NightOwl

In the inaugural annual *Nobel Prize Review* episode, Rob and Joseph discuss the 2020 winners in all categories: peace, literature, economics, physiology and medicine, chemistry, and physics.

Rob follows up thoughts about the origin of life, and tells us all about the new research/model that tried and failed to simulate the origin of life. And to top it off, many want to know when scientists will solve the problem of death so we can all live forever. So, will they???

Usually, scientists like to tell us how life started on planet Earth and how it might exist elsewhere in the universe. But do they tell you something they know from scientific observation or from shots in the dark? Joseph and Rob discuss the difficulty figuring out life’s beginning, and in the grand scheme of things how terribly unlikely it is to find life anywhere.

Rob and Joseph discuss Rob’s latest research about the coronavirus. Then for our main discussion, they explore what appears to be practically impossible for ancient inventors and craftsmen to achieve.

Joseph and Rob catch up. They touch on work and their history with computers. Then for a side topic, they highlight some interesting discoveries about planet Venus. For the main discussion, Rob explores the strange science behind rotting vegetation, animals, and humans.

Neanderthals were supposed to be primitive, half-human cavemen, but modern paleontology is shattering that illusion. We know they were intelligent and industrious, eating a wide variety of foods and travelling long distances across the barren wasteland called Eurasia during the Ice Age period. Joe and Rob marvel at what is only now coming to light in relation to these enigmatic ancestors of ours.

Rob and Joseph explore the complexity of how human memory works. Everything from the ‘magic number’ to access time to multidimensional storage is fascinating! Did you know that your eyes work like computers? Learn more about that and so much more about Rob’s and Joseph’s brains on this week’s Equinox podcast.

The development of nuclear weapons is one of the most amazing, and fearsome, scientific breakthroughs in human history. But before they could be made, a lot of discoveries had to happen first. The timing is also amazing. Almost as soon as these things were discovered we started blowing things up.

The recent ammonium nitrate explosion that leveled most of Beirut has sparked many discussions about explosives. So Joe and Rob explore the history of explosives, from the invention of gunpowder in 9th century China to the massive explosion that killed JFK’s older brother in WWII. They’ll stop along the way and talk about the 100 Years War and the invention of nitroglycerine and TNT along the way.

Creating a map of the world is hard, very hard. It took the best minds in the world centuries to get it right. From the disfigured maps of the Greeks to the elegant portolan charts of the Renaissance, people have been mapping the world for a long time. The main problem was with longitude, a puzzle that was not figured out until Harrison invented a chronometer that could keep track of time while moving (like in a ship). It was easy enough to figure out how far north or south you were, but east and west was an entirely different thing. Yet, the portolan charts were longitudinally accurate, and nobody knows how. Map making in an artform, and some of the secrets have been lost to us.