Reconstructing Ancient Superhighways with Stefani Crabtree and Devin White
Seventy thousand years ago, humans migrated on foot across the ancient continent of Sahul — the landmass that has since split up into Australia and New Guinea. Mapping the journeys of these ancient v...
16 Juli 20211h 6min
Mark Ritchie on A New Thermodynamics of Biochemistry, Part 2
This week we conclude our two-part discussion with ecologist Mark Ritchie of Syracuse University on how he and his SFI collaborators are starting to rethink the intersections of thermodynamics and bio...
1 Juli 202145min
Mark Ritchie on A New Thermodynamics of Biochemistry, Part 1
Deep inside your cells, the chemistry of life is hard at work to make the raw materials and channel the energy required for growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Few systems are as intricate or as my...
17 Juni 202140min
Andrea Wulf on The Invention of Nature, Part 2: Humboldt's Dangerous Idea
The 19th Century saw many transformations: the origins of ecology and modern climatology, new unifying theories of the living world, the first Big Science projects, revolutions in the Spanish colonies...
4 Juni 202148min
Andrea Wulf on The Invention of Nature, Part 1: Humboldt's Naturegemälde
When you hear the word “nature,” what comes to mind? Chances are, if you are listening to this in the 21st Century, the image is one of a vast, interconnected, living network — one in which you and yo...
21 Maj 202151min
Sidney Redner on Statistics and Everyday Life
Complexity is all around us: in the paths we walk through pathless woods, the strategies we use to park our cars, the dynamics of an elevator as it cycles up and down a building. Zoom out far enough a...
7 Maj 202157min
Orit Peleg on the Collective Behavior of Honeybees & Fireflies
“More than the sum of its parts” is practically the slogan of systems thinking. One canonical example is a beehive: individually, a honeybee is not that clever, but together they can function like sha...
23 Apr 20211h
Jonas Dalege on The Physics of Attitudes & Beliefs
Human relationships are often described in the language of “chemistry” — does that make the beliefs and attitudes of individuals a kind of “physics”? It is, at least, a fascinating avenue of inquiry. ...
8 Apr 202147min
