What The If?

著者: Philip Shane Matt Stanley Gabrielle Paniccia
  • サマリー

  • Learn how to think like EINSTEIN! Every week we learn science running imaginative thought experiments. Our brilliant guests are some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers, scientists & science communicators. Leap into a journey to answer the most fascinating question in the universe: What The IF?
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あらすじ・解説

Learn how to think like EINSTEIN! Every week we learn science running imaginative thought experiments. Our brilliant guests are some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers, scientists & science communicators. Leap into a journey to answer the most fascinating question in the universe: What The IF?
All rights reserved
エピソード
  • Humanity On All FOURS!
    2025/04/11
    What if humans never stood upright and remained quadrupeds? Our world would transform into a society where everything is built low to the ground. Imagine shopping carts you push with your face, stadiums with no chairs where everyone sits like animals, and the social awkwardness of having your posterior constantly on display. The loss of our hands would dramatically impact agriculture, cooking, and sports—though we'd excel at truffle hunting and finding loose change. Discover why our spines might actually thank us for going horizontal, how backpacks would become "saddlebags," and why having mouth-operated tools might make friendship more necessary than ever. This thought-provoking "what if" scenario was suggested by listener Anne Fizzard from Queens, New York. --- Check out Gaby’s new sci-fi short story in The Map Of Lost Places! https://www.apexbookcompany.com/products/the-map-of-lost-places
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    49 分
  • PHYSICS Changes Its MIND!
    2025/04/08
    What if the fundamental forces of nature could change with time? Step into a universe where gravity might send you floating to the ceiling one morning, your coffee maker stops working as electricity changes its rules, and your very atoms could suddenly decide to explode. From your nervous system running on unpredictable electrical currents to the strong nuclear force taking a day off, discover how even tiny fluctuations in these cosmic constants would transform daily life into surreal chaos. Turns out the orderliness of our universe might be more miraculous than we realized - change any force by one part in a billion, and we wouldn't be here complaining about it. Based on "More Than a Hint’ That Dark Energy Isn’t What Astronomers Thought" by Katrina Miller and Dennis Overbye, published in The New York Times on March 19, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/science/space/astronomer-desi-dark-energy.html?smid=url-share&unlocked_article_code=1.-E4.npTp.cMswMP6FDuKn --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention
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    59 分
  • Microgravity MOVIE Making!
    2025/04/01
    What if filmmakers took their cameras to space? Prepare for a world of zero-G cinematography! From weather-sealed cameras designed to handle unexpected astronaut vomit to the perpetual hum of life-support systems ruining your audio, documentary filmmaking in orbit presents unique challenges. Discover why the International Space Station's lighting is "just awful," how playing a guitar in microgravity sends you spinning in unexpected directions, and why the first task in every Mars simulation is fixing the eternally broken toilet. Explore how future space workers will need specialized trade skills—from plumbers to welders—as humanity expands beyond Earth. This thought-provoking "what if" scenario features insights from documentary filmmaker Sam Burbank and Explore Mars CEO Chris Carberry. —— Chris Carberry is the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, Inc. (Explore Mars), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit space advocacy organization that was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars by the mid-2030s. Carberry is a well-respected expert and influential director of strategic alliances in the space community as well as with non-traditional organizations. Carberry has presented oral (and written) testimony to both the United States Senate as well as the United States House of Representatives and has been active in all levels of policy engagement with both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. In recent years, he has overseen Explore Mars’ annual Humans to Mars Summit, the largest annual conference focused on sending humans to Mars. He has also spearheaded dozens of programs including the Mars Innovation Forum, the annual Community Workshops for the Achievability and Sustainability of Human Exploration of Mars series, the AR/VR and Space workshop series, the ISS and Mars Conference in Washington, D.C. and in Strasbourg, France, and the Women and Mars Conference in Washington, D.C. He has also conducted programs overseas, in such countries as the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Carberry is also the creator, and one of the senior editors, of the annual publication known as the Humans to Mars Report that was highlighted in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017. In 2013, Carberry was awarded a NASA Group Achievement award. Carberry is the author of the 2019 book, Alcohol in Space: Past, Present and Future, and the upcoming book, The Music of Space (to be released in 2022). Both volumes are being adapted into documentary films.Learn more about Chris at https://exploremars.orgCheck out his books at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chris-Carberry/author/B0CZWN4JNF?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1743558561&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Watch his film at https://www.amazon.com/Alcohol-Space-Movie-Sam-Burbank/dp/B0DJQZGLG2 —— Sam Burbank is a science-writer and science-documentary filmmaker. Mr. Burbank has worked with PBS, Discovery Channel, and has produced and written two dozen programs for the National Geographic, ranging from renewable energy to the X-Prize. Sam studied creative writing at San Francisco State University, and is a long time member of AAAS. He has spent three summers on Devon Island, near the magnetic north pole, and was a member of the founding crew of the Mars Society FMARS station in 2001. In 2002 he joined a crew at the MDRS station for the one-of-a-kind ICoMP experiment Sam loves snowboarding, journal writing, and dancing a fast 1930's swing step, the Balboa. In 1995, he and wife Linda spent their honeymoon riding a motorcycle to the arctic circle. Some notable quotes about Mr. Burbank include the following: "Sam Burbank is elevating the video-journal to an art genre." Kim Stanley Robinson, author Antarctica, Red Mars. "Sam is a true artist, who makes visible to the eye what before could only be seen by the mind." Robert Zubrin, author The Case for Mars, Entering Space. Learn more about Sam at https://www.samburbank.com/
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    43 分

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