Today we talk about raisins. Yes, raisins. Quasars with dark matter halos, pink diamonds, the last moments of a dying satellite, a new type of qubit, maybe, how to measure the length of the day with lasers, a new treatment method for brain cancer that’s got something to do with quantum mechanics, whether climate change drives migration, and of course, the telephone will ring. The quiz for this episode is here.

If people knew one thing about Steven Weinberg, it’d be a quote from one of his books: “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.” In this episode, I want to speculate about what he might have meant. Is the universe pointless?

Today we talk about the possibly first evidence for life on an exoplanet, with some caveats, chaos at the centre of the Milky Way, earthquake lights, a really old rock, noise cancellation for qubits, good news about air pollution, wifi that can see through walls, origami robots, the 2024 Breakthrough Prizes, and of course, the telephone will ring.

Today I talk about how we talk, or how we communicate information on social media in general. Why is it so difficult to communicate on social media, what’s a parasocial relationship, and what are the problems with it? Interestingly enough, it's a question that scientists have studied.

Today we talk about a bubble of galaxies, a climate scientist who made his own paper worse, double magic oxygen, a chemical reaction slowed down 100 billion times, Maxwell’s demon in biology, intelligent life on earth, the launch of a new X-ray space mission, drone racing, and of course the telephone will ring.