Physicists Rewrite the Fundamental Law That L...

In 1852, the mathematician Francis Guthrie was coloring in a map of English counties when he noticed that he needed only four colors. Was this always true, he wondered? The question captured the imagination of hobbyists and professionals alike — and in 1976, the mathematicians Ke ...  Show more

Researchers have used metamathematical techniques to show that certain theorems that look superficially distinct are in fact logically equivalent.The article ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard first appeared on Quanta Magazine. 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Second Law of Thermodynamics which can be very simply stated like this: "Energy spontaneously tends to flow from being concentrated in one place to becoming diffused and spread out". It was first formulated – derived from ideas first put forwar ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Second Law of Thermodynamics which can be very simply stated like this: "Energy spontaneously tends to flow from being concentrated in one place to becoming diffused and spread out". It was first formulated – derived from ideas first put forwar ...  Show more

Learn how Noether's profound mathematical theorem relating symmetries to conservation laws is deeply woven into the physics of the universe. Enjoy this rerun of an earlier episode as we take our summer break.For ad free episodes and other exclusives, join us for just $3 a mo ...  Show more

When cosmology was still an infant science, a daring physicist wrote a theory of the beginning of time.  We revisit this theory and see what value we can still glean from it today.

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