Strange Attractor

What is sound? The function of music...very cool clip (Devour) What is sound? Explains pretty much everything Johnny was talking about (Explain That Stuff!) A comprehensive sound wave resource, including a cool slow-motion clip on sound waves in wine glasses (University of Salford) The nature of sound (Physics Hypertextbook) Sound waves are 'longitudinal', like when you compress a slinky (University of Salford) Animation of how longitudinal waves travel (i.e. sound waves) (Wikimedia Commons) An article about synthesisers, but with some relevant sections on sound energy, wave shapes & harmonics (Explain That Stuff!) In space, no one can hear you scream (Qualitative Reasoning Group, Northwestern University) No sound in a vacuum, no sound in space (Physics Central) Human ears evolved from ancient fish gills (livescience) What evolved first, sight or hearing? This scientist tries to figure it out (Small Accidents of Evolution) Radar & sonar (Scholastic) Evelyn Glennie: A deaf virtuoso percussionist (Wiki

How does photography work? Johnny's Leica MP that we used as a prop (Steve Huff Photo) How does a camera work? (Tech, How Stuff Works) When were cameras invented? It depends...400BC if you count the ancient Chinese 'camera obscura' (Wikipedia) The camera obscura...who needs TV? (Wikipedia) The first proper photograph apparently took 8 hours to expose, credited to Joseph Nicephore Niépce, 1820s (University of California, Santa Barbara) 130-year-old plate camera captures pictures of modern Britain (but you must stand still for 15 minutes) (Daily Mail Australia) How the human eye works: It's a 'camera-type eye' (livescience) Why do your pupils get bigger in the dark? (Wonderopolis) What is a lens? (Explain That Stuff!) Cameras, lenses & how photography works (How-To Geek) Understanding camera lenses (Cambridge in Colour) What is exposure? (Cambridge in Colour) Squinting helps you focus - it narrows the 'aperture' of your eye (Wired) What is an aperture? (Wikipedia) A dicussion about wide aperture & unfo

Newton's laws & how things move Newton's 3 laws of motion (livescience) Newton's 3 laws of motion (NASA) Voyager 1 & 2 are still voyaging - this is how far they've gone in real time! (JPL, NASA) Outer space has a very low density of particles (Wikipedia) What is a rocket? (NASA) Rockets, fuel & Newton's 3 laws (MIT) The rocket equation (Fourth Millenium Foundation) Kennedy Space Center in Florida is awesome (Kennedy Space Center) Why is it so hard to travel to Mars?...Fuel is a big part of that (space.com) Mars facts (NASA) Mars has a very thin atmosphere (Cool Cosmos, Caltech) George Clooney (Wikipedia) Gravity (IMDb) The Martian (Andy Weir) What are gravity wells? (Explain xkcd) What is gravity assist? (JPL, NASA) Spacetime can bend: Space as a rubber sheet (University of Winnipeg) The Voyagers' trajectory was very carefully planned & used gravity assist to minimise fuel (JPL, NASA) Voyager 1 & 2 were launched in 1977 (JPL, NASA) There are a lot of forces trying to slow us down on Earth

How do planes fly? How do planes fly? Backs up what Johnny was saying about how wings work (Explain That Stuff!) The physics of sailing (UNSW) You can sail into the wind, but not exactly upwind - The physics of sailing (Physics Buzz blog, Physics Central) The hipster PDA: Merlin Mann's index card system (43 Folders) What is turbulence? From a fluid dynamics perspective (Wikipedia) Turbulence - everything you need to know (Patrick Smith's Ask the Pilot) Air turbulence - how dangerous is it? (livescience) What is tacking in sailing? (Wikipedia) What is tacking in sailing? (School of Sailing) The spice routes were the 'maritime silk road' (UNESCO) The search for new sea routes for the spice trade really kicked off in the 1500s (Encyclopaedia Britannica) Trade routes followed the 'trade winds' (Wikipedia) Prevailing winds blow from a certain direction over a point on the Earth's surface (Wikipedia) How do planes fly upside down? (Physics StackExchange) Flying upside down (Air & Space, Smithsonian) Wing flaps

What is energy and how does it move around? What is E = mc^2 in simple terms (American Museum of Natural History) What is E = mc^2 in simple terms (Universe Today) What is E = mc^2 in simple terms (YouTube) Werner Heisenberg (Nobelprize.org) Robert Openheimer (Atomic Archive) "Doc" Brown (Wikipedia) Back to the Future (Wikipedia) The speed of light: 3x10^8 metres per second (Wikipedia) The size of Wales (Wikipedia) The size of Belgium (Wikipedia) Basic principles of energy (University of Illinois) What is energy? (Wikipedia) Potential & kinetic energy (BBC) Different types of energy (BBC) What is sound energy? (Explain That Stuff!) What is heat energy (Science Learning) All the matter & energy in the universe was created in the Big Bang (Exploratorium, CERN) All the matter & energy in the universe was created in the Big Bang (The Physics of the Universe) Best guess...the universe is between 13-14 billion years old (HubbleSite) First law of thermodynamics: Energy in a closed system cannot be gain

What is spacetime? (Hold on tight!) What is a spacetime continuum? (Testing Einstein's Universe, Stanford University) What is spacetime? (Wikipedia) What is spacetime, really? (Stephen Wolfram) CERN scientists simplify spacetime in 3 short videos (Ted-Ed) Golden syrup (CSR) What is at the edge of the universe? (Futurism) Scientists glimpse 'dark flow' lurking beyond the edge of the universe (The Telegraph) What lies beyond the edge of the observable universe (The Daily Galaxy) How far can we travel in space?...turns out we'll only ever see 0.00000000001% of the universe (Devour) Warning: take with a grain of salt - the balloon analogy of the expanding universe (Physics Forums) Brian Cox (Wikipedia) The Big Bang theory (ESA kids) The Big Bang theory (BBC) The universe's photo album: Chronology of the universe (Wikipedia) Everything in the universe came out of the Big Bang (Why-Sci) The initial singularity is proposed to have contained all the mass & spacetime of the universe...then BOOM! (Wikipedia) So wh

We tour the periodic table - the 'map' of the atoms If you're looking for the show notes for episode 6, click here. Sorry about the mistake! This is your brain on podcasts...podcasts are good! (The New York Times) Our Strange Attractor website The Overcast podcast player is great & free...get it! (Overcast) Boris Becker (Bio) The periodic table - how atoms are organised (ptable.com) Dimitri Mendeleev & the periodic table (Royal Society of Chemistry) The magnetic periodic table of swear words (Amazon) True nerds name their devices/servers according to a theme (Naming Schemes) Mendeleev's predicted elements (Wikipedia) Arrangement of the elements (BBC) What is atomic mass? (Encyclopaedia Britannica) What is atomic weight? (Encyclopaedia Britannica) The atomic masses of tellurium & iodine are anomalies (BBC) B&Q Bunnings Home Depot Turning lead into gold is too much effort (Scientific American) Turning lead into gold is too much effort (Chemistry Explained) But...medieval alchemy paved the way

What is artificial intelligence? What is artifical intelligence? And great answers to most of what we talked about, by a proper computer guy from Stanford University (Formal Reasoning Group) What is Skynet? (Wikia) What is computer chess? (Wikipedia) Google computer wins final game against South Korean Go master (Physics.org) Google has gotten very good at predicting traffic (Tech Insider) When will AI be created? (Machine Intelligence Research Institute) What is intelligence? (Machine Intelligence Research Institute) What is consciousness? (big think) What it will take for computers to be conscious (MIT Technology Review) Learning how little we know about the brain (The New York Times) Google traffic (Google) What is artifical consciousness? (Wikipedia) Kegan's 'orders of mind' (NZCR) Kegan's theory of the evolution of consciousness (Stanford University) Consciousness may be an 'emergent property' of the brain (Quora) A good discussion between Sam Harris and Neil deGrasse Tyson (Sam Harris' podcast) There a

What makes a molecule, and why do things explode? The periodic table - how atoms are organised (ptable.com) Reactivity trends within the periodic table (BBC) Hydrogen is highly flammable (Wikipedia) Cool slo-mo hydrogen balloon explosions (YouTube) The Hindenburg disaster news reel: 1937 (YouTube) The Hindenburg disaster (Wikipedia) The Lindbergh baby kidnapping (FBI) Helium isn't reactive (Jefferson Lab) Lithium is very reactive (Jefferson Lab) How lithium ion batteries work (HowStuffWorks) Carbon is pretty stable (Jefferson Lab) Carbon-12 is the most common form of carbon (Wikipedia) Neon isn't reactive (Jefferson Lab) The Noble gases are snobs (Slate) You don't hear much about berrylium (Jefferson Lab) Sodium is very reactive (Jefferson Lab) Potassium is very reactive (Jefferson Lab) Lithium, sodium & potassium react with water (YouTube) Magnesium is a bit less reactive becasue it's in column 2 (Jefferson Lab) Magnesium still reacts with water (YouTube) Magnesium ribbon burns bright white (YouTube) Di

We talk about atoms. Turns out, they're everything. Who is Eminem? (Eminem.com) Flavor Flav's clock necklace (Yahoo) Who is Flo Rida? (officialflo.com) What is an atom? (Wikipedia) Atomic structure timeline (Lee Buescher) The Greeks and the 'atomos' (ChemTeam) How the atom got its name (PhysLink) Atoms are building blocks...like Lego (Science Defined) What is a metal? (Science Daily) What is a nonmetal? (Simple Wikipedia) Metals, nonmetals & the in-betweeny ones (Wikipedia) Old school labs where they figured atoms out (Rutherford's Nuclear World) Atomic structure from the Greeks to Dalton (ChemTeam) Thomson's plum pudding model (Encyclopaedia Brittanica) Rutherford's planetary orbit model (Encyclopaedia Brittanica) Atoms are basically empty space (Jefferson Lab) Cool scale model of solar system (Josh Worth) The Earth as a peppercorn (National Optical Astronomy Observatory) We can't know where an electron is (Wikibooks) Protons, neutrons & electrons (Wikipedia) Number of protons in a nucleus defines t

How does the internet work? hmm...this says it all really - "How does the internet work?" (Stanford University) What is iPhone Personal Hotspot? (Apple) What is a wifi dongle? (Telstra) What is a computer network? (Wikipedia) How computers talk to each other - Communications protocols (Wikipedia) Communications protocol definition (Webopedia) Network protocol definition (About.com) Egyptian heiroglyphs (Wikipedia) Sumerian language (Ancient History Encyclopedia) Ancient languages that haven't been figured out (mental_floss) How to speak like a Russian spy (TV Tropes) What is computer handshaking? (Wikipedia) Handshaking definition (Webopedia) A dial up modem handshaking (YouTube) A fax machine handshaking (YouTube) ADSL definition (Webopedia) ADSL doesn't use voice telephone call frequencies, it's like a quiet handshake (Wikipedia) Myspace (Wikipedia) The OSI model's 7 layers of networking (Wikipedia) The OSI model's 7 layers of networking (Webopedia) Packet definition (Webopedia) Network packet (Wikipedia)

How does light work? Easy Cheese (Wikipedia) The Golden Plains festival (GPX March 12-14, 2016) What does X mean? - Roman Numerals Chart (Roman-Numerals.org) The Golden Plains X-shaped lights - Aunty Meredith (flickr) The Pink Flamingo Bar at Golden Plains (GPX March 12-14, 2016) D batteries - Actually you can still buy them (Wikipedia) 1980s bicyle lights (eBay) Old school light bulbs - Incandescent lighting (Edison Tech Center) What’s inside a torch? (Energizer) Light bulb V1 - Gas lamp lighting (Wikipedia) Sodium lamps (Edison Tech Center) Copper wires and heat (Wikipedia) Superconductivity (Wikipedia) Thomas Edison and the electric light (Wikipedia) How Edison Invented the Light Bulb - And Lots of Myths About Himself (Time) Who invented electricity? - War of currents (Wikipedia) Old light bulbs wasted a lot of heat - Incandescent light bulb (Wikipedia) Old light bulbs had different shapes, some had reflective coatings - Physical characteristics, Incandescent light bulb (Wikipedia) Incandescent light bulb

What's encryption, and why should you care? Tim Cook’s letter (Apple) FAQs about Tim Cook’s letter (Apple) For hard core nerds: Apple iOS 9.0 or later security document (Apple) Apple explains exactly how secure iMessage really is (techcrunch) FBI v. Apple (Wikipedia) How secure is your smartphone (The Age) The Wire (IMDb) Wire tapping in Australia: Telephone recording laws, Australia (Wikipedia) Mass surveillance in Australia (Wikipedia) You couldn’t text on old mobiles: Analog cellular networks, 1G (Wikipedia) WAP was crap: Wireless Application Protocol, 'WAP' (Wikipedia) Analog television (Wikipedia) Teletext was a way to hack an analogue TV to get a digital signal: Teletext (Wikipedia) Ceefax (Wikipedia) Teletext gallery: Teletext around the world (The Teletext Museum) Teletext (Museum of Broadcast Communications) Teletext in Europe: From the Analog to the Digital Era (Nordicom) Picture tube inside an old TV (automaticwasher) Overscan: You’re not seeing the whole picture on your TV (CNET) Last of the Sum