Following up on the soda can episode: I was wondering if there is a way to keep drinks like soda that come in plastic bottles sparkly (keep their CO2 dissolved) when opened and not finished. Maybe squeeze the bottle to reduce the volume or something like that.

Wawaweewaa ooh lala! Shortly after rolling off the bed, King Michael π has proclaimed he is in the castle whilst seated in a chair.

Interested to learn two things.

1. How does one go about thinking of solving this problem, and then

2. Once one has an answer, how does one know it is the solution with the smallest number of pieces?

Interested to know how to go about both of these.

PS Michael Stevens is the most handsome man on the planet.

Howdy! I've got a burning question that's been annoying me for ages, and I'd love to hear Hannah and Michael tackle it:

"When I need to get up early in the morning, I set multiple alarms, because even though the "me" going to bed knows they have to wake up, the "me" when the alarms go off seems to have a completely different set of priorities, namely going back to sleep. Are you psychologically a different person in the morning compared to at bedtime?"

I feel like this question goes beyond just a Google search or a simple answer because it's digging into "who are you, really?", which seems right up this podcast's alley!

Even if this doesn't get picked to be answered, if either of the hosts are reading this, thank you for making the most engaging and thought-provoking content on the internet! You two have insane chemistry and I hope there's a thousand more episodes to come! Absolutely adore the both of you :)

what are your pre show rituals?

Scientifically is there any other type of fast food (other than nutritional goop) that realistically should have overtaken it as the rounded carb, veg and protein? I know historically it was influential for the shift of dine-ins to drive-throughs but it has happily stayed where it is culturally. Is there anything you can think of scientifically that provides better nutrients that can be made just as fast that realistically should have replaced it by now?

Imagine any given object, let’s say a pebble.

You could describe its shape, chemical composition, temperature, position, history, every atom within it, and every interaction it has ever had.

But what don’t we know? What values exist that we don’t know how to measure yet? And how would we even go about storing that much information on something?

And how intricately would you have to describe its shape, temperature, position and history for it to be classified as 100% complete?

Could the pebble ever obtain a complete description of itself? Or is there always at least a little information missing about any given thing?

You could say an ancient rock or a fossil. But the atoms in your hand are billions of years old. Does that mean you've technically been touching something ancient your entire life? And when does something actually begin to have an age?

I’m team Lion and want to lounge under a tree after a meal, my partner is team…
(they couldn’t name anything that eats a gif meal then immediately keeps walking)

Also, how do ya do a who,e show on squatting and NOT MENTION sphincter muscles. 😵‍💫

Right now, I'm in a very busy period of my life. I go to school, work, and I don't drive so its a bit of challenge to get to a from place. Despite being tired all the time, I feel good. Because I'm not at home a lot, I end up seeing a lot of different people.

After listening to the episode about strangers, I've been trying to own my "strangerness" I'll strike up conversation with people who see me often even if I only know their face. I try to use those moments to practice being an active listener and asking relevant questions. To be honest, people don't often ask me questions but I think people will show you how much they want to know you and even then I know I leave an impression on those around me. Like I feel more comfortable existing in public I guess?

I definitely feel tired: rushing to work, writing papers and doing homework, taking care of myself with the little time I get at home. It's tough and I'm not always good at it. But it brings me solace to know I have people to talk to and that I'm a relevant stranger to some people, just because I show up. That I have impact just by showing up.

This is all to say that the episode "All the people you don't know" has had a big impact on my perspective about my place in the world. I think it's natural to want more friends but connecting with people in general is quite the privilege. Sometimes it rejuvenates me just to talk to somebody.

Could it be possible for a civilization to discover lasers before radio waves? Even by accident?

Just watched the latest episode and made me think about a saying in the northern coast of Colombia ya lo que fue fue, which roughly translates to “already what was was” and surely it makes not a lot of sense. But at the same time makes all the sense in the world to me…

I’m kinda THE nerd in my class and whenever someone has a question they come to me for some ungodly reason, (well I mean I guess they’re right to cuz I usually always have an answer) but one of my friends asked me today “how come an atom won’t collapse into itself if the nucleus is positive and the negative electrons are so strongly pulled towards it?” and for the first time since the school year started I’ve found myself saying the word “dunno”- well anyway WHY is that? I mean it has to be something to do with quantum mechanics but I’m not even sure if I can give you a decent definition for that phase let alone how it could explain the question

I am at dinner drinking Italian “sorbetto” (a sorbet) and my mother in law just had a huge brain freeze. Luckily she’s all right now. Why do we get a brain freeze? What is the amount of “cold” one has to ingest to get one?

Obvious things come to mind: saving Franz Ferdinand, killing your preferred dictator in their crib, warning the captain of the Titanic, giving Judas 31 pieces of silver to not betray Jesus, making the Cuban missile crisis become a Cuban Nuclear exchange (hey, I didn’t say the large impact has to be good).

But perhaps there are even smaller adjustments to be made out there? Small incidental occurrences, that if changed, would derail our timeline into a dramatically different direction.

This question has been amusing me for a while now, whenever I need to pass the time. It’s inspired by Asimov’s book “End Of Eternity”, where time engineers would go back into a precisely calculated time and place, do the tiniest change, like move a box from one shelf to another, and that would drastically divert the course of history for the next millennia.

So I was wondering what are some real world examples of such tiny pivotal events.

Just came across my thread and the comments are very divisive. I initially, and still do think that the question leads to the plane not being able to take off. Wondering if the fluid dynamics expert has the answer.

Not sure what exactly made this question get stuck in my head. But I have the impression that shaking the same weight is harder than lifting it.

Lets assume one has a sturdy box with a few weights stored inside, i.e. 10kg (2×2kg, 2x3kg) and one would shake it. How much would the box weigh at any given moment? I couldn't try it, my box isn't sturdy... But I shaked some closed cans of chickpeas instead and consciously it still felt like the can is heaviest at the lowest point of the shake movement, but only when the hand was already shaking it, not at the start, before you shake it. Is this just an illusion? And a can of chickpeas has not much air, if there is an actual effect and not just an illusion, would the difference in weight be more profound if the obcjects inside a box had more space to get shaken up/ around in?

Or is that feeling not a difference in weight but an experience of force ? What is even the difference between weight and force?

What if something would be perpetually shaken, could we even measure it's weight? (I mean apparently we do with planets etc.)

And if there is a difference in weight, how dense would something have to be to not change its weight when shaken? (Even if it is undetectable for humans?)

Hope thats not a too silly question, or rather geoup of questions. Its kind of a long time ago, but school left me feel stupid about everything concerning "natural" sciences. But I'm regaining my curiosity with podcasts like this one. Please treat me like I'm five.

my problem is, that i don't notice im hungry until i am dangerously hypoglycemic, and i can't eat that much when i do. as a consequence im pretty thin to a point where it really impacts my life and have very low glycogen levels i guess because i get hypoglycemic super fast and intensely. is there some opposite drug to glp1 that makes you more aware of being hungry and makes you able to eat more?

Hi Hannah and Michael,
For those of us who grew up in the dial up era, what was going on with that noise? What did all the different changes in tone and sound mean?