PODCAST · science
Physical Attraction
by Thomas
Physical Attraction is the show that explores topics in science, technology, and the future - from a physicist's perspective. From the birth of stars to the end of the world, from interviews with experts to meticulously-researched deep dives, we'll explore the topics that shape our world.
Episodes
-
Climate 201: Climate Doomism (II)
In the last episode, we briefly introduced "climate change doomers" and some of their misleading claims. In this episode, I talk about despair, and why we cannot give in to it.
-
Climate 201: Climate Doomism (I)
We're going there. In this episode, I discuss why civilization is not going to imminently collapse due to climate change, explain why doomism is a new form of denialism, and debunk some of its most misleading claims.
-
UNLOCKED: Book Club: Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants
A new episode released from behind the Patreon paywall. This episode, we'll review and discuss some of the issues raised by Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants, a book that details the history of the advertising industry.
-
Climate 201 NETS XI: Direct Air Capture, p2 and NETS conclusion
In this episode, we will continue our analysis of Direct Air Capture and conclude the series on negative emissions - crucial component of decarbonisation, or a techno-utopian distraction from the real problems we face? [Don't expect an actual answer]
-
Climate 201 NETS X: Direct Air Capture, part 1
Direct Air Capture - machines that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Could this be the solution to a scaleable negative emissions industry? We'll discuss the pros and cons of the technology in this episode.
-
BONUS: Black Mirror IRL pilot - Be Right Back
Hi all! This is a slightly special bonus episode. Some years ago I had plans for another series "Black Mirror IRL", which was going to be a series of episodes looking into the technologies mentioned and featured in the Netflix Series Black Mirror. Is anyone working on these technologies in real...
-
Climate 201: NETS VII: Ecosystem Restoration and Mangroves
What are "nature-based solutions" to climate change? Can we restore the ecosystems that we've destroyed? And how can restoring mangroves help us to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere?
-
Climate 201, NETS IX: Ocean Iron Fertilization
"Give me a tanker full of iron, and I'll give you a new Ice Age." It might sound like something Hank Scorpio would say, but this episode will deal with the very real idea of stimulating plankton blooms to remove CO2 from the atmosphere - ocean iron fertilization.
-
Climate 201: NETS VIII: Enhanced Weathering
How could grinding up rocks and sprinkling the dust over vast areas help to combat climate change? In this episode, we deal with "enhanced weathering" as a potential source of negative emissions.
-
Climate201 NETS VI: Planting Trees and Afforestation
Mention carbon capture, and the refrain you'll often hear is "why invent a machine that captures CO2? We already have one - it's called a tree." But is large-scale afforestation as a negative emissions solution so simple? We dig into its potential in this episode of our series on negative emissions.
-
Climate 201: NETS V: Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage
N/B: Owing to a ridiculously hectic schedule until the end of the year, episodes will continue to be released on a fortnightly basis until further notice - thanks for understanding. We hear an awful lot about carbon capture, utilisation, and storage as a technology that could help to mitigate...
-
Climate 201: Negative Emissions IV: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
In this episode, we get into some of the specific technologies that might be called upon to deliver negative emissions at scale. Specifically, we're looking at the advantages, disadvantages, and concerns surrounding BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage.)
-
Climate 201, Negative Emissions III: Technological Promises, or Prevarications
In this episode, we discuss whether the promises that some new technology - like negative emissions - will come along and "solve climate change" for us are genuine, or if they have instead shaped climate policy into prevarication and procrastination.
-
Climate 201: Negative Emissions (II): We'll Always Have Paris?
Increasing levels of negative emissions are envisioned by models in climate-change scenarios that are compatible with the Paris Agreements. In this episode, we talk about some of the geopolitical implications for trying to deliver this, and the alternative futures that we can envision. Do...
-
Climate 201: Negative Emissions I: The Last Thing We Should Be Talking About?
Negative emissions technologies (NETs), also called carbon dioxide removal (CDR), are seen by many as an increasingly essential part of climate change mitigation. Many of the scenarios that the IPCC suggests for meeting the Paris Agreement goals suggest that we will suck billions of tonnes of CO2...
-
Book Club: Jason Hickel's The Divide, Part I: The Origins of Global Inequality
The book club returns, with a two-part review and overview of anthropologist Jason Hickel's book "The Divide", about global inequality, its historical origins, and possible solutions in the future.
-
Cosmology, VII: Cosmological Contradictions
In this episode, we discuss the ongoing battle throughout the 1930s and 1940s between those who believed in a steady-state Universe, and those who thought it was expanding - and how it took more observations to overcome these cosmological contradictions.
-
TT: Climate, CCS Struggles as Adaptation Stalls
To close out this series of news episodes, we discuss the depressing failure of carbon capture and storage projects in Australia, as well as the far-too-slow approach to climate change adaptation across the world.
-
Thermonuclear Takes: Amazon Carbon Stocks and Global Green Recovery Progress Update
In this episode of Thermonuclear Takes, we tackle a couple of recent climate-related news stories - the "tipping point" carbon flux measurements from the Amazon rainforest, and the IEA's progress report on a global green recovery.
-
Thermonuclear Takes: The Little Robot That Couldn't
Updates on the Softbank Vision Fund and the sad fate of Pepper the robot.
-
Thermonuclear Takes: Muon Madness Melting Models... Maybe?
In this news episode, I discuss recent anomalies around the muon - B-particles decaying into muons, and the muon's anomalous magnetic moment - and whether they herald the glorious dawn of a new era of physics, or are just a mistake.
-
Thermonuclear Takes: Show updates, cosmology feedback, particle physics
In this news-y episode, I will give you some updates on how the show is progressing, share some listener emails on our cosmology series, and set up next episode's discussion of some recent results in high-energy physics.
-
Cosmology VI: Cosmic Eggs and the Edge of the Universe
In this episode, we cover the different kinds of universal horizon, whether the Universe has an edge, and talk about how theoretical physicists pondered how it all might've began.
-
Cosmology, Episode V: Einstein's Mistake
At the dawn of theoretical cosmology, Einstein introduced the so-called "Cosmological Constant" into his equations to explain how the Universe could be static and unchanging in time. He would later say that it was his greatest mistake.
-
Cosmology IV: Einstein's Cosmos
In this episode, we look at how Einstein's theory of general relativity gave rise to a theoretical framework for examining cosmology - the evolution of space, time, and the Universe in general - as a whole.
-
Cosmology III: Hubble's Law
In 1929, Edwin Hubble published his findings. The redshifts from distant galaxies were proportional to their distance away from us. Theoretical cosmologists would pounce on them as evidence that the Universe must be expanding.
-
Cosmology II: Starting From Nothing
Everything we have been able to infer about the Universe began in total ignorance. Many early theories about how the Universe was structured were wildly incorrect - but astronomers were building up the toolkits that would later allow us to understand.
-
Cosmology, Episode I: In The Beginning
When you're trying to narrate the history of the entire Universe, where do you begin? I decided to start in a radio studio in London in March 1949, when the term "Big Bang" was first coined, in the first on our series on cosmology.
-
Climate 201: Discourses of Climate Delay II
Arguments surrounding climate change have become subtler. Outright denial is gradually shifting to rhetoric that supports delaying urgent action. In this review of a paper by Steinberger, Lamb et al, I run down the new "discourses of climate delay".
-
Climate 201: Discourses of Delay, p1
As the climate change debate has advanced, the arguments surrounding it have become more subtle. Outright denial of the climate problem is rare - so rhetoric has shifted to delaying urgent action. In this review of a paper by Steinberger, Lamb et al, I run down the new "discourses of climate delay"
-
Why Should We Listen to Scientists?
Why should we listen to scientists? Well, because they're right a lot of the time. But also because - ideally - the institutions of science embody values that everyone can agree are good in a system for working out what's true.
-
Machine Learning and AI vs. Climate Change
How can machine learning and artificial intelligence help us in the fight against climate change? I explore literally dozens of ideas for possible applications of ML algorithms in this episode.
-
Attack of the 50ft Blockchain, with David Gerard
I interviewed David Gerard, author of the cryptocurrency blog and book of the same name "Attack of the 50ft Blockchain", as well as a new book "Libra Shrugged" about Facebook's attempt to develop cryptocurrencies. We talked about Bitcoin, its flaws, its origins, and its future.
-
Thermonuclear Takes: The Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Rant
I have generally held back on talking about bitcoin - because I'm super opinionated and it's one topic that generates a lot of heated discussions - but I finally let it all go in this one, lengthy rant episode. Think of it as therapy... and if you disagree, get in touch.
-
Climate 201: Energy Efficiency IV: Jevons' Paradox, and Conclusion.
In The Coal Question, Jevons - alongside realising that we needed a transition to renewable energy 150 years ago - posed the efficiency paradox. Using energy more efficiently motivates you to use more energy. Can energy efficiency "rebound" and backfire like this in real systems? That's the...
-
Climate 201: Energy Efficiency, Part 3: Industry
In this episode of our series on energy efficiency, we are going to talk about industrial applications - how we can improve the way that high-energy industries and difficult-to-decarbonise sectors use energy.
-
Thermonuclear Takes: Climate News; Global Rebound, "Net" Zero, Green Homes, Cumbrian Coal
It's a smorgasboard of climate news as global emissions rebound, slippery definitions of Net Zero abound, the Green Homes Grant collapses, and there's controversy over a Cumbrian coal mine.
-
Climate 201: Energy Efficiency II: Buildings
In the second part of our series on energy efficiency and its role in combatting climate change, we talk about how buildings can be made more energy efficient... and some of the factors that prevent this from happening. Thanks to Podcorn for sponsoring this episode. To find out how you can find…
more -
Thermonuclear Takes: Gamestop Post-Mortem, Way Too Late
Sigh. Yeah I did a thing about the Gamestop, meme stocks, financial asset bubbles, and so on, if only so that these opinions don't have to rattle around in my head taking up space.
-
Climate 201: Energy Efficiency I: Transport
In this episode, we discuss the vital role of energy efficiency in reducing carbon emissions, and the potential to reduce energy consumption in transportation. Thanks to Podcorn for sponsoring this episode. To find out how you can find new sponsors for your podcast, head to podcorn.com/podcasters.
-
The Glass Half-Empty: Debunking "New Optimism", with Rodrigo Aguilera: Part II
This week, we have a guest on the show - Rodrigo Aguilera. Specifically, we're talking to him about his book "The Glass Half-Empty: Debunking the Myth of Progress in the 21st Century". We shouldn't be happy with a narrow and limited definition of "progress" when we have the capacity to achieve so...
-
Thermonuclear Takes: Greensill Collapses and Uber in Court
Listeners to our series on Softbank Vision Fund will be interested - albeit perhaps not surprised - to hear that one of its major investments, Greensill Capital, which we covered in the episode "The Next Financial Crisis", has imploded dramatically. We discuss it - and a new court ruling on…
more -
The Glass Half-Empty: Debunking "New Optimism", with Rodrigo Aguilera - Part I
This week, we have a guest on the show - Rodrigo Aguilera. Rodrigo is an economist - born in Mexico, lives in London, and his writing has appeared all over the place in various forms over the years. Specifically, we're talking to him about his book "The Glass Half-Empty: Debunking the Myth of...
-
Graphene and the world of 2-D materials
From the discovery of graphene to the invention of Van Der Waals heterostructures, this episode explores the potential and possibilities surrounding 2D materials - and how a particular twist between layers of graphene could unlock a playground of superconductivity.
-
Short-Circuiting the Meaning of Life (II)
In the concluding part of this mini-series on technological implications for being human, we discuss the idea that humans will manipulate their psychology to "short-circuit" the meaning of life - and whether there's anything wrong with doing that.
-
Short-Circuiting the Meaning of Life (I)
In this experimental, unusual, and wildly speculative episode, we'll discuss philosophy, and the implications of the imagined techno-future for the unanswerable questions that have been with us since the dawn of consciousness.
-
The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change, with Professor Rebecca Willis
I sat down with Professor Rebecca Willis, author of the new book Too Hot To Handle, about the democratic challenge of climate change, how politicians deal with climate issues, the Climate Assembly here in the UK, and the ten-point plan for effective climate policy.
-
Climate 201: Drawdown, Part III: Cookstoves, Co-benefits, and Conclusions
On this episode, we conclude our series examining the work of Project Drawdown and its climate mitigation solutions, and discuss the additional benefits that arise from implementing many of them.
-
The Appallingly Bad Neoclassical Economics of Climate Change, with Professor Steve Keen
This episode, we have a guest on the show that I'm very excited about. Professor Steve Keen is an economist and author who has been a longstanding critic of neoclassical economics, which has included writing the bestselling Debunking Economics book and hosting the podcast of the same name, as…
more -
Climate 201: Drawdown II: Fridges, Regenerative Agriculture, and Technological Sliding Doors
In this episode of our Climate 201 series, we continue discussing the practical emissions-reduction solutions from Project Drawdown - talking about regenerative agriculture, managing refridgerants, and why we abandoned electric cars which were the majority of automobiles in the 1880s!
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Physical Attraction is the show that explores topics in science, technology, and the future - from a physicist's perspective. From the birth of stars to the end of the world, from interviews with experts to meticulously-researched deep dives, we'll explore the topics that shape our world.
HOSTED BY
Thomas
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Physical Attraction have?
Physical Attraction currently has 251 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Physical Attraction about?
Physical Attraction is the show that explores topics in science, technology, and the future - from a physicist's perspective. From the birth of stars to the end of the world, from interviews with experts to meticulously-researched deep dives, we'll explore the topics that shape our world.
How often does Physical Attraction release new episodes?
Physical Attraction publishes regularly with 251 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Physical Attraction?
You can listen to Physical Attraction on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Physical Attraction?
Physical Attraction is created and hosted by Thomas.
URL copied to clipboard!