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PODCAST

Physical Attraction

Physical Attraction is the show that explores topics in science, technology, and the future - from a physicist"s perspective. From the birth of stars to the end of the world, from interviews with experts to meticulously-researched deep dives, we"ll explore the topics that shape our world.

science physics

All Episodes

40:15

Climate 201: Climate Doomism (II)

Physical Attraction ·

2022/03/09

In the last episode, we briefly introduced "climate change doomers" and some of their misleading claims. In this episode, I talk about despair, and why we cannot give in to it.

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49:09

Climate 201: Climate Doomism (I)

Physical Attraction ·

2022/02/21

We're going there. In this episode, I discuss why civilization is not going to imminently collapse due to climate change, explain why doomism is a new form of denialism, and debunk some of its most misleading claims.

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36:48

UNLOCKED: Book Club: Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants

Physical Attraction ·

2022/02/08

A new episode released from behind the Patreon paywall. This episode, we'll review and discuss some of the issues raised by Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants, a book that details the history of the advertising industry.

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41:21

Climate 201 NETS XI: Direct Air Capture, p2 and NETS...

Physical Attraction ·

2022/01/24

In this episode, we will continue our analysis of Direct Air Capture and conclude the series on negative emissions - crucial component of decarbonisation, or a techno-utopian distraction from the real problems we face? [Don't expect an actual answer]

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37:57

Climate 201 NETS X: Direct Air Capture, part 1

Physical Attraction ·

2022/01/10

Direct Air Capture - machines that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Could this be the solution to a scaleable negative emissions industry? We'll discuss the pros and cons of the technology in this episode.

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40:10

BONUS: Black Mirror IRL pilot - Be Right Back

Physical Attraction ·

2021/12/28

Hi all! This is a slightly special bonus episode. Some years ago I had plans for another series "Black Mirror IRL", which was going to be a series of episodes looking into the technologies mentioned and featured in the Netflix Series Black Mirror. Is anyone working on these technologies in real life? What would their potential social implications be if they were developed? How scientifically feasible would it actually be to develop something like this? The plan would be to explore one technology

en

42:33

Climate 201: NETS VII: Ecosystem Restoration and...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/12/19

What are "nature-based solutions" to climate change? Can we restore the ecosystems that we've destroyed? And how can restoring mangroves help us to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere?

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30:12

Climate 201, NETS IX: Ocean Iron Fertilization

Physical Attraction ·

2021/11/29

"Give me a tanker full of iron, and I'll give you a new Ice Age." It might sound like something Hank Scorpio would say, but this episode will deal with the very real idea of stimulating plankton blooms to remove CO2 from the atmosphere - ocean iron fertilization.

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29:32

Climate 201: NETS VIII: Enhanced Weathering

Physical Attraction ·

2021/11/16

How could grinding up rocks and sprinkling the dust over vast areas help to combat climate change? In this episode, we deal with "enhanced weathering" as a potential source of negative emissions.

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51:24

Climate201 NETS VI: Planting Trees and Afforestation

Physical Attraction ·

2021/11/01

Mention carbon capture, and the refrain you'll often hear is "why invent a machine that captures CO2? We already have one - it's called a tree." But is large-scale afforestation as a negative emissions solution so simple? We dig into its potential in this episode of our series on negative emissions.

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55:15

Climate 201: NETS V: Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/10/18

N/B: Owing to a ridiculously hectic schedule until the end of the year, episodes will continue to be released on a fortnightly basis until further notice - thanks for understanding. We hear an awful lot about carbon capture, utilisation, and storage as a technology that could help to mitigate climate change. In this episode, we review the science, the policy, existing CCS plants, and the potential for the captured carbon to be utilised. Will CCS ever materialise?

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01:04:56

Climate 201: Negative Emissions IV: Bioenergy with...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/10/04

In this episode, we get into some of the specific technologies that might be called upon to deliver negative emissions at scale. Specifically, we're looking at the advantages, disadvantages, and concerns surrounding BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage.)

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01:05:34

Climate 201, Negative Emissions III: Technological...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/09/21

In this episode, we discuss whether the promises that some new technology - like negative emissions - will come along and "solve climate change" for us are genuine, or if they have instead shaped climate policy into prevarication and procrastination.

en

44:17

Climate 201: Negative Emissions (II): We'll Always...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/09/13

Increasing levels of negative emissions are envisioned by models in climate-change scenarios that are compatible with the Paris Agreements. In this episode, we talk about some of the geopolitical implications for trying to deliver this, and the alternative futures that we can envision. Do "thinly-veiled techno-utopias shore up the Paris Agreement?"

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43:55

Climate 201: Negative Emissions I: The Last Thing We...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/09/06

Negative emissions technologies (NETs), also called carbon dioxide removal (CDR), are seen by many as an increasingly essential part of climate change mitigation. Many of the scenarios that the IPCC suggests for meeting the Paris Agreement goals suggest that we will suck billions of tonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere by the end of the century - using technology which has barely made it past the pilot project stage. In this episode, I ask: how did we get here?

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49:47

Book Club: Jason Hickel's The Divide, Part II

Physical Attraction ·

2021/08/30

The book club returns, with a two-part review and overview of anthropologist Jason Hickel's book "The Divide", about global inequality, its historical origins, and possible solutions in the future.

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59:37

Book Club: Jason Hickel's The Divide, Part I: The...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/08/24

The book club returns, with a two-part review and overview of anthropologist Jason Hickel's book "The Divide", about global inequality, its historical origins, and possible solutions in the future.

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33:45

Cosmology, VII: Cosmological Contradictions

Physical Attraction ·

2021/08/16

In this episode, we discuss the ongoing battle throughout the 1930s and 1940s between those who believed in a steady-state Universe, and those who thought it was expanding - and how it took more observations to overcome these cosmological contradictions.

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45:09

TT: Climate, CCS Struggles as Adaptation Stalls

Physical Attraction ·

2021/08/07

To close out this series of news episodes, we discuss the depressing failure of carbon capture and storage projects in Australia, as well as the far-too-slow approach to climate change adaptation across the world.

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28:15

Thermonuclear Takes: Amazon Carbon Stocks and Global...

Physical Attraction ·

2021/08/03

In this episode of Thermonuclear Takes, we tackle a couple of recent climate-related news stories - the "tipping point" carbon flux measurements from the Amazon rainforest, and the IEA's progress report on a global green recovery.

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252 results

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