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The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

Podcast The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu
theliuniverse
A half-hour dose of cosmic conversation with scientists, educators and students about the cosmos, scientific frontiers, scifi, comics, and more. Hosted by Dr. C...
VetenskapAstronomiSkönlitteraturScience fiction

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  • Comets, Eclipses and Auroras: The LIUniverse Looks Back at 2024
    What were the coolest science and sci-fi events in the LIUniverse in 2024, and what’s in store for us in 2025? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome three members of our production team: Leslie Mullen, our Executive Producer making her first on air appearance, Jon Barnes, our Editor, and Stacey Severn, our Social Media/Patreon Community Director, both of whom are familiar to longtime fans. But first, as always, we start with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the latest development in the dispute that astrophysicists call the “Hubble Tension.” Over the past 20 years, the two different methods of measuring the Hubble Constant, which is used to calculate the rate of universal expansion, have led to two different conclusions. Leslie points out that the universe isn’t confused, we are, leading to a conversation about why accurate measurements matter in helping us expand our limited understanding. Then we begin our look back at the year in astronomy – or rather, our look up. Stacey takes us on a tour, from a Geminid meteor hitting the moon, to the spectacular aurora borealis visible in the Northeastern US, to Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, to, of course, the Great North American Eclipse. The team share their viewing experiences while Chuck explains the impact of solar max on both the eclipse and the auroras. Next, Jon Barnes is back to talk about “The Three-Body Problem” science fiction series on Netflix. He asks Chuck to explain what we really know about cosmic particles (aka cosmic rays), because, in the series, the aliens use sophons, a supercomputer combined with a photon, to communicate across long distances at or near the speed of light. You’ll also hear about the recent detection of a surprisingly large number of very high energy cosmic rays that are hitting us right now. Our fan question comes from Pshemo on Patreon and concerns an experiment to measure the dynamics of a local system relative to spacetime by using light as a way of gauging the background nature of the universe. And if you think that sounds pretty geeky, it’s nothing compared to the conversation between Allen, Chuck and Leslie that ensues, encompassing Einstein, the Michelson–Morley experiment, gravitational waves, LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and LISA. There’s plenty more in this episode, including a discussion of the recent wave of drone sightings, their similarity to the past UFO sightings, and the likelihood that they are all explained by less exotic causes than aliens. Moving on to the coolest “identified flying objects” of 2024, Leslie tells us about the Europa Clipper, which launched in October. It will reach orbit around Jupiter in 6 years in order to search for alien life in the subsurface oceans of its icy moon Europa. Chuck reminds us all that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach to our Sun on Christmas Eve 2024. Finally, it’s time for the team to share what they’re looking forward to in 2025. Jon is psyched for “Mickey 17,” a film by director Bong Joon-ho about a clone on a space colony. Allen is excited for Rocket Lab’s Venus Life Finder, the first private interplanetary space probe, which launches in January to search for organic compounds within Venus' atmosphere. Stacey is looking forward to Axiom Space’s fourth mission to the ISS in 2025, an international trip to conduct scientific experiments commanded again by Peggy Whitson. Leslie is most excited for the discovery nobody is expecting, whatever that may be. And what is Chuck looking forward to most in 2025? The long-awaited start of scientific operations at the Vera Rubin Observatory, which will take a full picture of the sky every 30 seconds for ten years and deliver an unprecedented level of data for astronomers to feast upon! We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.   Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Illustration of the Hubble constant – NASA/ESA/StSci, Public Domain Gianluca Lombardi Geminid meteor shower video podcast – ESO, Public Domain Northern Lights over the Northeastern US in 2024. – Elliot Severn, All Rights Reserved Northern Lights over the Northeastern US in 2024. – Allen Liu, All Rights Reserved Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS – Elliot Severn, All Rights Reserved Map showing total solar eclipse viewing in US in 2017 and 2024. – Ernest Wright/NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, Public Domain Total solar eclipse, April 8, 2024. – Elliot Severn, All Rights Reserved How LIGO achieves steadiness – Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab, Public Domain Europa Clipper construction – NASA/JPL, Public Domain Artist rendering of Europa Clipper traveling to Jupiter – NASA/JPL, Public Domain Artist concept of the Casini spacecraft flying through the water/ice plumes of Enceladus – NASA/JPL, Public Domain Artist concept of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flying close to the Sun. – NASA, Public Domain
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  • Space Lasers, Solar Panels and Stochastic Parrots with Leah Voytovich
    How far can following your passions take you in science? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome the multi-faceted Leah Voytovich, a software development engineer for Project Kuiper who planned on going to med school but instead ended up working on space lasers for Amazon’s satellite internet constellation. As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the use of deuterium levels in the search for exoplanets with advanced civilizations. That’s because signs of deuterium depletion can indicate that a planet has developed nuclear fission power.  After that, Leah tells us a little about Amazon’s Project Kuiper. She explains the wide variety of challenges to keeping the satellites, which are in low earth orbit, in communication with the ground. The project she’s working on now is using infrared space lasers to communicate more securely within the satellite constellation.  Chuck brings up the impact that these massive groups of satellites like Starlink are having on astronomy, from satellite streaks on dark sky surveys to image-destroying flares. Leah said there are people working on reducing Project Kuiper’s impacts across multiple areas of concern. For our first question. Yasmin asks, “Will our satellites all be controlled by AI someday? If so, when? And is this a good idea?”  Leah speculates that there may be some projects already using Machine Learning here on Earth, but that it will be further down the line before there’s AI actually present in satellites themselves. Leah doesn’t see a problem with the use of ML tools for science, as long as there are protections in place and that humans are still writing the software. After our break, Leah tells us about what she does outside her work – literally – from climbing Mount St. Helens in winter using an ice ax and crampons, to skiing, to running marathons – 3 so far! Then we’re back to AI, ML, and the differences between the two. Charles talks about how important AI has beome as a tool for astronomers and other scientists. Leah explains the “Chinese Room Argument” and why it’s a good analogy for machine learning, Allen shares the description of AI as a “stochastic parrot.”  Our next question comes from Jonathan, who asks, “With so many problems facing the world like poverty, war and the climate crisis here on Earth, why should we spend money and resources on space exploration and astronomy?” Leah talks about how Project Kuiper is intended to serve underserved communities by providing internet access to people who don’t already have it. That in turn increases global communication and connectivity and can then help address those other problems. And of course, to launch those satellites, we need rockets. She also explains how valuable internet access is to communities– something she knows a little about. She and Martin Leet co-founded Maji, a nonprofit in Uganda that uses solar power to make clean water easily accessible for refugee communities. Leah, a former EMT, explains how Maji also provides first aide medical training and agricultural training to the communities. The story of how Maji came to be is remarkable – we’ll leave it to Leah to share that with you in the episode. We end with Leah recounting what it was like to be in Mission Control for the launch of the first Project Kuiper satellites. She was the representative for her team in the Mission Control room, so she was the one who actually got to say “Go” for her service during the final pre-launch Go/No Go review.  If you’d like to know more about Maji, you can check out the nonprofit’s website here. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Illustration of Kepler-138 exoplanets– NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI) Deuterium, aka hydrogen-2 (²H or D) – Center for Deuterium Depletion An axonometric view displays various Earth orbits, illustrating space debris and active satellites – WikiCommons/Pablo Carlos Budassi The history of the universe since the Big Bang – NASA Satellite streaks in an astronomical image – University of Washington/ Abhilash Biswas, Kilando Chambers, and Ashley Santos Space-based lasers – IEEE Spectrum Illustration of NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) communicating with the I.S.S. over laser links – NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Illustration of machine learning and artificial intelligence – Creative Commons / mikemacmarketing Computer simulation of dendrites of pyramidal neurons – Hermann Cuntz/ PLoS Computational Biology, Vol. 6(8) August 2010. Earth illuminated time-lapse video if ISS over Earth – NASA Martin Leet and Leah Voytovich – University of Pennsylvania The Maji water tank for the Olua I community – University of Pennsylvania/Martin Leet
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  • A Double Dose of Physics with Dr. Betty Jensen and Dr. Mary Lou West
    What was it like forging a career in physics as a woman in the 1970s? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome the “Dynamic Duo of Physics” – physicist Dr. Betty Jensen and astrophysicist Dr. Mary Lou West. As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a potential new revelation about Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. It seems that the current spot may be only 190 years old rather than 400 years old, and that the first spot described by Cassini in the 1600s may have actually disappeared in the early 1700s. Mary Lou points out that the older spot may not even have been red and gives us a primer on the storms of Jupiter. Next, Betty talks about her love of math and science, her research in fusion energy, and how she forged her own path to becoming the physicist she always knew she would be. Both scientists talk about how “the two body problem” led each of them to stay in the New York area. Mary Lou talks about how she also studied math and physics, but how she ended up becoming an astrophysicist. Then it’s time for an audience question for Dr. Jensen and Dr. West: “What kinds of mentoring opportunities were available during your PhD years?” Betty says that while as the lone woman in her area she didn’t feel very supported, she did have some really good experiences with professors at Columbia University, including Nobel prize winner in physics Dr. Isadore Isaac Rabi. Mary Lou, who was also at Columbia, tells the story of how she had to do a second thesis after someone published on the subject she’d been working on. She also recounts the wild story of how she used a children’s chalkboard to save her PhD thesis defense after student protests disrupted it. Charles brings up the story of Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu, one of the most famous woman physics professors of the period and a member of the Manhattan Project, with whom Betty took a class. In a perhaps unsurprising turn of events, Dr. Wu and the other women on her team who conducted the “Wu Experiment” were ignored by the Nobel Prize committee in favor of the male scientists who predicted the results of her experiment. Throughout the episode, Betty and Mary Lou share some of their most interesting experiences, from riding in the back of a car with Edward Teller, the father of the H-Bomb, to the nearly catastrophic installation of a large telescope at the Harriman Observatory. Chuck talks with Betty and Mary Lou about what it was like to use computers in the punch card era. It turns out, both Betty’s dissertation and Mary Lou’s thesis were on punch cards! Finally, after the two scientists brag about their families, Chuck asks them for some parting words of advice for future scientists. But we wouldn’t dream of speaking for them, so please tune in to the episode for words of wisdom from these two inspirational physicists.   We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.   Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Great Red Spot seen by the Juno probe – Kevin Gill, CC BY 2.0 Cassini’s drawing of Jupiter’s “permanent spot” – Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Public Domain Great Red Spot in the 1880s – Thomas Gwyn Elger Magnetic plasma storms on the Sun – Courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, Public Domain Dr. Isadore Isaac Rabi – Nobel Foundation Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu at work – Smithsonian Institution, no known copyright restrictions Dr. Edward Teller – UC Davis, CC BY 2.0   #TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #Physics #Astrophysics #BettyJensen #MaryLouWest #Jupiter #GreatRedSpot #MagneticPlasmaStorms #JovianStorms #SolarStorms #Cassini #NobelPrize #IsadoreIsaacRabi #ChienShiungWu #EdwardTeller #ManhattanProject #HarrimanObservatory #ColumbiaUniversity #TwoBodyProblem
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  • Into the Unknown with Dr. Kelsey Johnson Part 2
    Why should people care about fundamental questions of existence or try to understand the principles of our universe? Because we may be the only sentient beings in existence who can! At least, that’s what returning guest Dr. Kelsey Johnson, past president of the AAS and the ASP, and author of “Into the Unknown – The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos, tells Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu as our interview resumes. And then we’re off and running! Kelsey explains where her passion for astrophysics comes from, and why it’s our responsibility to explore the reality in which we live. You’ll hear about how really big our universe is and why we need to get comfortable with the unknown – with an assist from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters To A Young Poet.” Our first question comes from Violetta, who asks, “What was the most interesting thing that got you into astrophysics?” Kelsey describes how, long before she knew anything about astronomy, she fell in love with Vega while staring at it from the middle of a giant potato field. She talks about what it’s like to discover something through a telescope that no one on Earth has ever seen before. Charles shares a memory about hunting for – and discovering – quasars around the Hubble Deep Field (North) when he was a post-doc using the MMT Telescope in Arizona. Kelsey talks about seeing the unbelievable night sky while visiting the site of the ALMA Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile. We end the episode with Chuck and Kelsey talking about how hard it can be for parents to get their kids to follow in their footsteps, at least when those footsteps lead to a telescope! If you’d like to know more about Kelsey, you can visit her website and follow her on Twitter (X) and Instagram at @ProfKelsey, We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: The Hubble Deep Field (north) – NASA, Public Domain Inside the MMT observatory – Bill85704 on Flickr, CC BY 2.0 Two of ALMA’s radio antennae – Iztok Bončina/ESO, CC BY 4.0 Vega – Stephen Rahn, public domain (CC0) #TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #KelseyJohnson #AAS #ASP #IntotheUnknown #RainerMariaRilke #LettersToAYoungPoet #ALMAObservatory #AtacamaDesert #Vega #MMTObservatory #HubbleDeepField
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  • Into the Unknown with Dr. Kelsey Johnson Part 1
    Why is star formation the workhorse of the universe? What is a flocculent galaxy? Which cosmic cataclysm creates new globular star clusters? And why are we currently seeing such amazing aurora in unusual places? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astronomer Dr. Kelsey Johnson, past president of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), and author of “Into the Unknown – The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos.” As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the auroras that have been occurring during the peak of the current solar max period of the roughly 11-year-long solar cycle. From the Mother’s Day aurora borealis in May to the amazing night of October 10, when millions of people as far south as Florida and Mexico were treated to one of the most spectacular, vibrant light shows many of them had ever seen. Kelsey shares the story of the first time she saw an aurora, as a high school student in Minnesota who didn’t even know what one was. Upon leaving her boyfriend’s house at around 2 in the morning, she saw a brilliantly glowing sky. Kelsey’s availability bias kicked in, and her assumption was that it had to be either god or aliens, with the latter being the more likely. Needless to say, the next day the front page of the local paper solved the mystery. And then it’s on to a nerdy discussion of existential curiosity, deep, philosophical questions, and her book, “Into the Unknown.” You’ll hear what drove Kelsey to write the book, and about her lifelong drive to understand our place in the universe. Kelsey and Allen nerd out over Calabi-Yau manifolds (concepts from string theory), imaginary numbers and complex numbers, Euler’s Formula and more, and then, thankfully, it’s time for our first question. Johnny asks, “What is a flocculent galaxy, and why are they interesting?” Kelsey says that they’re spiral galaxies with spiral arms that aren’t very pronounced, that are exceptionally “floofy and chaotic” with very different, but very cool star formation. Chuck and Kelsey explain why star formation is the workhorse of the universe and how important it is. Kelsey also explains why globular clusters are her “favorite” type of star cluster. There are about 150 of them living around our galaxy, and they’re almost as old as the universe itself, over 10 billion years old. Kesley studies them to learn how the universe was formed and how galaxies came together. New globular clusters are rare, but they can be created by the collision of two galaxies. That’s all we could squeeze into Part 1, but come back in two weeks for Part 2 of "Into the Unknown with Dr. Kelsey Johnson." If you’d like to know more about Kelsey, you can visit her website at and follow her on Twitter (X) and Instagram at @ProfKelsey, We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.   Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Graph of the solar cycle – David Hathaway, NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Public Domain May 2024 aurora in Northern Ireland – David Kernan, CC BY May 2024 Aurora from Chihuahua, Mexico – Levi bernardo, CC BY Chuck & Allen’s view of the October 2024 aurora – Allen Liu Eugenio Calabi and Shing-Tung Yau – National Science Foundation, Public Domain Eugenio Calabi and Shing-Tung Yau – Konrad Jacobs 3D model of a Möbius Strip – Inductiveload, Public Domain 3D model of a Klein bottle – Lukáš Hozda, Public Domain Number line – Rumil, Public Domain Complex Plane – Brigban, Public Domain NGC 2775, a flocculent galaxy – European Space Agency, CC BY Messier 2, a globular cluster – NASA Hubble, CC BY #TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #KelseyJohnson #AAS #ASP #IntotheUnknown #aurora #solarmax #CalabiYaumanifolds #stringtheory #imaginarynumbers #complexnumbers #flocculentgalaxy #spiralgalaxy #globularclusters #starformation #starcluster
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A half-hour dose of cosmic conversation with scientists, educators and students about the cosmos, scientific frontiers, scifi, comics, and more. Hosted by Dr. Charles Liu, PhD, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. Support us on Patreon.
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