Einstein’s Crumbs with Janna Levin

About This Episode

How did Einstein’s work influence the world we know today? Neil deGrasse Tyson and  Harrison Greenbaum team up with astrophysicist Janna Levin, PhD, to explore Einstein’s physics and its resulting discoveries, from Walmart laser pointers to black holes and wormholes.

How did a young patent clerk shake the foundations of physics in 1905? We revisit Einstein’s miracle year and the four groundbreaking papers that redefined energy, matter, time, and the very fabric of reality. Why does light sometimes act like a particle? Can time slow down just because you’re moving fast? And what does it really mean that E = mc²? Learn about Einstein’s one Nobel Prize, which brought together his work on Brownian motion and the photoelectric effect.

We break down the mystery around Einstein’s cosmological constant and how Edwin Hubble helped solve that mystery. Learn about Einstein’s greatest blunder and how he was ultimately right. We explore general relativity, dark energy, gravitational lensing, and the unstable balance of the cosmos. If gravity is trying to pull us together, what force is pushing everything apart? Plus, Neil’s favorite of Einstein’s crumbs.

How did his math hint at black holes, something he didn’t believe nature could allow? We explore gravitational waves, wormholes, lasers, unified theories, and the lingering mystery of why Einstein couldn’t quite put it all together, even though he laid the groundwork for those who might. From gravitational ripples to quantum bridges, from stimulated emission to the Big Bang, we’re still surfing the shockwaves of Einstein’s ideas.

Thanks to our Patrons Vickie Patik, Chukwuma, Jaxie Thund-a-Lund, Eric Muldoon, Kevin Price, True Gordon, Chris Del Rosario, Bill Taylor, Garth Graham, George Koris, Kari Legates, Robert Browning, Everyone wants to be a cat, Christine Ferguson, Monte Plays Games, Bernard Pang, HARMS, Ari Nahmad, Alyssa Feldhaus, Noel Aguilar, 5ityf, Lez Dunn, Jeff Blessing, Brian Hann, Gregory Rodgers, Renzo, Serge, Ralph Loizzo, Tejas Phatak, André Shabazian, Lester W Marlatt, WILLIAM WALKER, Prema Wargo, Gaz Davies, Shota Dzidziguri, Phillippe Chicoineau, Hunter Hall, Marcos Lima, Mark S. Jones, Robert Fisher, Dave Zetrenne, Moad, Brain Jones, Sergio, Jeff Sauer, Donald G Smith, and Aleksey Parsetich for supporting us this week.

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