Whimsical Wavelengths - A Science Podcast

Deformation and gravity go hand in hand in volcano monitoring like hot apple pie and icecream. They fit together great. as these two techniques tell us so much more together than separately.

This time I reached out to a friend to share her research!

Remember volcanic eruptions are dynamic. The amount of force and material involved in an eruption … Even if the eruption is small the changes can be significant to the overall system.

Vol...

This time it is all about insects and their respiratory systems?! They represent so much of the biomass on earth.

Depending on the study and methods used there is more weight on earth within insects than humans. With over 8 billion humans and each of us weighs a lot more than an insect…… There are a lot of them. They form the backbone of many ecosystems.

Today though we will specifically focus on their respiratory system. How do they...

There is so much we don’t understand about the early universe. Or any part of the universe not nearby. Part of the reason for this is time and distance. The universe as we understand/see it today started ~13.8 billion years ago.

So how do we test something that we cannot view or experience? The evolution of galaxies takes place over billions of years. We cannot track its changes over the eons because human history is in the thousan...

The Earth is dynamic. All of it. Plate tectonics, weather, ocean currents, biosphere, cryosphere, extraterrestrial like solar events, meteorites, nearby supernovae

And on and on and on

But the seas are constant right? I mean that they exist. They have almost always existed. No I am not going back to Porto oceans some 4 billion years ago! I am referring to the mediterranean! I hope you are up for a salty tale of disappearing sea.

This ...

Welcome back to Part 2 of Gravitational lenses on Whimsical Wavelengths. In part 2 we finally get to the real star of the show, strong gravitational lensing and the paper that was underlying the topic.

“Euclid: A complete Einstein ring in NGC 6505 “

A lot less to setup this time. No need to stretch this out like gravity stretches time.

But.....

How did gravity stop the reckless driver?

It pulled some strings… mainly the ones holding th...

Whimsical wavelengths is here again to show that it is useless to fight gravity.

Every time I have, it has brought me down.

To begin I'll mention Newtonian mechanics of gravity here in the show notes as it works really well for nearly all things within our solar system. But there are things that does not fit. Mercury’s orbit is one famous example. It gave the wrong prediction for the precession of Mercury's closest point to the sun.

T...

Today the topic should do more then whimsically tickle your ears, Today I have a guest to get the slobbering sensor in your mouth working. Yup buckle in for a flavorful ride!

So I guess definitions first. Food Science is a discipline that investigates food chemistry, food microbiology, physical, sensory, and nutritional properties of food. The discipline also gets into the process of making the food with respect to the manufacture, ...

Today the pod shows its fitness with im-peck-able wordplay. That's right, today's episode is for the birds. At least those which have a raven-ous appetite for knowledge.

Our guest, PhD candidate Miranda Zammarelli (Dartmouth College) has research that takes place in what I guess can be best described as the closest we can get for lab conditions in the natural world. The site for her work is the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest - lo...

Welcome back where everyone comes to hear sunny quips and cloudy cuckles! Yes we at Whimsical wavelengths are amazing at precipitating a good story.

Today the pod gets into climate vs weather and the increasing extremes. It might feel odd that a general science podcast would take soooooo long to get around to a climate episode. Well it is because the data is overwhelming, humans have changed the chemistry of our atmosphere which is...

Today I am picking my favourite paper that I wrote. The origin of Mauna Loa's Ninole Hills - Evidence of rift zone reorganization. In geophysical research letters in 2015. It is already nearly 10 years old!

Well then a 10 year anniversary tour then?

In the past 4000 years lava has repaved 90% of Mauna Loa’s surface! Mauna Loa is huge. It is a very dynamic place. The Ninole Hills are 100,000 to 200,000 years old. Something special mus...

Part2 jumps in where part 1 left off so more about Theropods! specifically about one of Dr François Therrien's recent studies about a Gorgosaurus and what was found inside its stomach!!!!

did I forget to mention T-shirt giveaway?

incase you missed it from the notes of the last episode:

Dr François Therrien - The Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller Alberta https://tyrrellmuseum.com/

Dr François T...

Great discussion! Soooooooo good I split it into two parts! In Part 1 we start retro!

It's hard for me to think of 1993 as retro. But yes that is where we are going, Jurassic Park. Honestly, what a movie! It was how you say DINO -might!. Dinosaurs brought to life on the big screen in ways that had not been done previously. Not only was the movie good (the book too btw), I think it was pretty accurate to what we understood at the tim...

Last time in part 1 we covered Nikola Tesla's backstory and some of his accomplishments. In part 2 we cover things that are conspiratorial or not feasible like a death ray, limitless free power and electric universe......... ie crazy stuff

Ya his legacy is complicated. ... need more proof take a listen.

Epic Rap Battles of History Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison: https://youtu.be/gJ1Mz7kGVf0?si=HczKueWG7xXFwmry

In case you missed it fro...

Nikola Tesla has been credited with large leaps forward like AC current and wireless transmission. Including things that are conspiratorial or not feasible like a death ray and limitless free power. Ya his legacy is complicated. So fire up the device and lets get going with this episode!

Here is a demo for a Tesla Coil by me! :https://youtu.be/DQK1zZ87Gko?si=yw4C0AABspUCNTYs

Some of the stuff I read to gather information. There was m...

This time we take a deep dive into an hypothesis The longevity bottleneck hypothesis: Could dinosaurs have shaped ageing in present-day mammals?” by João Pedro de Magalhães

https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202300098

See our branch of the animal kingdom, mammals, first evolved around 200 million years ago. During the age of dinosaurs. To quote the paper “long evolutionary pressure on early mammals for rapid reproduction led to the loss ...

This episode cracks open the history and traditions of NASA (ie. Lucky peanuts) to get to the nutty goodness, which includes hard science and looking towards future missions! To explore this Dr. Morgan Cable joins the pod! Dr. Morgan Cable is a research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Science Lead for the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor concept and Co-Deputy PI of the Planetary Instrumen...

There are just some research programs that some people find scary. Some make sense. Playing with radioactive material or pathogens can be risky! What about the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)?

HAARP is located in Gakona, Alaska a joint project between government agencies and the University of Alaska. It studies the ionosphere and its potential to improve radio communications and surveillance technology.

Governm...

Today I interview a researcher from the American Museum of Natural History, my uncle, Dr David Zurek about Novea. Yes the same institution where the famous Neil deGrasse Tyson resides.

What brought this episode about? Well ~3000 light years away from Earth, a white dwarf star named T Coronae Borealis known to astronomers simply as “T CrB,” is about to have a brief but powerful runaway nuclear reaction! Only issue is it's late! Join ...

Welcome back to the podcast that talks scientifically about disaster movies? Yes it has been two weeks so here is the next installment of Whimsical Wavelengths!

This time we join some colleagues, from Simon Fraser University's Volcanology Group, to watch the best(?) volcano movie ever made by "Hollywood". Dante's Peak. James bond becomes a volcanologist.

We tackle the science and the volcanic activity over beers. Learn about volcani...