PODCAST

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science & engineering podcast

info@omegataupodcast.net

science and engineering in your headphones - the first 250 Episodes

science & medicine

All Episodes

1:57:24

197 – The European XFEL

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2016/02/25

The European XFEL is an x-ray free electron laser currently being built in Hamburg. In this episode we talk with Joachim Schulz about the project itself, the design and construction of the laser and the experiment hall, as well as about some of the science that is expected to be done with XFEL once it is finished.

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1:15:45

196 – Lasers

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2016/02/13

In this episode we cover the fundamentals of lasers with our guest, Fabian Reichert, who works at the Center for Free Electron Lasers at DESY in Hamburg. We cover various ways of how laser beams are produced and what distinguishes lasers from other light sources. We also cover a few application areas of lasers as well as techniques for pulsing lasers.

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1:29:42

195 – Flying the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2016/02/05

The tail numbers NASA 911 and NASA 905 were used for the two Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, converted Boeing 747s that carried the shuttle between the landing sites and the launch complex at Kennedy Space Center. Our guest in this episode is Ace Beall who flew the SCAs for several years. We talk about operations, modifications on the airplane, the flight characteristics with and without the shuttle as well as some anecdotes from Ace's time on the SCA.

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1:43:11

Das Jahr The Year 2015

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/12/29

This episode is German and English. Forward to the second chapter (or to 59:50) to get to the English part.Dies ist kein Interview, sondern ein Rückblick auf 2015. Nora und Markus besprechen was gut lief und was nicht so gut lief, bedanken und bei ein paar Leuten, besprechen einige Ergebnisse der Hörerumfrage und blicken kurz auf das kommende Jahr. This is not a regular interview show. Instead, it is a review of 2015. Nora and Markus look at what went well and what did not, thank a few people,

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2:43:07

191 – String Theory

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/12/22

String Theory is currently one of the most important theories in fundamental physics, with applications to a variety of subfields including black holes and cosmology, nuclear physics others. This episode is an introduction to the core ideas of the field, as well as to some of its applications. Our guest is Alexander Westphal of Germany's particle physics lab DESY. He does a wonderful job of introducing the very abstract topic in a way that could be understood by non-physicists, at least to some

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6:55:48

190 – SOFIA Part 2, The Flights

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/12/08

SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In late October 2015, I had the opportunity to fly on SOFIA during science missions 248 and 249. This episode captures these two flights. The episode is a mix between interviews with scientists and aircrew, recordings from the intercom system and some narration by me. The list of guests can be seen on the episode page - it is too long for the abstract.

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2:48:50

189 – SOFIA Part 1, Basics

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/11/30

SOFIA is an airborne observatory, a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.7m infrared telescope in the back of the fuselage. In the context of the preparation for my SOFIA flights, I visited the DSI in Stuttgart several times during this summer to record interviews with various DSI people about SOFIA. This episode covers these interviews, plus a recording of the visit of the instrument labs in Palmdale. The guests and topics are Alfred Krabbe, Head of the DSI, on the history and some of the science;

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1:53:59

185 – Nuclear Test Monitoring and the CTBT

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/10/20

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is an international treaty, still being ratified, that bans all nuclear tests. An important ingredient to the test is monitoring, whether nuclear tests will be performed nonetheless. To this end, the CTBT Preparatory Commission has established a world-spanning monitoring system that relies on seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide monitoring. In this episode, our guest is Randy Bell who runs the international data center and is thus

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1:14:13

184 – Societal Complexity and Collapse

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/10/13

Joseph Tainter, our guest in this episode, is an anthropologist and historian. In 1988 he wrote a book called The Collapse of Complex Societies in which he argues that societies inevitably increase their inherent complexity, and, if and when the complexity becomes too "expensive" (diminishing returns), a society will collapse. In this episode, Joe explains his rationale and provides historic examples for collapse. We then discuss his theory relative today's world, concluding with a not alltogether

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1:48:59

183 – Aerobatics and Red Bull Air Racing

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/10/05

Matt Hall is a pilot at the Red Bull Air Race and a professional aerobatics/air show pilot, and in this episode we talk about both. We start out with how Matt got into flying through gliders and ultralights. We then discuss competition aerobatics and air show flying, and the difference between the two. We continue with air racing and take a look at his MXS-R airplane, which, at the time of recording, was at the DG factory in Bruchsal, where we met for the recording. We conclude the episode with a

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1:07:15

181 – Why Megaprojects Fail (and what to do about it)

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/09/17

Megaprojects can be identified by their size -- in the Billions -- and also by the fact that most of them are considered a failure in terms of cost overrun, delay or the benefit delivered. Why do over 90% of such projects fail? Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of the Said Business School at Oxford University has spent his career finding out. Together with his teams he has collected lots of data about successful and unsuccessful megaprojects, and has also developed tools to help such projects increase the

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2:34:50

176 – The Gemini Programme

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/07/18

The Gemini programme of the mid-sixties is relatively unknown, even though it was an important stepping stone in the Apollo moon programme: Gemini is where NASA learned to fly in space. In this episode we cover Gemini with our two guests David Woods (who has been on the show talking about Apollo) and David Harland. Together they wrote a book on Gemini that serves as the rough outline of this conversation. We talk about the Gemini spacecraft itself, the launch vehicles, some of the achievements and

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1:48:37

175 – Disordered Systems

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/07/02

In this episode we talk with Peter Sollich of King's College, London about disordered systems, statistical mechanics and complexity. In particular, we discuss the difference between quenched and annealing disorder, the relation to entropy, complexity and chaos, the formalisms used to tackle such systems as well as a whole lot of examples from physics and other sciences.

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2:05:38

174 – Stem Cells

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/06/19

Stem cells are an important part of today's medical practice, and their importance will grow in the future based on research conducted today. One of the researchers in Derrick Rossi of Harvard and the Boston Children's Hospital. In the episode we introduce the different kinds of stem cells and their role in the body and in medical treatments. We then discuss some clinical use cases as well as current research (in general and in Derrick's group).

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2:20:23

172 – Chasing Bears with the Phantom

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/05/17

In this episode we talk to former RAF pilot Nick Anderson about his time flying the F-4 Phantom II in the cold war. We start out by describing the Phantom itself, the specific of the British Phantoms, and how it flew from a pilot's perspective. We then discuss flying in the cold war and walk through a typical intercept mission. We close with a Nick's personal perspective on the time and his flying, as well as with a quick view on the recent intercepts of Russian bombers in Europe. Nick has also

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3:00:52

170 – Race Car Design

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/04/19

In this episode we talk about the design, engineering and testing of race cars. I have visited Toyota Motorsport earlier this year and talked with Alastair Moffitt and a few of his colleagues. We start out with an introduction to TMG (Alastair Moffitt), then talk about component and full-car testing (Marco Gehlen), and then discuss wind tunnels and aerodynamics (Antonio Pavesi and Rene Hilhorst). We also cover design trade-offs, team/driver integration, the role of the driver during development, the

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2:24:02

167 – The Apollo Guidance Computer

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/03/04

This episode is a mix between computer architecture, programming and (historic) space flight. We cover the ins and outs of the Apollo Guidance Computer. Our guest ist Frank O'Brien, who wrote an incredibly detailed book about this machine. In the episode we cover the hardware architecture, the instruction set, the various layers (native, executive and interpreter) as well as some mission programs.

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2:06:15

166 – Flying the Concorde

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/02/18

Here is another episode in our ongoing (and hopefully never ending :-)) series on flying iconic airplanes. This time we talk with former Concorde pilot John Hutchinson about flying this Mach 2 airliner. We discuss the cornerstones of the design and construction of the aircraft, its operation (mostly with British Airways), flying characteristics as well as the infamous accident in Paris in 2000 (on which John has some very specific opinions).

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2:09:17

164 – Satellite-based Earth Observation

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2015/01/17

This episode is a conversation with Ruud Hoogeveen from the Netherlands Institute for Space Research about satellite-based Earth observation, and primarily about measuring the concentration of gases such as CO2 or Ozone from space. We talk about the effects of these gases on the atmosphere, how the sensors work in principle, and about the history and evolution of the sensors over the various missions. We conclude with a look on detecting and measuring aerosols and at the future challenges and

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2:41:38

162 – Shuttle Mission Control

podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science &... ·

2014/12/18

In this episode we talk about mission control for the Space Shuttle. Our guest is Dan Adamo, a former flight dynamics officer (FDO) in the Mission Control Center. We cover the organization of mission control, the various roles, qualification and training, the specific tasks of the FDO as well as a little bit of history. Dan also relates many interesting episodes from his time "in the trench". This is the last episode in 2014. Nora and Markus wish you Merry Christmas, a few quiet days between the

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podcast (en) Archive 250 EN – omega tau science & engineering podcast

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