FLASHCARD FRIDAYS: Charles Darwin, the lost boy

FLASHCARD FRIDAYS: Charles Darwin, the lost boy

It’s FLASHCARDS FRIDAY at Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! and I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak. I have a back­ground in math sci­ence and jour­nal­ism. It’s offi­cial­ly sum­mer. Some pro­fes­sors are on break. And if you’re not in acad­e­mia you are like­ly plan­ning your vaca­tions or sum­mer activ­i­ties. So, this sum­mer Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! is going to have a spe­cial vaca­tion series, because it’s nice

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Queer Nature

Queer Nature

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS We’re often told that nature is all about sur­vival of the fittest, repro­duc­tion, and het­ero­sex­u­al pairs. But what if nature has always been far queer­er than we’ve been taught? Today, I’m going to take you on a glob­al jour­ney through the world of sci­ence, from the ear­li­est obser­va­tions to cut­t­ing-edge research, to explore queer­ness in nature: from same-sex

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Pride Month Stats: Facts speak louder than fear

Pride Month Stats: Facts speak louder than fear

It’s Flash­card Fri­days at Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry!, the pod­cast where num­bers aren’t just facts, they’re frame­works for under­stand­ing our world. It is June, and we are kick­ing off Pride Month.  So let’s get our rain­bow flags and cel­e­brate our loved ones who are part of the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty. Though it is offi­cial­ly rec­og­nized in June in the Unit­ed States and

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Mayan Mathematics

Mayan Mathematics

The Maya civ­i­liza­tion thrived in what is now south­east­ern Mex­i­co, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Hon­duras and El Salvador. 

Math in Your Head: Fast Metric Conversions Without the Math

TRANSCRIPTS Wel­come to Flash­cards Fri­days! Today we are learn­ing how to feel con­ver­sions in your head, no pen, no paper, no cal­cu­la­tor. Just pat­terns, rhythm, and a lit­tle bit of imag­i­na­tion. Because math isn’t just num­bers, it’s about feel­ing the rhythm of math and under­stand­ing how the world around us fits togeth­er. So, imag­ine you’re get­ting ready to go for

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A Measure for all People, For All Time: The Story of the Metric System

A Measure for all People, For All Time: The Story of the Metric System

The French Rev­o­lu­tion and the Birth of a Uni­ver­sal Mea­sure It’s 1789 in Paris. The French Rev­o­lu­tion is in full swing, heads are rolling (lit­er­al­ly), ideas of lib­er­ty and rea­son are elec­tri­fy­ing the air, and noth­ing is off-lim­its for reform. Amid this upheaval, one very prac­ti­cal prob­lem stood out: weights and mea­sures. Every region and every trade in France seemed

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FLASHCARDS: The Alan Turing Story: Cracking Codes, Facing Injustice

FLASHCARDS: The Alan Turing Story: Cracking Codes, Facing Injustice

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS It’s Flash­card Fri­days at Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry!, where we explore the beau­ti­ful, messy, bril­liant evo­lu­tion of human thought. I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak, and today I’m briefly cov­er­ing the life of a man whose mind helped save mil­lions of lives and lay the ground­work for the dig­i­tal age we live in. He cracked codes, he chal­lenged the norms, he made

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Daniel Shiu on The Mathematical Legacy of Bletchley Park

Daniel Shiu on The Mathematical Legacy of Bletchley Park

MATH SCIENCE HISTORY TRANSCRIPTS GABRIELLE:Wel­come to Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! I have a spe­cial episode today that includes an inter­view with Daniel Shiu, where we dis­cuss his lat­est arti­cle, The Influ­ence of Bletch­ley Park on UK Math­e­mat­ics, which was pub­lished in the Tay­lor and Fran­cis jour­nal, Cryp­tolo­gia. It is such a won­der­ful arti­cle about Bletch­ley Park and the eclec­tic indi­vid­u­als that

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