The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, has decided to launch an all-out attack on the city of Constantinople. But the brave defenders are prepared. They resist wave after wave of Turkish troops until their luck runs out with a cruel twist of fate.
Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.
Illinois is in the midst of a COVID surge, surpassing 11,000 new cases for the first time this year, while newly released standardized test scores show the impact the pandemic had on learning. Plus, the latest on the criminal trial of actor Jussie Smollet. Reset goes behind the headlines on the Weekly News Recap.
Optimism about achieving the American Dream is on the wane, or so we are told. Gonzalo Schwarz of the Archbridge Institute says that's not quite right.
It was only a matter of time before cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant started popping up in the U.S., and now, it's here. Although it's too early to tell how this virus strain will spread, the threat it poses has already lit a fire under public health messaging.
President Biden announced a new strategy to avoid a winter surge of cases that involves free at-home testing, a vaccine booster messaging campaign and heightened international travel safeguards.
Meanwhile, the race is on to detect how omicron is already spreading in this country. NPR reporter Will Stone gives us a look into what's happening in labs right now across the country.
And Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, discusses what we know about how effective travel bans are scenarios like this.
What makes things sticky? Listener Mitch from the USA began wondering while he was taking down some very sticky wallpaper. Our world would quite literally fall apart without adhesives. They are almost everywhere – in our buildings, in our cars and in our smartphones. But how do they hold things together?
To find out, presenter Marnie Chesterton visits a luthier, Anette Fajardo, who uses animal glues every day in her job making violins. These glues have been used since the ancient Egyptians –but adhesives are much older than that. Marnie speaks to archaeologist Dr Geeske Langejans from Delft University of Technology about prehistoric glues made from birch bark, dated to 200,000 years ago. She goes to see a chemist, Prof Steven Abbott, who helps her understand why anything actually sticks to anything else. And she speaks to physicist Dr Ivan Vera-Marun at the University of Manchester, about the nanotechnologists using adhesion at tiny scales to make materials of the future.
Presented by Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Anand Jagatia for BBC World Service
This episode was originally broadcast on 2nd October 2020
Peter Woit is a theoretical physicist, mathematician, critic of string theory, and author of the popular science blog Not Even Wrong. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– The Prisoner Wine Company: https://theprisonerwine.com/lex to get 20% off & free shipping
– Linode: https://linode.com/lex to get $100 free credit
– Sunbasket: https://sunbasket.com/lex and use code LEX to get $35 off
– BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off
– SimpliSafe: https://simplisafe.com/lex and use code LEX to get a free security camera
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:22) – Physics vs mathematics
(21:51) – Beauty of mathematics
(43:42) – String theory
(1:12:15) – Theory of everything
(1:32:23) – Twistor theory and spinors
(1:48:50) – Nobel Prize likelihood for theory of everything
(1:52:36) – Simulating physics
(1:56:07) – Sci-Fi, aliens and space
(2:05:19) – Responsibility of scientists
Eccentric economist and brilliant thinker Tyler Cowen answers our questions about the confusing state of the economy. We talk about: inflation, the stock market, “The Great Resignation”, billionaires, income inequality, crypto, Texas vs San Francisco, the metaverse, good food, working remotely, what states like Virginia swinging back toward the right might mean for national politics and more.
As part of CoinDesk’s Future of Money week, they asked some of crypto’s biggest brains for their predictions on the future of money. In today’s episode, NLW goes one by one through those predictions, saying whether he agrees or disagrees and why.
NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
-
“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Dark Crazed Cap” by Isaac Joel. Image credit: VallarieE/E+/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk.
The unemployment rate falls but job growth disappoints. Salesforce reports better-than-expected profits and promotes Bret Taylor to co-CEO. Square changes its name to Block. Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO of Twitter. And Docusign plummets on weak guidance. Motley Fool analysts Maria Gallagher and Ron Gross discuss those stories and weigh in on the latest from Ulta Beauty, Okta, Allbirds, and Chipotle. Our analysts share two stocks on their radar: DoorDash and NextEra Energy. Plus, toy industry analyst Jackie Breyer talks holiday toys, supply chain, and bumper cars for toddlers!