Carl Friedrich Gauss: The Quiet Genius Who Transformed Math, Astronomy & Modern Science

Carl Friedrich Gauss: The Quiet Genius Who Transformed Math, Astronomy & Modern Science

Wel­come to Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry!, Today we’re explor­ing the sto­ry and the myths sur­round­ing Carl Friedrich Gauss, the Prince of Math­e­mat­ics. This isn’t because he chased fame, he didn’t, but because his insights were so deep they silent­ly built the scaf­fold­ing of mod­ern sci­ence. Hi, I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak. I’m a sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tor with a back­ground in math, sci­ence and journalism.

Read More

FLASHCARDS! Does Turkey Really Make You Tired? The Science of Tryptophan and Holiday Meals

FLASHCARDS! Does Turkey Really Make You Tired? The Science of Tryptophan and Holiday Meals

Thank you for tun­ing into today’s pod­cast! If you are here for the recipes, just scroll to the bot­tom! PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS Wel­come to Flash­cards Fri­day! Today we’re tak­ing a clos­er look at some­thing that shows up every Novem­ber: tryp­to­phan. Yes, that mys­te­ri­ous amino acid that gets blamed every year for the leg­endary “post-Thanks­­giv­ing nap.” Turkey is the star wit­ness, but

Read More

FLASHCARDS! Imagination Is the Engine of Science.

FLASHCARDS! Imagination Is the Engine of Science.

TRANSCRIPTS Wel­come to Flash­cards Fri­days! If you had a chance to lis­ten to Tuesday’s episode, I inter­viewed the the­o­ret­i­cal physi­cist Dr. Ronald Mal­lett, who shares how a moment of heart­break in his child­hood became the foun­da­tion for his entire sci­en­tif­ic career. It’s an inspir­ing inter­view, and I hope you lis­ten to it. Today I’m fol­low­ing up on his con­clud­ing state­ment, and

Read More

Turning Grief into Physics: Dr. Ronald Mallett’s Journey Through Time

Turning Grief into Physics: Dr. Ronald Mallett’s Journey Through Time

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS Gabrielle Bir­chak I just fin­ished edit­ing this fan­tas­tic inter­view with Dr. Ronald Mal­lett, Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus of Physics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut. This episode of Math Sci­ence His­to­ry is all about explor­ing one of physics most dar­ing fron­tiers, time trav­el. Dr. Mal­lett has spent a life­time inves­ti­gat­ing whether light itself can twist space time enough to form loops

Read More

FLASHCARDS! Protecting Our Oceans

FLASHCARDS! Protecting Our Oceans

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS Wel­come to Flash­cards Fri­days on MATH! SCIENCE! HISTORY!. I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak and today we’re tack­ling a sub­ject that’s both urgent and empow­er­ing. How each of us can play a part in con­serv­ing our oceans. The ocean cov­ers more than 70% of the earth­’s sur­face. It pro­duces over half of the oxy­gen we breathe and sup­ports a rich web

Read More

Science Under Siege: America’s War on Knowledge

Science Under Siege: America’s War on Knowledge

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

Read More

FLASHCARDS: The Rule of 72 Explained: How Fast Will Your Money Grow?

TRANSCRIPT It’s Flash­card Fri­day here at Math Sci­ence His­to­ry, and today we’re going to learn a math trick. Have you ever won­dered how long it takes for your invest­ed mon­ey to dou­ble or dis­ap­pear? There’s actu­al­ly a math trick for that. Hi, I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak. I have a back­ground in math, sci­ence, and jour­nal­ism, and today you’re going to learn

Read More

Math, Civil Rights, and the Legacy of Bob Moses

Math, Civil Rights, and the Legacy of Bob Moses

It’s Black His­to­ry Month, and we are still cel­e­brat­ing black excel­lence. This week, I am talk­ing about one of my favorite activists and math­e­mati­cians, Robert Par­riss Moses, also known as Bob Moses. His life and lega­cy made an indeli­ble mark on America’s civ­il rights move­ment and math edu­ca­tion. Hi, I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak. I have a back­ground in math, sci­ence, and

Read More