Math! Science! History!

In this Flashcard Friday follow-up to Tuesday’s interview with Dr. Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai of the Massachusetts Historical Society, we revisit the numbers that changed the course of history. During the Revolutionary War, smallpox was more dangerous to the Continental Army than the British. By comparing mortality rates, George Washington made a bold, science-driven choice: inoculate his troops. The math was simple but profound, 30%...

In this episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak speaks with Dr. Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai of the Massachusetts Historical Society about the hi...

Think physics only lives in textbooks and science labs? Think again. In this episode, we break down how physics is baked into your everyday life, from the way you walk and sip your coffee to how your phone works and why doors are designed the way they are.

What does it cost to carry a brilliant idea? Ludwig Boltzmann gave us the statistical foundations of entropy and the famous S = k log W, yet his life was marked by relentless skepticism, isolation, and personal struggle. In this episode, we weave Boltzmann’s story with the modern mental health crisis in academia, where anxiety, depression, and burnout affect scientists at alarming rates. We’ll ex...

What if you could watch molecules move in real time? Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed Zewail made that possible by pioneering femtochemistry, capturing chemical reactions in quadrillionths of a second.

In this ...

In this episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle uncovers the fascinating story of quasicrystals, once thought impossible, now proven to exist both in the lab and in meteorites from space. Listeners will learn how quasicrystals challenged centuries of crystallography, the math that explains their strange patterns, and the surprising ways they’re used today, from non‑stick coatings to futuristic photonics.

In this episode of Math Science History, we journey back to 8th-century England to uncover the story of Alcuin of York, a quiet but powerful force behind the Carolingian Renaissance. From his beginnings in the cathedral school of York to his influential role as Charlemagne’s advisor, Alcuin shaped the future of Western education, preserved ancient texts, and helped revive a culture of learn...

In this urgent episode of Math! Science! History, Gabrielle Birchak exposes how the United States is dismantling its scientific foundation through lawsuits, defunding, censorship, and intimidation. From shuttered labs to banned books and silenced climate scientists, Gabrielle connects today’s attacks on knowledge to historical examples of authoritarian suppression—from Galileo’s house arrest to the German Reich’s university purges ...

Trains, telegraphs, and global trade turned local solar time into a worldwide system, yet the story didn’t stop at 24 neat slices. In this Flashcards! episode, we explore why there ...

Time feels natural, but the way we measure it is entirely human-made. From Mesopotamian star charts and Egyptian solar calendars to Roman reforms, medieval clock towers, and modern atomic precision, this episode explores how we constructed the framework of time itself.

We use maps all day, including Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps. We use them without even noticing that every one of them distorts reality. In this episode, Gabrielle explains why flattening a round Earth always bends the truth, how classic projections (like Mercator) live inside today’s apps, and why those distortions shape our mental picture of the world. Practical, visual, and myth-busting, this is cartography you can feel on your ...

Geologist-cartographer Marie Tharp turned echo-sounding numbers into the first global seafloor maps—revealing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s rift valley and helping vindicate Alfred Wegen...

In this Flashcards Friday, Gabrielle shows how you already think like a scientist. Using three simple ideas from microscopy: magnification, illumination, and focus, she connects everyday phone habits (zooming, finding good light, tapping to focus) to centuries of scientific practice.

First crafted in the late 16th century, the microscope forever changed science by revealing worlds hidden from the naked eye. In this special repost from 2020, Gabrielle takes you through centuries of innovation—from glass lenses to high-tech marvels—and explores how this transformative tool shaped medicine, biology, and our understanding of life itself.

In this episode of Math! Science! History!, we explore the ethics of exploration through three lenses: the protests over modern overtourism, the historical insights of early scientific explorers, and the fictional moral compass of Star Trek’s Prime Directive. From 18th-century expeditions to the 23rd-century starship Enterprise, we examine how curiosity, respec...

This episode bridges the ancient and the cutting-edge, tracing the legacy of 7th-century mathematician Brahmagupta, who formalized the concept of zero, to today’s quantum computing revolution. We explore how his foundational work in numerical systems underpins binary logic and, ultimately, the qubits powering modern quantum processors like Microsoft’s Majorana 1 a...

Construction noise outside Gabrielle’s studio becomes the perfect backdrop to this week’s Flashcard Friday episode. From ancient geometry and Pythagorean ropes to Brunelleschi’s Renaissance dome and today’s AI-assisted architecture, this episode explores how math and science have always been at the heart of building human civilization. Whether it's the silent symmetry of Islamic domes or the lou...

In this episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle explores the unexpected origin story of the word scientist. It all started with Mary Somerville’s 1834 book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, which sparked a humorous yet historic review by William Whewell. From ridicule to resistance, the term evolved amid fierc...

On this Flashcards Friday episode, Gabrielle serves up a tasty blend of chemistry, humor, and history. Coinciding with National Avocado Day, this episode dives...