on questions involving dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, violations of Lorentz invariance, extra dimensions, topological defects, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, causality violation, black holes, and the cosmological constant problem. Currently, most of his attention is focused on the origin of the universe and the arrow of time, including the roles of inflation, baby universes, and quantum gravity.Quantum mechanics is the most important idea in physics, and physicists themselves readily admit that they don’t understand it. But rather than treating this situation as an urgent call to action, they have traditionally pretended that the problem isn’t there. In Something Deeply Hidden, Sean Carroll argues that this situation is embarrassing and unnecessary, as we do have a very promising way of understanding quantum reality: the Many-Worlds theory, pioneered by Hugh Everett. This book demystifies the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, explains the Many-Worlds approach at a level never previously attempted in a popular work, and argues that an improved understanding of the foundations of quantum mechanics is crucial to making progress on quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 14, 2019 • 39min
Dan Hooper discusses his book At The Edge of Time (#028)
At The Edge of TimeDan Hooper is a senior scientist and the head of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He is also Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Hooper received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was later a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the David Schramm Fellow at Fermilab.Dr. Hooper’s research focuses on the interface between particle physics and cosmology, covering topics such as dark matter, dark energy, supersymmetry, neutrinos, extra dimensions, and ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. He has authored more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and he has given an even larger number of technical talks at scientific conferences and university seminars and colloquia.Dr. Hooper is the author of three books written for nonscientists: Dark Cosmos: In Search of Our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy, Nature’s Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force, and At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe’s First Seconds.He has also written for popular magazines such as Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, and New Scientist. He gives many public lectures and is frequently called on by the media to comment on science news. Dr. Hooper’s television appearances include Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman and Space’s Deepest Secrets, and he has been interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday.Professor Hooper also teaches through The Great CoursesAs the new field of astro-particle physics rapidly develops, we are witnessing an exciting time in the history of science. In addition to the progress being made in the traditional areas of experimental particle physics (accelerator experiments), exciting developments are also taking place in the use of astrophysical experiments to study elementary particles. The most striking example of this success is the measurement of the neutrino masses and mixing angles that have been made over the last decade. Many of the questions asked by particle physicists are difficult to address with collider experiments and are being explored ever increasingly by astrophysicists. These efforts include the development of particle dark matter searches, ultra-high energy cosmic rays detectors, gamma-ray telescopes and high-energy neutrino telescopes. Professor Hooper’s research is focused primarily, although not entirely, on studying and exploring particle physics beyond the Standard Model using astrophysics.Other books mentioned in this program:Losing The Nobel Prize by Brian Keating Something Deeply Hidden by Sean CarolBlack Hole Blues by Janna Levin The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 11, 2019 • 29min
Innovator Series – Additive Rocket Corporation (#027)
Links:
The Additive Rocket CorporationReiley Weekes, CSO
Kyle Adriany, CTO
The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination on Facebook and Twitter
Email us at info@imagination.ucsd.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 16, 2019 • 30min
The Origins of Life and the Work of Primo Levi (#026)
Links:
Dr. Luca Legnani, Ph.D., The Blackmond Lab, Scripps Research Institute
Primo Levi
The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination on Facebook and Twitter
Email us at info@imagination.ucsd.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
8 snips
Jun 25, 2019 • 1h 18min
A Discussion of Quantum Theory and the book “What Is Real?” by Adam Becker (#025)
This podcast is about the book, "What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics". The conversation was part of the "Into the Impossible" podcast at the UC San Diego Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, featuring a discussion between Professor Chip Sebens (UCSD Philosophy), Dr. Andrew Friedman (UCSD Physics), and the book's author, Adam Becker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 4, 2019 • 33min
Julian Guthrie Discusses Alpha Girls (#024)
Co-Director of the Clarke Center Professor Brian Keating interviews bestselling author Julian Gurthrie about her latest book Alpha Girls. The stories of 4 women who achieved prominence in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley venture capital. How did these women do it? What makes them so successful? Julian also reveals how she's written and published 4 successful non-fiction books over the past 8 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 21, 2019 • 48min
Matthew Stanley & Einstein’s War (#023)
How history can shape science, and how science can change the tide of history? NYU Professor Matthew Stanley is our guest, here to discuss about his latest book: Einstein's War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I . Brian Keating, associate director of the Clarke Center and professor of physics at UC San Diego, talked to Professor Stanley about his interest in the history of science and the relationship between science and society. We learn about Einstein's first failed attempt at proving his theories with a disastrous expedition at the outbreak of WW I in 1914, and Arthur Eddington's 1919 solar eclipse experiment that made Einstein famous around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices


