Quantum Birds

14 February 2025 - 34 mins
Podcast Series Radiolab

Annie McEwen went to a mountain in Pennsylvania to help catch some migratory owls. Then Scott Weidensaul peeled back the owl’s feathery face disc, so that she could look at the back of its eyeball. No owls were harmed in the process, but this brief glimpse into the inner workings of a bird sent her off on a journey to a place where fleshy animal business bumps into the mathematics of subatomic particles. With help from Henrik Mouristen, we hear how one of the biggest mysteries in biology might finally find an answer in the weird world of quantum mechanics, where the classical rules of space and time are upended, and electrons dance to the beat of an enormous invisible force field that surrou...

34 mins

Series Episodes

Octomom Playing

Octomom

A mile under the ocean, we get to watch an octopus perform a heroic act of heart and determination.

34 mins

23 October Finished

The Smell of Hell Playing

The Smell of Hell

What if the smell of death is actually the smell of life?

43 mins

16 October Finished

Math Vs Machine Playing

Math Vs Machine

explicit

Machines are answering our hardest problems... Does it matter if we don’t understand how?

31 mins

9 October Finished

A 4-Track Mind Playing

A 4-Track Mind

A neurologist issues a dare to a ragtime piano player and a famous conductor, then the impossible happens.

21 mins

2 October Finished

Grass Apes Playing

Grass Apes

A tiny ode to grass, for its epic role in human history.

22 mins

25 September Finished

Recommended

No Account

Subscriptions to podcast series are only available to users with an account. Sign in or register to subscribe and access your subscriptions.

Register Sign in

Woops!

Error text.