The Joy of Why
Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine
“The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the cosmologist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. New episodes are released every other Wednesday.
Quanta Magazine is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, editorially independent online publication launched and supported by the Simons Foundation to illuminate big ideas in science and math through public service journalism. Quanta’s reporters and editors focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences, emphasizing timely, accurate, in-depth and well-crafted articles for its broad discerning audience. In 2023, Steven Strogatz received a National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications partly for his work on “The Joy of Why.”
Categories: Science & Medicine
Listen to the last episode:
If superconductors — materials that conduct electricity without any resistance — worked at temperatures and pressures close to what we would consider normal, they would be world-changing. They could dramatically amplify power grids, levitate high-speed trains and enable more affordable medical technologies. For more than a century, physicists have tinkered with different compounds and environmental conditions in pursuit of this elusive property, but while success has sometimes been claimed, the reports were always debunked or withdrawn. What makes this challenge so tricky? In this episode, Siddharth Shanker Saxena, a condensed-matter physicist at the University of Cambridge, gives co-host Janna Levin the details about why high-temperature superconductors remain so stubbornly out of reach.
Previous episodes
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35 - Will Better Superconductors Transform the World? Thu, 09 May 2024 - 0h
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34 - What Does Milk Do for Babies? Thu, 25 Apr 2024 - 0h
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33 - Can Information Escape a Black Hole? Thu, 11 Apr 2024 - 0h
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32 - How Is Flocking Like Computing? Thu, 28 Mar 2024 - 0h
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31 - What Is Quantum Teleportation? Thu, 14 Mar 2024 - 0h
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30 - What Is the Nature of Time? Thu, 29 Feb 2024 - 0h
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29 - How Did Altruism Evolve? Thu, 15 Feb 2024 - 0h
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28 - What Makes for ‘Good’ Math? Thu, 01 Feb 2024 - 0h
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27 - Trailer: The Joy of Why Season 3 Thu, 25 Jan 2024 - 0h
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26 - Does Nothingness Exist? Wed, 26 Jul 2023 - 0h
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25 - Can Math and Physics Save an Arrhythmic Heart? Wed, 12 Jul 2023 - 0h
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24 - What Can Jellyfish Teach Us About Fluid Dynamics? Wed, 28 Jun 2023 - 0h
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23 - What Causes Giant Rogue Waves? Wed, 14 Jun 2023 - 0h
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22 - What Is the Nature of Consciousness? Wed, 31 May 2023 - 0h
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21 - Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse? Wed, 17 May 2023 - 0h
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20 - Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level? Thu, 04 May 2023 - 0h
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19 - How Can Some Infinities Be Bigger Than Others? Wed, 19 Apr 2023 - 0h
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18 - What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Vaccines? Wed, 05 Apr 2023 - 0h
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17 - Is There Math Beyond the Equal Sign? Wed, 22 Mar 2023 - 0h
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16 - Can We Program Our Cells? Wed, 08 Mar 2023 - 0h
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15 - How Will the Universe End? Wed, 22 Feb 2023 - 0h
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14 - The Joy of Asking About Infinity, Jellyfish and the End of the Universe Thu, 09 Feb 2023 - 0h
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13 - Why and How Do We Dream? Wed, 24 Aug 2022 - 0h
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12 - What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete? Wed, 10 Aug 2022 - 0h
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11 - Why Do We Get Old, and Can Aging Be Reversed? Wed, 27 Jul 2022 - 0h
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10 - How Do Mathematicians Know Their Proofs Are Correct? Wed, 13 Jul 2022 - 0h
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9 - Can Computers Be Mathematicians? Wed, 29 Jun 2022 - 0h
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8 - What Is Life? Wed, 15 Jun 2022 - 0h
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7 - How Could Life Evolve From Cyanide? Wed, 01 Jun 2022 - 0h
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6 - Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Another Earth? Wed, 18 May 2022 - 0h
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5 - Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From? Wed, 04 May 2022 - 0h
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4 - Why Is Inflammation a Dangerous Necessity? Wed, 20 Apr 2022 - 0h
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3 - Untangling Why Knots Are Important Wed, 06 Apr 2022 - 0h
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2 - Why Do We Die Without Sleep? Wed, 23 Mar 2022 - 0h
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1 - Trailer: The Joy of Why Thu, 17 Mar 2022 - 0h