The Knowmads Podcast

One of the great advantages of being a physicist in Texas is that you are genuinely surrounded by incredible physicists across the Houston–Austin–Dallas–College Station area. The summers are hot, of course, but what better way to spend an afternoon than talking to a fellow physicist?

Last time, we were at Rice University, and this time we are at Texas A&M University to talk to Professor Shenglong Xu.

Have you ever wondered what the universe was like in its very first moments? Why did matter win over antimatter? What is dark matter made of? What is dark energy? And could the answers to these questions change the way we understand particle physics itself?

Well, in today’s episode, we talk to Prof. Andrew J. Long of Rice University about all of this fascinating stuff. Andrew is a theoretical physicist working at the intersect...

In the 1920s, physicists like Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Einstein, Planck—and many others—realized something deeply unsettling and beautiful: the universe at microscopic scales is nothing like what we observe in everyday life. This was the era when quantum mechanics was discovered. And I’m intentionally saying discovered, not born, because that word choice matters. Quantum mechanics isn’t just a framework we i...

Recently, I came across a definition of a good theory: it should explain as much as possible, with as few ingredients as possible, and with as much accuracy as possible. I think that is something every serious physicist can relate to. And really, that is what modern theoretical physics is striving for — not just identifying what the universe is made of, but understanding the mathematical framework that makes the laws of natur...

Most of what we know about the universe actually comes from what we can’t see.
Only a tiny fraction of the cosmos is made of “normal” matter—the stuff that makes up stars, planets, and us. The rest is a mysterious combination we call dark matter and dark energy, which, although invisible to our telescopes, is absolutely crucial for how the universe expands and how structures form over billions of years.

Hello Everyone, welcome to The Knowmads Podcast. I'm your co-host Prachi, and I'm your co-host Bhavay. `Chaos' is one of those words that has escaped physics and entered everyday language. We use it to describe messy rooms, traffic, even our inboxes. But in physics, chaos has a very precise meaning, (or it doesnt). Well, classically,  chaotic systems are those, that even though they are completely deterministic, they are extre...

Imagine: it’s a lazy Sunday morning, you’re sipping your raspberry-flavored iced latte, and an interstellar traveler lands in your backyard. It starts walking toward you—what do you do? Are you terrified or calm? If you’re a scientist stuck on a problem for years, do you ask for help? If you’re an influencer, are you already crafting your next post? If you’re a cook, are you hunting for new recip...

The universe is about 14 billion years old. Ever wondered—how do we even know the age of the universe? How can we look up at the sky and read time itself? We do this by studying the afterglow of the Big Bang, called the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR)—relic radiation from the very beginning of the universe. Physicists build ultra-cold microwave telescopes—cryogenic cameras with incredibly sensitive de...

Science and philosophy have always been woven together. Some of history’s greatest minds—Aristotle, Galileo, Aryabhata and even Einstein—were as much philosophers as they were scientists.

This has also been true for ancient Indian civilization, where science and philosophy were explored with extraordinary depth, not as separate pursuits, but as complementary paths to knowledge. 

These insights were preserve...

Imagine walking deep into a dense forest without a map or GPS. Initially, you kind of know where you started. But as you wander further, eventually, it's impossible to tell where you came from — every direction looks the same. That's thermalization.

 The initial state's details get scrambled across all degrees of freedom and as a result local observables settle into a stable, time-independent state called the equilibrium ...

Modern physics rests on two foundational frameworks that describe our universe at different scales. The first is General Relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity, which describes gravity not as a force but as the curvature of spacetime itself. Massive objects bend the geometry of spacetime, and this curvature dictates how all massive objects move,  from planets to black holes.
   At the microscopic scale, we...

The world we live in is believed to be divided into two fundamental families of particles--Fermions and Bosons. Today, we're sitting in Dr. Kaden Hazzard's beautiful office at Rice University in Houston, who along with his student, proposed a robust third class of particles called paraparticles. An astonishingly simple operation of swapping any two particles, is what it takes to reveal their nature. We know that Bosons obey BE stat...

Hello everyone, welcome to season 2 of the Knowmads podcast. Since Season 2 was long overdue, we had to start with someone who’s not just had a remarkable academic journey in physics, but also someone who’s been a great mentor to all his students and really, to everyone who walks into his office. So in this episode, we’re sitting in the office of Professor René Bellwied — a leading experimental physicist and...

Hi Everyone, 
This is Episode 15 of The Knowmads Podcast.
The mother’s Mental health during the time of pregnancy is extremely crucial. Studies suggest that prenatal stress and trauma have the capacity to propagate through generations. Our guest today is a UH graduate student at the Laboratory of early experiences and development studying cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. 

Livia Merrill’s  resea...

Hi Everyone, 
This is Episode 14 of The Knowmads Podcast.
Whether you're a parent searching for that delicate equilibrium between responsibilities and aspirations, or someone looking for a force of motivation to go back to school, start a different journey, or simply someone seeking a tale of inspiration, you're in for a treat.

From her humble beginnings, serving tirelessly for a non-profit organization in the vib...

Hi Everyone, 
This is Episode 13 of The Knowmads Podcast.
Most of us who grew up in bilingual or a multilingual homes
often wonder if the new babies in the family will be able to understand
these different language(s). In this episode we dive deep into the fascinating
world of early language development in children. Our guest today
Christina Diaz Griep is a psychologist from University of Houston where her re...

Hi Everyone,
This is Episode 12 of The Knowmads Podcast.
Long after abolishment of Slavery in the US, in the late 1800s the effects are still seen in different forms. The unbalanced dynamics of power between prison authorities and prisoners illustrates hints of slavery even today and remains ignored. Our guest today is a historian from Rice University and in her research she particularly highlights the oppressive experiences...

Hi Everyone,
This is Episode 11 of The Knowmads Podcast.
Have you ever wondered why do we dream, are we conscious while
we are sleeping?
How is our brain able to generate a 3 dimensional visual image every night while our eyes are closed? Our guest today Adriana Alcaraz Sánchez is a philosopher, from University of Glasgow. In new recent work. She talks about objectless sleep awareness
and compares the ideologies of...

Hi Everyone, 
This is Episode 10 of The Knowmads Podcast.
Political discussions and associated ideologies almost always resolve in thinking about national leaders and the large scale effects of policies that finally lead to geo politics. The conversations often lack the microscopic details and the penetrative effects of policies at the lowest local level, where ‘in principle’ it actually matters. 
Stu...