The history of math is a wild and bumpy ride. From goats to rockets, it’s all here!
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS [Gabrielle Birchak] I believe in the United States. I believe in our resilience and I believe that this experiment that is known as America can do so much better if we trust science. And after today, I hope you have the same revelation. Today’s very special episode includes an interview with the Director of Research at the Massachusetts
In the sciences, we celebrate big ideas. We celebrate equations that stitch the invisible world of atoms to the world we touch. We celebrate the people who see patterns the rest of us miss. But we rarely celebrate something more fundamental: the whole human mind that carries those ideas, with its strengths, its limits, and its storms. Today, we are
Today, we’re exploring quasicrystals, what they are, how an “impossible” pattern was found in a lab, how it became the catalyst to rewriting textbooks, and why this exotic order matters for real‑world technologies from wear‑resistant coatings to photonics. I’m Gabrielle Birchak, and this is Math! Science! History! Imagine holding a metal that seems to obey rules nature once forbid. You
It’s Flashcards Friday! at Math! Science! History! and today we’re traveling back to the eighth century to explore the life of a man who helped rescue learning from the brink of oblivion, Alcuin of York. Alcuin isn’t exactly a household name. But if you’ve ever benefitted from the structure of a classroom, marveled at a manuscript, or even just read a
Right now, science in the United States is under attack. It is not just being debated, it is being attacked and diminished at the hands of our current administration. False lies are being promoted while ignorance is being celebrated. And history has shown us time and time again that when factual information and education are dismantled and prohibited, it leads
What time is it? Coffee time?!! read more
Time! Is it a human construct? Or given to us by nature? read more
Your maps are lying to you, and it’s not because of traffic! read more
This is the story of Marie Tharp, the geologist and cartographer who helped prove the theory of continental drift and changed geology forever, armed with nothing more than sonar readings, colored pencils, and a determination to reveal the unseen. The Early Years: A Quiet Foundation Marie Tharp was born on July 30, 1920, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Her father, William Tharp,