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

1:54:33

359 – Modern Fission Reactors

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

2021/01/04

In this episode we take a look at newer generations of fission reactors, those that are currently being developed or researched. Our guest is Jacopo Buongiorno of MIT. We discuss some of the high-level goals of these new reactors, such as increased safety and efficiency, and then look at a few of the interesting new designs and how they realize these goals. We also briefly cover some of the policy arguments around keeping fission in the mix for combatting climate change.

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2:28:47

355 – Supercomputing for COVID-19

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

2020/10/29

In this episode we look at how supercomputers are used to help with managing the pandemic. It's a double-header with two guests. We start with Cineca's Andrew Emerson. As part of the EXSCALATE 4 COV EU-funded research project, he works of virtual screening of existing drugs regarding their potential efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. In part two we talk with Dan Jacobson of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He and his team used a big data analysis to understand how the virus "works", and they figured out

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2:40:06

350 – Existential Risk

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

2020/08/22

Humanity has always been exposed to potentially catastrophic risks that might endanger the continued existence of humanity. Asteroid impacts or supervolcano eruptions come to mind. But since about the invention of the atomic bomb, humanity has been able to wipe itself out, adding self-made existential risks to the natural ones. Oxford philosopher Toby Ord argues in his book The Precipice that those risks are much more likely than the natural ones. In this episode we explore this idea with him, and

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2:46:06

348 – ATLAS Computing

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

2020/07/27

To conclude our detailed look at the ATLAS experiment, this episode looks at the computing infrastructure. We start out with the trigger systems that decide, very quickly, whether the data from a particular collision is worth keeping. We then discuss the reconstruction of the event, the simulation needed to understand the background as well as the LHC Grid used distribute data and computation over the whole planet. Our guest is CERN'n Frank Berghaus.

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3:02:57

345 – ATLAS Science

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

2020/06/16

After understanding the history and development of ATLAS (and covering the LHC and particle physics in general) in previous episodes, we are now at the point where we can try to understand how a scientist uses the data produced by one of these large detectors and make sense of it. This is what we'll do in this episode with physicist (and listener) Philipp Windischhofer. If you want to learn even more, you can check out these links provided by Philipp or read the last chapter of the book :-)

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2:39:31

344 – History and Development of ATLAS

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

2020/06/02

ATLAS is one of the two general-purpose experiments at the LHC. It has been conceived, designed, and built over decades by hundreds of scientists and engineers from dozens of countries and hundreds of organizations. My guest, Peter Jenni, has been the head of the ATLAS collaboration for most of this time. In this episode we talk about science and engineering, but mostly about organizational aspects and the "community management" necessary to get such a magnificent machine off the ground.

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1:14:56

343 – Flying and Testing the F-35

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

2020/05/20

The Lockheed F-35 Lightning II is going to be more or less what the F-16 and F-18 are today: the backbone of the US and NATO land and sea-based air forces. It is a multi-role fighter, and one of its versions has the capability to take off with a very short roll and land vertically. Tucker "Cinco" Hamilton is a test pilot who has flown all three versions of the jet. In this episode we talk about flying this fifth-gen fighter and about some aspects of the testing program.

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1:47:32

341 – Emergency and Intensive Care, Ventilation

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

2020/04/29

In light of the current situation, we have decided to record a couple of episodes that cover some of the relevant background in terms of biology, medicine and healthcare. In this first episode we discuss emergency care and intensive care with a special focus on ventilation. We discuss these topics in general, and also specifically to COVID-19. Our guest, Kimon and Junad, are both practicing doctors and have practical experience with these topics.

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1:07:11

340 – Plasma Wakefield Acceleration with AWAKE

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

2020/04/22

A major component of particle accelerators like the LHC are the actual accelerators; the current approach relies on radio frequency cavities. However, their acceleration gradient, measured in Volts per meter, is limited. This means that future accelerators, especially linear ones, will become longer and longer to reach the desired energies. A new approach to particle acceleration relies on plasma wakefields, this technology can deliver orders of magnitude more acceleration per distance. AWAKE is a

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0:41:22

Special – Once You Start Asking

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

2020/04/11

Over the last two years, Markus wrote a book about some of the repeated topic covered on omega tau: SOFIA, Enterprise, Aerospace, Gravitational Waves, Telescopes, Models and Particle Physics. The book, called Once You Start Asking is now available as an ebook, with the softcover edition forthcoming. In this episode, Nora and Markus discuss the book and its history.

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1:07:12

150.5 – Controlling the ELT

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

2020/02/14

Six years ago, in episode 150, Jochen Liske of ESO told us about the Extremely Large Telescope that is currently being built in Chile. This episode is a continuation (which is why this is a kind of bonus episode labelled as 150.5) in which Thomas Pfrommer tells us about how to control the optical path of this monster telescope: the 39 meter, 798-segment main mirror, plus the four additional mirrors involved in bringing the light to a stable and sharp focus. I recorded this episode mainly to fill in

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4:15:28

333 – (Flying and Simulating) The F-14 Tomcat

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

2020/01/03

The F-14 Tomcat is one of the most iconic fighters, certainly among its generation. In this episode we talk with Nick Pirnia about the aircraft's development and history as well as about flying it with former pilot Okie Nance. The aircraft is also available in the DCS flight simulator and the third part of this episode is a conversation with the development team from Heatblur about how to implement the F-14 in DCS; if you haven't yet, check out some of their videos, this thing looks unbelievably

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1:22:48

332 – Attribution of Extreme Weather Events

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

2019/12/22

An important consequence of the warming of the planet due to climate change is that the frequency and/or severity of extreme weather events will increase. But how can we tell whether a particular event can be attributed to the changing climate? Would it have happened in "normal" climate as well, and if so, how would the event have been different? This aspect of climate science is called attribution science, and the guest of this episode, Friederike Otto is a pioneer in the field.

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1:33:38

330 – Parabolic Flights at AirZeroG

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

2019/11/29

When I was in Bordeaux with the DLR to report about their science campaign in September, I also talked to the team from AirZeroG/Novespace about the technical and aviation aspects of parabolic flights. These interviews are in this episode. I chat with Jean-François Clervoy about the history of the company, with Eric Delesalle about piloting the parabolas, with Hervé Normand about the reasons for the potential sickness, and with Nicolas Barbotin about cabin safety. At the end of the episode I also

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2:15:18

328 – Flying the P-3 Orion (and some other aircraft)

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

2019/11/12

Marija Jovanovich is a pilot for the Royal Australian Air Force where she has been flying the P-3 Orion. We discuss the aircraft, the missions, and some anecdotes. Marija then also attended the USAF Experimental Test Pilot School, and we talk a bit about the experience of flying a wide range of different aircraft.

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3:05:25

326 – Weather Forecasting at the ECMWF

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

2019/10/19

Earlier this year I visited the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, a European organization that produces global weather forecasts and performs research on how to improve those. The episode has three parts. First, Hilda Carr gives us an overview of the organization, its purpose and its history. Then I talk with Peter Bauer about weather and climate modeling and about encoding these models efficiently in software programs that run on supercomputers. Part three is a conversation with

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2:34:07

324 – Air Traffic Control at Heathrow and RIAT

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

2019/09/27

In July I visited the NATS tower at Heathrow Airport to interview my guest Adam Spink. We chatted about some of the mechanics of air traffic control at Heathrow and the unique ways of optimizing throughput. A few days later we met again on the tower of Fairford during RIAT 2019 and chatted about the specifics of ATC'ing during an airshow.

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0:58:41

321 – Societal Change and the Climate

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

2019/08/29

I am interested in societal change: how can a complex society with lots of emergent (perhaps unintended) behaviors make a conscious change, such as transitioning to a more sustainable economy? We discussed this from an engineering perspective in the episode on Modeling Socio-Technical Systems, and we've looked at it historically in the episode on Societal Complexity and Collapse. In this episode we look at the topic more from the perspective of civil society and politics. Our guest ist Maja Göpel;

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1:30:14

320 – The Event Horizon Telescope

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

2019/08/16

A few months ago, a collaboration called the Event Horizon Telescope presented the first direct image of a black hole; or more specifically, of the radiation created by accelerated particles at its event horizon. The EHT is a Very Large Baseline Interferometer, in which radio telescopes all over the world are computationally connected to obtain resolutions that are not possible with one telescope. In the episode I chat with Heino Falcke, the chair of the EHT science committee, about the science,

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3:33:39

318 – (My Flight with) The USAF Thunderbirds

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

2019/07/19

In June 2019 I had the pleasure and honor to fly in an F-16D with the USAF Thunderbirds. The episode covers the medical briefing about how to prevent motion sickness and how to deal with Gs, suiting up with flight suit, g-suit, harness, helmet and mask, the briefing with my pilot Maj. Jason Markzon, the flight itself with commentary, an interview about the Thunderbirds with Jason, as well as a reflection on what the flight meant to me, recorded together with Nora.

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

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