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When you 10 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: pop a piece of cheese into your mouth, you're probably 11 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,199 Speaker 1: not thinking about the environmental impact. But the people in 12 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: the dairy industry are. That's why they're working hard every 13 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: day to find new ways to reduce waste, conserve natural resources, 14 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 1: and drive down greenhouse gas emissions. How is US Dairy 15 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:48,520 Speaker 1: tackling greenhouse gases? Many farms use anaerobic digesters to turn 16 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: the methane from manure into renewable energy that can power farms, towns, 17 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: and electric cars. Visit us dairy dot COM's Last Sustainability 18 00:00:57,280 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: to learn more. 19 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 2: Our iHeartRadio Music Festival presented by Capital One coming back 20 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:06,839 Speaker 2: to Las Vegas twenty first a weekend full of superstar 21 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 2: performances a Sap, Rocky Banks, Sean Came, Meloka, Bail Tojika 22 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 2: Zulia When Stefani Holier, Keith Urban, New Kids on the Block, Paramore, Shaboozy, 23 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 2: The Black Crows, The Weekend, Thomas Red, Victoria Monette, Coldplay 24 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 2: Is Chris Martin and Moore stream Live Holy on Hulu 25 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 2: and get It Tests to be there at AXS dot com. 26 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 3: Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which 27 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 3: recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I 28 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 3: mean neuroscientists at Stanford and I've spent my career exploring 29 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 3: the three pound universe in our heads. 30 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 4: Join me weekly to explore the relationship. 31 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 3: Between your brain and your life. Because the more we 32 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 3: know about what's running under the hood, bet or we 33 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 3: can steer our lives. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David 34 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 3: Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you 35 00:01:58,000 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 3: get your podcasts. 36 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 5: Hi, it's Jorge and Daniel here. And this holiday season, 37 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 5: if you're looking for a gift for yourself or a friend, 38 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:08,880 Speaker 5: or for your family, why not get him the gift 39 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 5: of answers about the Universe, so. 40 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: Check out our new book Frequently ask questions about the Universe. 41 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: You can find details at universe faq dot com. 42 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 5: Thanks for supporting the podcast. 43 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: Happy holidays everyone. 44 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 5: Hey Daniel, I've got a really easy question for you. 45 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,239 Speaker 1: Oh, those are the trickiest ones. 46 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,600 Speaker 5: I relaxed. I'm sure it'll be trivial, but here we go. 47 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 5: What is a medal? 48 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: Uh? Oh? Kind of depends on what temperature. Actually, it 49 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: depends on whether you're an astronomer, a geophysicist, or a 50 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: solid state physicist. 51 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 5: But those are all physicists. You can't agree on what 52 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:54,120 Speaker 5: a medal is. 53 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 1: No astronomers think that anything heavier than helium is a metal, 54 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:00,960 Speaker 1: and a solid state physicist thinks that anything that conducts 55 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: electricity is a metal. 56 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 5: Mm sounds like a little disaster. 57 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: Don't get me started on how we define heavy metal? 58 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 5: Why? Because you have to call the music physicists. 59 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,239 Speaker 1: It depends on the number of electric guitars involved. 60 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,040 Speaker 5: And how do you define space elevator music? Who do 61 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 5: you call that? 62 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 2: Hi? 63 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 5: I am Horehem, a cartoonist and the creator of PhD Comics. 64 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor 65 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: at uc Irvine. And while I do want to ride 66 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: in this space elevator, I've given no thought to what 67 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,080 Speaker 1: kind of music I want to hear as I'm riding 68 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: up into space. 69 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 5: M I guess you want maybe cosmologically classical music. 70 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,240 Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I want the opening music to our podcast, 71 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: which is sort of spacey. 72 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 5: Want electric music because you know that's a physical property. 73 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely don't want anything catastrophic. 74 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 5: Or electromagnetic orchestra emo music. But anyways, welcome to a podcast. 75 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 5: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of iHeartRadio. 76 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:18,279 Speaker 1: We are your mental musical accompaniment to our ride through 77 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: the universe, elevating ourselves up into understanding the very nature 78 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: of space and time and fields and particles. We go 79 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:30,480 Speaker 1: up and down while we examine what we do know 80 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: and what we don't know about some of the deepest 81 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: questions in the universe. Where did the universe come from? 82 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: How is it gon end? What does it all mean? Anyway? 83 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: We talk about all of these things on the podcast, 84 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 1: and we try to explain as much as we understand 85 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:44,640 Speaker 1: to you. 86 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 5: Yeah, because it is a pretty musical universe. It sounds 87 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 5: a little melodious and sometimes kind of chaotic and definitely epic. 88 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 5: It definitely has an epic score of quality to the universe. 89 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: That's right, And definitely kudos to the audio engineers for 90 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: the universe. There's so many really cool sound there. If 91 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:03,120 Speaker 1: you just sit out there and listen, you hear all 92 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,919 Speaker 1: sorts of squishing and banging and squeaking, and wow, the 93 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,839 Speaker 1: universe is definitely chock full of cool special effects. 94 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,320 Speaker 5: Yeah, and we listen to the universe in all kinds 95 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 5: of ways, right, Like there's sound waves, there's electromagnetic waves, 96 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,560 Speaker 5: there are gravitational waves. It's like the universe is a 97 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 5: symphony using all kinds of instruments. 98 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 1: You think any collection of sounds is a symphony. Like 99 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: when you pick up your kids from daycare when they're two, 100 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: you consider that sound a symphony ten screaming children. 101 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:31,719 Speaker 5: Depends on my mood. I guess, am I feeling like 102 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,200 Speaker 5: a cacophony of two year olds? Or would some peace 103 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 5: and quiet be nice as a parent? 104 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:39,320 Speaker 1: Sort of like early heavy metal, all they're doing is shouting. 105 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 5: Anyway, one person's music is another person's heavy metal screaming. 106 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: But it's true that the universe is filled with incredible 107 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:49,479 Speaker 1: and amazing things. And as we look around, we're continually 108 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: impressed by the complexity of stuff that we see around us. 109 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: You know, it's not just one kind of sound or 110 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: one kind of object or one kind of material we 111 00:05:56,680 --> 00:05:59,120 Speaker 1: find out there in the universe. There's all sorts and 112 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,479 Speaker 1: enormous variety and complexity of things that we get to 113 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 1: dig into and try to understand. 114 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 5: Yeah, because I guess even after millions of years of 115 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 5: being humans and looking at the world and listening to 116 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:12,040 Speaker 5: the world, there are still things about it that surprises, 117 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 5: Like we are still finding out new kinds of materials 118 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:17,520 Speaker 5: and new ways in which matter behaves. 119 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 1: That's right, because it turns out that the things around 120 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:23,039 Speaker 1: us are not the basic building blocks of the universe. 121 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 1: It's not like there's a fundamental ice cream particle and 122 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:28,920 Speaker 1: a fundamental tuna sandwich particle that makes that the things 123 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: you eat or the things that are you. Everything around 124 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:35,440 Speaker 1: us is actually made of really small little particles arranged 125 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: in different ways, and those arrangements can do startling things. 126 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:40,600 Speaker 1: You take us out of particles and you can make 127 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,560 Speaker 1: a kitten. Rearrange those same particles, and you can make 128 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:47,799 Speaker 1: lava or neutron star or a blueberry sandwich. It's all 129 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: the same bits, just arranged in different ways, and we're 130 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:54,279 Speaker 1: continuing to discover other ways to arrange those bits to 131 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:57,159 Speaker 1: make new, even weirder kinds of stuff. Yeah. 132 00:06:57,200 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 5: Wait, are you telling me that ice cream is not 133 00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:02,159 Speaker 5: a fundamental article in the universe. It should be. 134 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 1: I mean, I know, it seems like fundamental to our 135 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: existence in it's hard to imagine being human without ice cream. 136 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: But you know, most humans who have ever lived never 137 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:12,400 Speaker 1: had ice. 138 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 5: Cream, and that is called the human tragedy in literature. 139 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: Think about it this way. That means there might be 140 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,000 Speaker 1: some dessert invented by future humans that you never taste 141 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:23,960 Speaker 1: that future humans can't imagine life without. 142 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:26,760 Speaker 5: I find it hard to believe that they can improve 143 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,000 Speaker 5: on ice cream. I take hope in the fact that 144 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 5: in the long run there will probably be more humans 145 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 5: that have eaten ice cream than them have not. 146 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:36,080 Speaker 1: Well, that's an optimistic view, but I think ice cream 147 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: is a great example because it's obvious to us that 148 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: ice cream is not fundamental to the universe, right like 149 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,040 Speaker 1: ice cream takes special conditions in order to exist, and 150 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: nobody would be surprised to learn that there might have 151 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: been a time in the universe when there was no 152 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,000 Speaker 1: ice cream. It's the same kind of question we ask 153 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,560 Speaker 1: about other things about whether they're fundamental. Is it necessary 154 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,880 Speaker 1: to have electrons in the universe? Are they fundamental? Or 155 00:07:57,920 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: could there have been a time before there was a 156 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: life electrons? Could there be a time in the future 157 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 1: without electrons. That's sort of the question about whether something 158 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: is fundamental or whether it emerges from the complex interplay 159 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:10,760 Speaker 1: of fundamental things. 160 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 5: So more humans used electrons than not used electrons. 161 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:16,440 Speaker 1: Humans are made partially out of electrons, So I guess 162 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 1: we've used them in everything we do. 163 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 5: Right, Well, I look forward to our future episode about 164 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 5: the physics of ice cream. But today on a podcast, 165 00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 5: we'll be asking a different question about matter and the 166 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 5: different ways that it can come together and do interesting 167 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 5: and new things. So our question for today is what 168 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:43,080 Speaker 5: is topological matter? Topological matter? Huh? That's not an everyday word. 169 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,560 Speaker 1: It's not an everyday word. It's a very recent discovery. 170 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:49,679 Speaker 1: Physicists working in their basements with their lasers and their 171 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: super cold temperatures and their bizarre materials, have been able 172 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: to concoct kinds of things no human has ever seen before. 173 00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:00,120 Speaker 1: To put these same ingredients together in new recipes to 174 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,960 Speaker 1: make weird, new kinds of matter that can do things 175 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,280 Speaker 1: that our familiar matter just cannot do. 176 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,080 Speaker 5: Man, physicists. First, we're talking about physicists as musicians. Now 177 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 5: we're talking about them as cooks or mad scientists. I 178 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 5: wasn't quite sure what you were going for there. 179 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,680 Speaker 1: I think there's a big overlop between cooks and mad 180 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:17,840 Speaker 1: scientists bakers. I think a big part of being a 181 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:19,920 Speaker 1: baker is being a mad scientist. You know, like what 182 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,120 Speaker 1: happens if I just put a lot of butter in 183 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:24,040 Speaker 1: this recipe? Let's see. 184 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:26,839 Speaker 5: I don't think that's what I want to hear from 185 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:28,800 Speaker 5: when I go to a restaurant. It's like the mad 186 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:31,079 Speaker 5: scientist today has a very special treat for you. 187 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: That's how all of French cooking was invented. Let's just 188 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: add more butter and see what happens. 189 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 5: Oh, man, you just call it all of French culture. 190 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,160 Speaker 1: Man, No, there's an insanity to their creativity which has 191 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:45,119 Speaker 1: led to this exquisite discovery of their pastries. 192 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,439 Speaker 5: They're creative. Yes, yes, that's what we call those kids 193 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:50,520 Speaker 5: in class, that kids really creative. 194 00:09:50,559 --> 00:09:53,440 Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to when the French invent the topological pastry. 195 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:54,439 Speaker 5: How do you know they haven't? 196 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,800 Speaker 1: Can you deform a crossand so that it's equivalent to 197 00:09:57,840 --> 00:09:58,680 Speaker 1: another pastry? 198 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 5: What is the shape of a cro really? And is 199 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 5: it a croisson if it's not that shape? 200 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, you know, sometimes we ask if the universe 201 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: is actually the shape of a donut, but maybe we 202 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: should be asking if it's the shape of a croissant. 203 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 5: Right, And each quantum field is like a layer in 204 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 5: the flakiness of the croissant. 205 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: That's right, Quantum lemonation theory. 206 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:20,200 Speaker 5: Quantum croissant, quantum heart attack? Really, what is what we 207 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:20,839 Speaker 5: should call it? 208 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:22,920 Speaker 1: For all the ridiculous quantum things out there? I don't 209 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:24,960 Speaker 1: know if anybody's ever done quantum. 210 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:27,160 Speaker 5: Pastry yet, I mean rich idea. 211 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:28,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, every time I say that on 212 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: the podcast, we get an email from a listener who's like, actually, 213 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: here's an example. They sell this around the corner. So, 214 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,200 Speaker 1: folks out there, if you've eaten a quantum pastry, send 215 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:37,960 Speaker 1: me the recipe. 216 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:42,240 Speaker 5: Actually, here's a season desist letter. Stop talking about my product. 217 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:46,840 Speaker 5: But yeah, topological matter. That's a pretty interesting idea for 218 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:50,360 Speaker 5: a name for a kind of material. And I imagine 219 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 5: I mean the word topological comes up a lot in 220 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,480 Speaker 5: like map makers, right, and I guess architects and you 221 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:58,199 Speaker 5: know people build houses, they have to deal with topological 222 00:10:58,200 --> 00:10:59,559 Speaker 5: maps a lot, right, Exactly. 223 00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:03,040 Speaker 1: The yield of topology is the one that studies questions 224 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:07,040 Speaker 1: about shapes and surfaces and asks questions like can you 225 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,840 Speaker 1: take a donut and smoothly deform it so that it 226 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:13,560 Speaker 1: turns into a coffee cup, for example, And the answer 227 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,400 Speaker 1: is yes, you can. So a topologist says that like 228 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 1: a coffee cup and a donut are basically the same shape, 229 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:22,360 Speaker 1: and they're both different from like a sphere because the 230 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:24,720 Speaker 1: sphere has no holes in it, and a donut and 231 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 1: a coffee cup both have one hole in it. So 232 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 1: that's the field of topology interesting. 233 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:31,040 Speaker 5: And so if you take a donut and dip it 234 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,840 Speaker 5: into a coffee cup, what does that give you? 235 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: It gives you a soggy donut. 236 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 5: Is that a new kind of shape is the same 237 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,959 Speaker 5: as a sphere? If it sogs, doesn't it become a sphere? 238 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:45,559 Speaker 1: It requires an entirely new field of math. Soggy topology 239 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:46,960 Speaker 1: hasn't been invented yet. 240 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 5: Deep questions here today and new fields being invented around 241 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:52,760 Speaker 5: every corner. But yeah, it's kind of an interesting question. 242 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:56,520 Speaker 5: What is topological matter? Maybe it's not something people have heard, 243 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:58,560 Speaker 5: or maybe it is something people have heard. So, as usual, 244 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:01,360 Speaker 5: Daniel went out there to ask people on internet this question. 245 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: So be grateful to these volunteers who were willing to 246 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: answer a random question without preparation and have their voice 247 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: played on the podcast. If you'd like to play along 248 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,000 Speaker 1: for a future episode, please, I totally encourage you. Right 249 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,280 Speaker 1: to me two questions at Danielandhorge dot com. 250 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:18,560 Speaker 5: Think about it for a second. How would you answer 251 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:22,679 Speaker 5: the question what is topological matter? Here's what people had 252 00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 5: to say. 253 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:25,520 Speaker 6: So I hear the word topological, and I think of 254 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,240 Speaker 6: a topological map, which sort of gives you an idea 255 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:32,440 Speaker 6: for how things are spaced out and organized the elevations. 256 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:36,120 Speaker 6: So I'm wondering if topological matter has to do with 257 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:42,959 Speaker 6: like the number of protons and neutrons and a nucleus 258 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:43,959 Speaker 6: or something. 259 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 5: I don't know. 260 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 7: I think topology is the study of two day and 261 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:51,840 Speaker 7: three day shipes and their properties, and I think there's 262 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 7: some rules about how you can compare different shypes topologically. 263 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 7: So my guess is the topological map is matter that 264 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 7: conforms to the rules of topology. 265 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:09,280 Speaker 8: Topological matter I haven't heard of before, but I imagine 266 00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 8: it's matter with measurable geometry to it, existing in three 267 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:19,480 Speaker 8: D space instead of a point matter, which might be 268 00:13:20,080 --> 00:13:20,640 Speaker 8: black hole. 269 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:24,360 Speaker 9: I have never heard the term topological matter before, but 270 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:28,960 Speaker 9: I think topological is some geometry which has fixed properties. 271 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:34,240 Speaker 9: So maybe topological matter is matter whose properties does not change. 272 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:35,880 Speaker 9: But I don't know which property is. 273 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 8: I'm guessing it's when we're talking about matter and topological 274 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:44,840 Speaker 8: I'm guessing it's the shape of sub atomic particles. 275 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 10: I have no idea what topological matter is. Is it 276 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:52,200 Speaker 10: something that you make maps out of? Topological topography? Math 277 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:55,400 Speaker 10: is map making, right, I don't know. 278 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:59,000 Speaker 6: Topological matter is all of the matter we can see 279 00:13:59,000 --> 00:13:59,880 Speaker 6: in a three D you know? 280 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 5: All right? Pretty interesting questions to feel like there's a 281 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:07,719 Speaker 5: deep level of knowledge about physics here because I hear 282 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:09,320 Speaker 5: a lot of words related to physics. 283 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: Yeah, people definitely get the clue also that it's related 284 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:17,680 Speaker 1: to topology and geometry and thinking about shapes and structures 285 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:18,439 Speaker 1: and maps. 286 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 5: I like the person who said it's all the matter 287 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,480 Speaker 5: in the universe technically, yeah, I mean in the universe, 288 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:24,800 Speaker 5: there's all kinds of matter. 289 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: Hmmm. Yeah, that's true. It's something in the universe. That's 290 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: a good answer to the generic physics question. 291 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:33,280 Speaker 5: But do you say something in a universe or the. 292 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:35,480 Speaker 1: Universe or in our universe? 293 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:37,800 Speaker 5: All right, So it's a kind of an interesting question 294 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:40,640 Speaker 5: let's dig into and this conversation is going to get 295 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:44,400 Speaker 5: pretty mind blowing and pretty technical and detailed here. So 296 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:48,040 Speaker 5: let's start with the basic question, Daniel, what is topological matter? 297 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:52,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, topological matter is something we've only recently invented in 298 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 1: the last twenty years or so, and it's something that's 299 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: different from anything we've ever seen before because it's neither 300 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:04,560 Speaker 1: an in something that cannot conduct electricity, nor a metal 301 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,120 Speaker 1: something that can conduct the electricity. So solid state physicists 302 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: used to divide all kinds of stuff into two categories, 303 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: insulator or metal, and now they've developed this thing which 304 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 1: is sort of like neither and both. 305 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 6: Mmmm. 306 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,160 Speaker 5: I see. So solid state physicists is like a physicist 307 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:24,400 Speaker 5: that studies I guess solid things. Like they don't study 308 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,240 Speaker 5: energy or particles, they study like materials. 309 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:31,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Sometimes they're called condensed matter physicists, and you know, 310 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: they deal with things like in a lattice, like a crystal, 311 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: like a big blob of stuff, not plasma, not liquid, 312 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:40,360 Speaker 1: but like just a blob of stuff. And the name 313 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:42,720 Speaker 1: of the game there is like can you rearrange stuff 314 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: so it has weird properties? Because you know, I as 315 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:47,880 Speaker 1: a particle physicist, I study like one proton at a 316 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: time or two of them smashing into each other. But 317 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: we know that when these protons get together with electrons 318 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: and make all sorts of interesting structures, crazy things happen. 319 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: You can get carbon, you can get diamond, you can 320 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: get all sorts of bizarre stuff. You get ice cream, proissants. Yes, yeah, 321 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: it's sort of a study for like how properties of 322 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:09,360 Speaker 1: materials emerge from rearranging the little bits inside matter into 323 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: new arrangements. 324 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 5: Right, And it's like solid stuff. It's not stuff that's 325 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:15,640 Speaker 5: like flying around or you know, moving or it's like 326 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:17,760 Speaker 5: what can you do with this solid thing? 327 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,640 Speaker 1: Exactly? And the question of you know, what's a metal 328 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,840 Speaker 1: what's a conductor is very important because some of this 329 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: stuff goes into fueling lack our electronics industry. You know, 330 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: we need insulators and we need conductors to make circuits, 331 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,480 Speaker 1: and so you can make like new kinds of stuff 332 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 1: that has interesting properties. You might be able to make 333 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,760 Speaker 1: like new weird electronic do higgys that power the next 334 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 1: generation of quantum computers that you use in your phone 335 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,520 Speaker 1: as you ride the space elevator up to the moon. 336 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 5: Yeah, listening to space elevator music on your a quantum phone. 337 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:52,000 Speaker 5: And so you're saying that they see the world as 338 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:56,840 Speaker 5: or they see materials usually as either insulators or conductors. 339 00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: That's right. The whole theory of condensed matter physics until 340 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: about twenty years ago was that materials are either insulators 341 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: or metals, and they have this whole theory about electrons 342 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,960 Speaker 1: in bands inside the material that help them understand that. 343 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:13,440 Speaker 5: Okay, so let's get into how do you define conductivity 344 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:17,040 Speaker 5: and what makes something not conductive or an insulator. 345 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:19,760 Speaker 1: So it's easiest to start out with an individual atom. 346 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: You remember that an atom has a nucleus of right 347 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: at the core where you got protons and neutrons. That's 348 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:26,320 Speaker 1: where most of the stuff is of the atom. And 349 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: then around it are the electrons, and electrons around an 350 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:32,440 Speaker 1: atom have these energy levels, right because they're quantum particles. 351 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,399 Speaker 1: But now we want to think about a whole bunch 352 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: of atoms, right, you want to put them together, stack 353 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,360 Speaker 1: them together like legos to make a blob of stuff. 354 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:42,320 Speaker 1: Because that's what condensed matter, solid state physics is about, 355 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:44,760 Speaker 1: is about like a crystal, a lattice of stuff. So 356 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:47,439 Speaker 1: material is sort of like a grid of atoms. And 357 00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:49,880 Speaker 1: now we want to think about like how electrons can 358 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:52,400 Speaker 1: move through that grid of atoms. And you know, an 359 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: individual atom has its electrons and the next one has 360 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:58,000 Speaker 1: its electrons, and the material is a conductor when an 361 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:00,720 Speaker 1: electron can hop from one atom to the next, when 362 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,160 Speaker 1: it can sort of like jump around, slide around easily. 363 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,600 Speaker 1: And material is an insulator when it can't, when it's 364 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:07,920 Speaker 1: sort of like stuck on one atom no matter how 365 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: hard you push it. 366 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:10,479 Speaker 5: Well, I think this is something that maybe a lot 367 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 5: of people don't think about when you know, I think 368 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 5: when you grow up and you learn about like a 369 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:17,440 Speaker 5: wire conducting electricity, you think of like one electron going 370 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,840 Speaker 5: into the wire and then traveling through the wire and 371 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:22,159 Speaker 5: then coming out the other end. But really that's not 372 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:25,919 Speaker 5: what's happening in conducting metals. It's more like electrons are 373 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:29,120 Speaker 5: being passed, traded around from one end to the other. 374 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:30,959 Speaker 1: Right, that's right. You should sort of think of it 375 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:33,480 Speaker 1: like a hose, but instead of an empty hose that 376 00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:36,080 Speaker 1: you're passing one electron all the way through, think of 377 00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: it like a hose that's already filled with electrons. You're 378 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,639 Speaker 1: pushing one in and then another electron pops out the 379 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,480 Speaker 1: other side. So all the electrons slide down the hole 380 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:48,760 Speaker 1: like one notch, and one electron pops out the other side, 381 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,280 Speaker 1: but not the one that you put in originally, you know, on. 382 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:54,120 Speaker 5: Your side or maybe right, like, we don't know. It's 383 00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 5: a bit of a mess. It's like you put an 384 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,120 Speaker 5: electron on one end and maybe that one will hop 385 00:18:58,160 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 5: to the neck one, or maybe we'll stay, but it'll 386 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,919 Speaker 5: kick off an electron from the existing atom, and that 387 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 5: one will go to the next atom, and who knows 388 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 5: what's going to happen, right. 389 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, the more orderly it is, the more it happens, 390 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 1: like you know, everybody's sliding down one chair in the 391 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:13,640 Speaker 1: bus or something, then the better the conductivity. The more 392 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: messy it is, the more electrons bounce around and go 393 00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: in the wrong direction, the worse the conductivity is. That's 394 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:20,399 Speaker 1: why we have some conductors that are excellent in some 395 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,800 Speaker 1: conductors that are sort of poor conductors. 396 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,160 Speaker 5: Right, And so what makes something more conductive or one 397 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:28,320 Speaker 5: atom more prone to conductivity than others. Is it just 398 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,520 Speaker 5: that it's electrons aren't like held on tightly, or that 399 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 5: they're at the surface and you know, the atom can 400 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:35,160 Speaker 5: sort of take them or leave them. 401 00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,240 Speaker 1: The key thing is what energy levels are available to 402 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 1: the electron. So for an atom, you just have like 403 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 1: a ladder of energy levels, and the electron can go 404 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: up or down those energy levels. But when you put 405 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:48,320 Speaker 1: all these atoms together to make a material, something different happens. 406 00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:51,560 Speaker 1: Instead of having just like a full ladder of energy levels, 407 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:53,960 Speaker 1: you get these bands that the electron can be in. 408 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: So you have like a bunch of energy levels clustered together, 409 00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:59,080 Speaker 1: and then a gap where like electrons are not allowed 410 00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:01,679 Speaker 1: to have those energies, and then maybe there's another band 411 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,880 Speaker 1: above it. And so this makes something an insulator if, 412 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: for example, a band is all full. If a band 413 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: is all filled with electrons, the's like no room for 414 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 1: electrons to jump in there unless they have crazy high energy. 415 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,879 Speaker 1: So an insulator is one where you would need to 416 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,679 Speaker 1: give the electron enormous energy so it could jump up 417 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,879 Speaker 1: into the next band to move around, but normally electrons 418 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,600 Speaker 1: don't have that energy, so they're sort of stuck where 419 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:25,960 Speaker 1: they are. 420 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:28,840 Speaker 5: I feel like we're talking about heavy metals and bands here, 421 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:32,680 Speaker 5: and it's confusing my brain a little bit. I think 422 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,320 Speaker 5: what you mean is, you know, electrons are happy in 423 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,000 Speaker 5: certain energy levels around an atom, but when you put 424 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:40,679 Speaker 5: a lot of atoms together, you know, things get kind 425 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,640 Speaker 5: of fuzzy now, and an electron can be happy sort 426 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 5: of at multiple levels because it's near another atom, right, 427 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,120 Speaker 5: But sometimes it can work out that there are big 428 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,400 Speaker 5: gaps in like these energy levels. That's what you mean 429 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:53,080 Speaker 5: by a band, right, It's like a sort of like 430 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 5: a gap in the sort of the different levels that's right. 431 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:57,960 Speaker 1: The band are the allowed energy levels, and then there's 432 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: gaps between these bands, and insulator has a really big 433 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,159 Speaker 1: gap between the bands, and the lower band is like 434 00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 1: all filled up, so that if an electron is in 435 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,159 Speaker 1: that lower band, it can't just like jump to the 436 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,960 Speaker 1: next atom because the next atom is also filled up. 437 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 1: There's like no empty chairs in a conductor. In a metal, 438 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: then the band is only half filled, and so the 439 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,760 Speaker 1: neighboring atoms have empty chairs for an electron to jump 440 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,200 Speaker 1: into they can slide over to the next one, sort 441 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:25,879 Speaker 1: of like if you have a bottle and it's half 442 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,399 Speaker 1: filled with water, it's a lot easier to slash the 443 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,520 Speaker 1: water around than if you have a bottle it's totally 444 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 1: filled with water, because it's sort of like packed in there. 445 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 1: Nothing can move. And so if you have your band 446 00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: half filled, then the electrons can slide around from atom 447 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: to atom. If your band is totally filled, that's an insulator, 448 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:43,520 Speaker 1: then the electrons are sort of all stuck and nobody 449 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:44,320 Speaker 1: can go anywhere. 450 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 5: Right, But I guess you make it sound like it's 451 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:47,879 Speaker 5: just a matter of having too many or too little 452 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:50,600 Speaker 5: electrons it's really, But really it's more of a question 453 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:52,680 Speaker 5: of like the structure of the crystal. 454 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:56,040 Speaker 1: Right exactly. These bands come from the structure of the crystal. 455 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:58,440 Speaker 1: Like you might wonder, why are there bands in a 456 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,520 Speaker 1: crystal when there aren't bands for an atom, There aren't 457 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:02,960 Speaker 1: like these gaps where electrons are not allowed to have 458 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,160 Speaker 1: the energy level in an atom. Where do they come 459 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: from in a crystal? And that's the really interesting thing, 460 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: right When you put atoms together into a crystal, they 461 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,640 Speaker 1: get properties that the individual atoms don't have, and what's 462 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:16,679 Speaker 1: going on is the spacing between the atoms. As an 463 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:21,719 Speaker 1: electron passes through the crystal, sometimes it reflects off of 464 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,560 Speaker 1: those atoms and bounces back and diffracts and destructively interferes 465 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,560 Speaker 1: with itself. And so if the energy of the electron 466 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,720 Speaker 1: is such that the wavelength of its wave function is 467 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,880 Speaker 1: similar to the spacing of the atoms in this crystal, 468 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: then you get all sorts of complex destructive interference, and 469 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:40,520 Speaker 1: electrons basically just can't have those energy levels. 470 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,560 Speaker 5: M interesting. It has to do with the waveform of 471 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 5: the electrons and how close or how far apart the 472 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,120 Speaker 5: crystal puts the atoms together exactly. 473 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,600 Speaker 1: And the really fascinating thing is that you could take 474 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 1: the same material, the same elements, and arrange them in 475 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,320 Speaker 1: different crystal structures and you get different bands. So, for example, 476 00:22:57,359 --> 00:23:00,680 Speaker 1: if you take ten tin has two different cris structures, 477 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:02,919 Speaker 1: they call it gray tin and white tin based on 478 00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: how it looks to your eye, and white tin is 479 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,920 Speaker 1: a conductor, whereas gray tin is an insulator. It's exactly 480 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,480 Speaker 1: the same stuff, but you can build it together in 481 00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,040 Speaker 1: different ways, sort of like using the same legos to 482 00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,760 Speaker 1: make something slightly different. The crystal relationships are different, and 483 00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: so the spacing is different, and so electrons behave differently 484 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: in those materials. 485 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:24,679 Speaker 5: Because I guess, you know, the properties are the levels 486 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 5: of one atom sort of start to interfere with the 487 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,440 Speaker 5: properties and levels of its neighbors, and so things suddenly 488 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:35,200 Speaker 5: become like prohibitive or easy to kind of move around, exactly, And. 489 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: The properties of a whole set of things can be 490 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,520 Speaker 1: very different from the properties of one. Like you ever 491 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,240 Speaker 1: go listen to, you know, children's choirs, like, well, one 492 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: kid on their own kind of terrible, but if you 493 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,679 Speaker 1: get like thirty kids singing a song together, like it 494 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: sort of averages out to give you, like something maybe 495 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:57,160 Speaker 1: pleasant to listen to, spoken like a true parent exactly. 496 00:23:57,520 --> 00:23:59,359 Speaker 1: And so I think this is really fascinating. And for 497 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:01,640 Speaker 1: a long time and people thought, well that was it. 498 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,679 Speaker 1: That it's all about having these bands and it's determined 499 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: by the crystal structure, that the crystal structure tells you 500 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,040 Speaker 1: whether something is insulator or something as a conductor. And 501 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,919 Speaker 1: this is called the band theory, and it's sort of 502 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,399 Speaker 1: rained in condensed matter physics for decades and decades, and 503 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,719 Speaker 1: people thought this is how conduction works in materials. 504 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:22,879 Speaker 5: M It's all about the structure of the crystal. Like 505 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 5: at the arrangement of the atoms, that will determine what's 506 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:26,960 Speaker 5: an insulator or a. 507 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,359 Speaker 1: Conductor exactly, and like not the shape of the material. 508 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how big a blob you have, or 509 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:33,240 Speaker 1: how thin it is or how thick it is. It's 510 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,360 Speaker 1: just about the nature of the material and its crystal structure. 511 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:39,040 Speaker 5: This reigned supreme. People thought of this for a long time. 512 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,920 Speaker 5: But I'm guessing that there's a twist to this story 513 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:45,119 Speaker 5: where everything is proven wrong. That's usually how it works 514 00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 5: in physics, isn't it. 515 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: That's right. Here comes the revolution and. 516 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,760 Speaker 5: So let's get into the plot twist here. But first 517 00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:51,840 Speaker 5: let's take a quick break. 518 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,000 Speaker 1: With big wireless providers, what you see is never what 519 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: you get. Somewhere between the store and your first month's bill, 520 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 1: the price, your thoughts, you we're paying magically skyrockets. With Mintmobile, 521 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,680 Speaker 1: You'll never have to worry about gotcha's ever again. When 522 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 1: mint Mobile says fifteen dollars a month for a three 523 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: month plan, they really need it. 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Visit usdairy 584 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,080 Speaker 1: dot com slash sustainability to learn more. 585 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:37,400 Speaker 5: All right, we're talking about topological matter, and we were 586 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:39,960 Speaker 5: talking about how we used to think that everything was 587 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:44,960 Speaker 5: either a conductor or an insulator, meaning it can conduct 588 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,040 Speaker 5: electricity or not conduct electricity, and that we thought it 589 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:50,360 Speaker 5: had everything to do with the way that the structure 590 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,840 Speaker 5: of the material in the way in which the atoms 591 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:56,280 Speaker 5: sort of compacted together and form crystals. But now there's 592 00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,680 Speaker 5: a plot twist, Daniel, So we'd learned some new information. 593 00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:01,480 Speaker 1: That's right. Clever people thinking hard about the way these 594 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: things work came up with an idea for how to 595 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,360 Speaker 1: build a new kind of material. And this is super 596 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,920 Speaker 1: cool because it came out of people's brains. It's not 597 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,440 Speaker 1: something we discovered in the lab and we're like, look 598 00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,680 Speaker 1: at this weird kind of stuff we build. Oh my gosh, 599 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: you can do something weird. This came out of smart 600 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:19,880 Speaker 1: people scratching their heads and drinking coffee and scrillling in 601 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,640 Speaker 1: their notebooks and doing calculations, and they were able to 602 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: come up with an idea for how to build something 603 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,760 Speaker 1: which is called a topological material, which is an insulator 604 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: on the inside, but a conductor on the surface. So 605 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: like the outer edges of a blob of this stuff 606 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: will conduct electricity, but the interior of it will not. 607 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:39,040 Speaker 11: Hmmm. 608 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,480 Speaker 5: Interesting, So sort of like a coating almost, Like you 609 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:46,160 Speaker 5: have something that doesn't conduct electricity, like a ceramic or something, 610 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,360 Speaker 5: and then you cod it with something that does conduct electricity. 611 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: No, it's all one material. So you have like some 612 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: kind of material and inside it doesn't conduct electricity, but 613 00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: then the same material on the surface. The surface of 614 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: that same material uniform and homogeneous what the stuff is, 615 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: but the surface of it does conduct electricity. 616 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,880 Speaker 5: Oh wait, it's the same material with the same structure, 617 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,280 Speaker 5: or is it on the surface you have a different structure. 618 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,200 Speaker 1: It's the same material with the same structure. But now 619 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,200 Speaker 1: the behavior of the material depends on where you are 620 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: in the shape. If you're on the edge, you conduct electricity, 621 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: if you're in the middle, in the bulk, you insulate. 622 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,920 Speaker 5: WHOA, So how does that work? Like how can something 623 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 5: conduct only on the surface. 624 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really interesting. It has to do with how 625 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,400 Speaker 1: electrons move. And so we talked previously about insulators being 626 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,560 Speaker 1: when electrons are stuck. So now imagine a material where 627 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 1: electrons aren't quite stuck. They're not like exactly stuck on 628 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: one atom. They can sort of like move in little circles. 629 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,640 Speaker 1: And that doesn't allow this to conduct electricity because electrons 630 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,440 Speaker 1: like sort of can't move all together. Like you move 631 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:51,280 Speaker 1: in a circle, you end up back where you started, 632 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:55,280 Speaker 1: so there's no effective flow of electricity. But if electrons 633 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: are moving in a circle, then think about what happens 634 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,560 Speaker 1: on the surface or near the surface. Instead of having 635 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: electrons move in little loops, their loops are sort of 636 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: like cut in half, and so now they can only 637 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:07,479 Speaker 1: do sort of like half of the loop before they 638 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: hit the surface, and then they can do the next loop, 639 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 1: and the next loop in the next loop, and that 640 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: sort of like adds up. So the electrons can now 641 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,960 Speaker 1: flow all the way around the edge of the material 642 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,160 Speaker 1: because they're only doing half of these loops. 643 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,000 Speaker 5: Wait what, well, I guess first of all, back up 644 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:24,920 Speaker 5: a little bit. What do you mean electrons move in 645 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 5: little loops, like little loops around the atom, or little 646 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,800 Speaker 5: loops like around multiple atoms, or what do you mean? 647 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,200 Speaker 5: Because they're already sort of in loops in orbit around 648 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 5: the nucleus of each atom. So what do you mean 649 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:36,520 Speaker 5: by they move in loops. 650 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 1: The first idea for how to build these things was 651 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,720 Speaker 1: to have them move in little orbits around several atoms. 652 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:44,680 Speaker 1: And they created this first by having really powerful magnetic 653 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,280 Speaker 1: fields which will make electrons move in little circles. 654 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,880 Speaker 5: Why do they think to make electrons move in circles. 655 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: Because they were hoping to get exactly this effect. They 656 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,640 Speaker 1: were hoping to do something which on the center of 657 00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,440 Speaker 1: the materials would make us so the electrons effectively can't 658 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: go anywhere because they're stuck in this circle, but that 659 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 1: on the edges would have a different behavior that you know, 660 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: these circles are sort of cut in half on the edges, 661 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,120 Speaker 1: and so they only go in one direction. Like in 662 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:11,920 Speaker 1: the center of the material, the electrons basically go back 663 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: and forth because they're moving in a circle, but near 664 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,920 Speaker 1: the edges they can only do the back right. So 665 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,440 Speaker 1: all those electrons are now moving in the same direction, 666 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,320 Speaker 1: and that's effectively conducting electricity. It's like having a flow 667 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 1: of the electrons all the way around the edge. 668 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,560 Speaker 5: Okay, so you need an electromagnetic field to make these 669 00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 5: things go in little loops or were you saying that 670 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:32,200 Speaker 5: these things go in loops anyways. 671 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,600 Speaker 1: So the original design for these things, and the first 672 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,600 Speaker 1: way they were realized in the lab, was to make 673 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,200 Speaker 1: a really strong magnetic feel to make electrons do this. 674 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 1: Later on people realized, oh, there are other ways to 675 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 1: do this, you know, just to get the electrons to 676 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,120 Speaker 1: like do loops around their atoms and to couple like 677 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:48,800 Speaker 1: their orbits and their spins. But that's a bit more technical. 678 00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 1: So the first way people made this happen was to 679 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,240 Speaker 1: have the electrons do these little dances in a circle. 680 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,760 Speaker 1: It's sort of like a big square dance, right. Imagine 681 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,360 Speaker 1: everybody's like dancing and they've hooked their arms together. You're 682 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,000 Speaker 1: not really going anywhere, but if you're on the edge, 683 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,240 Speaker 1: then you're sort of getting passed from partner to partner 684 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 1: and you're going to end up moving all the way 685 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:05,960 Speaker 1: around the square dance. 686 00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 5: So wait, you're saying that. Normally the electrons don't conduct, 687 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:13,520 Speaker 5: but they move in circles around inside of the material. 688 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,480 Speaker 5: So it's a conductor on the inside, or no. 689 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,120 Speaker 1: It's an insulator on the inside. Because electrons are trapped, 690 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:21,480 Speaker 1: they can't really go anywhere. They're stuck moving in these circles. 691 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,800 Speaker 1: But it's a conductor on the surface because these circles 692 00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:26,880 Speaker 1: are cut in half, and so the effective path of 693 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:28,959 Speaker 1: the electron is all to point in the same direction. 694 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,640 Speaker 5: Oh, I see, Okay. I think asking us to sort 695 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 5: of think about these loops and these structures is kind 696 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:36,280 Speaker 5: of hard on an audio podcast, But I think what 697 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,400 Speaker 5: I'm getting is that inside of the material, the conditions 698 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:41,880 Speaker 5: of the crystal are such the electrons that are sort 699 00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:45,040 Speaker 5: of stuck moving around in circles but at the edge 700 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,760 Speaker 5: is because there's no full circle they can do. Then 701 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,840 Speaker 5: they can then jump around and move to other atoms. 702 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:51,600 Speaker 5: Is that what you're saying. 703 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, they can jump from atom to atom on the 704 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:55,760 Speaker 1: surface exactly. 705 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 5: Because you're sort of breaking the conditions that are making 706 00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:59,520 Speaker 5: them be stuck in these loops. 707 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:01,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, they only do half of the loops, right, and 708 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 1: the half of the loops basically always point in the 709 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 1: same direction. So you do half of one loop, then 710 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: you do half the next loop, and half the next loop. 711 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:09,960 Speaker 1: You never do the other half of any of these 712 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,480 Speaker 1: loops because the surface is there sort of preventing you. 713 00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:16,000 Speaker 1: Let me just try one more visual analogy. So think 714 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,399 Speaker 1: about like a swimming pool in your backyard. Now put 715 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: a lot of tiny whirl pools in it, all swirling around. 716 00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:26,480 Speaker 1: Fill the whole thing up with whirlpools. Now what happens 717 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:28,879 Speaker 1: if you toss a ping punk ball into it, Well, 718 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:31,440 Speaker 1: it's going to get stuck in one of the whirlpools 719 00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:33,919 Speaker 1: and it'll be really hard for it to jump from 720 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: one to the other. So that's like an electron getting 721 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:39,400 Speaker 1: stuck moving in a circle around one of the atoms 722 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:41,960 Speaker 1: in a crystal. But if you put it right at 723 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,680 Speaker 1: the edge of the pool where the whirlpools are all 724 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,720 Speaker 1: pushing in the same direction, so that instead of getting 725 00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:50,839 Speaker 1: stuck in one whirlpool, it moves around the whole edge 726 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,280 Speaker 1: of the pool, getting passed from one whirlpool to another. 727 00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,200 Speaker 1: So it doesn't conduct electricity in the center, but it 728 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:58,600 Speaker 1: does around the edges. 729 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,360 Speaker 5: So that gives you a material if you can make it, 730 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:05,320 Speaker 5: that doesn't conduct electrons through the material, but it conducts 731 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:06,839 Speaker 5: electrons on the surface of it. 732 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:09,880 Speaker 1: That's right exactly. And this sort of blew everybody's minds 733 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: because they were like, what is it. Is it an insulator, 734 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:14,560 Speaker 1: is it a conductor, is it both? Is it neither? 735 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,080 Speaker 1: It's something new, And so this sort of blew up 736 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,440 Speaker 1: this whole band theory of materials and made people realize 737 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,440 Speaker 1: that there's like a whole possibility for new things that 738 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,240 Speaker 1: you could build that have weird behaviors that you didn't 739 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:30,680 Speaker 1: possibly anticipate. And the cool thing is that this idea 740 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:32,600 Speaker 1: came about and just like a couple of years later, 741 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 1: people were able to make them. So went from like 742 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: crazy idea in somebody's notebook to like, Okay, we made it, 743 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,080 Speaker 1: we saw it actually do this thing in just a 744 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:41,880 Speaker 1: couple of years, which is sort of astounding. 745 00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:44,200 Speaker 5: I guess maybe the confusing thing might be that the 746 00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:46,960 Speaker 5: way you describe it doesn't sound so different, Like what 747 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:49,080 Speaker 5: I could just maybe take a ceramic and code it 748 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:51,840 Speaker 5: with conducting metal and I would get something that's conductive 749 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:54,399 Speaker 5: on the outside and not on the inside. Like, why 750 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,040 Speaker 5: can you explain maybe why this was so revolutionary. 751 00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:00,839 Speaker 1: Well, it's different from having a ceramic coded with a metal, right, 752 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,480 Speaker 1: that's just having a metal that conducts. Here we have 753 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 1: something which is fundamentally different because it's the same material 754 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,560 Speaker 1: all the way through, but the material behaves differently on 755 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,520 Speaker 1: the inside and the outside. And it's exciting because it 756 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:16,160 Speaker 1: suggests that you can get new properties for familiar materials, 757 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,040 Speaker 1: the materials you thought you knew, you might get them 758 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:21,839 Speaker 1: to do different kinds of things, different weird kinds of 759 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,439 Speaker 1: things if you create new conditions for them, that there's 760 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,719 Speaker 1: like a whole other avenue. It's sort of like you've 761 00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:29,040 Speaker 1: been playing with your legos for ten years and then 762 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:31,440 Speaker 1: your friend comes over and builds something mind blowing and 763 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,040 Speaker 1: you're like, what I never thought legos could do that. 764 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,560 Speaker 1: That's awesome, and it gives you ideas for all sorts 765 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,160 Speaker 1: of other things you might be able to build with 766 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,000 Speaker 1: your legos you never even considered. And in this case, 767 00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:45,000 Speaker 1: it's exciting because the outside surface of these topological conductors 768 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:49,040 Speaker 1: are very very low resistance. For example, they can conduct 769 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:53,080 Speaker 1: electricity better than copper, better than gold. They're not quite 770 00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:57,760 Speaker 1: superconductors with zero resistance, but they're better conductors than almost 771 00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,920 Speaker 1: any material we have, and they operator room temperature. So 772 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: it's promising that there might be like new kinds of 773 00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:03,920 Speaker 1: things we can build. 774 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,760 Speaker 5: And that's kind of what it's called topological matter because 775 00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:09,560 Speaker 5: it sort of happens on the surface, like the fun 776 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 5: things happen on the surface. 777 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,640 Speaker 1: It's tempting to think about that because it sounds like 778 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,040 Speaker 1: we're saying, well, the properties of these material doesn't just 779 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,160 Speaker 1: depend on the crystal structure, you know, on like the 780 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,400 Speaker 1: organization internally, but also in the shape of the object, 781 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,040 Speaker 1: because originally these things were made super flat, and we're 782 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:29,800 Speaker 1: talking about like the shape and the structure of it. Actually, 783 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:32,920 Speaker 1: in this case, topological refers to something much more technical. 784 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,840 Speaker 1: Physicists like to think about these things in terms not 785 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: in physical space, but in something else called momentum space, 786 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,080 Speaker 1: where you do like a four y transform from physical 787 00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,839 Speaker 1: space to momentum space, and then in that momentum space 788 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 1: they're doing some complex analysis, some complicated counting of the 789 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: shape of that space, and it turns out there are 790 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,759 Speaker 1: really interesting symmetries there, like states there that have the 791 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:55,880 Speaker 1: same topology will tend to have the same kind of behavior, 792 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:57,960 Speaker 1: will be an insulator or will be a conductor. But 793 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:00,400 Speaker 1: I think that's a little bit deeper on the maps 794 00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:01,680 Speaker 1: that we want to get into today. 795 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:03,799 Speaker 5: Well, I guess maybe step us through then what are 796 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:05,880 Speaker 5: some of the ways in which it blew people's mind, Like, 797 00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:07,840 Speaker 5: what were some of the cool things that people found 798 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:08,720 Speaker 5: you can do with these. 799 00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:11,160 Speaker 1: Well, we're just really beginning in exploring what you can 800 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,600 Speaker 1: do them. And we're talking a minute about potential applications. 801 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,040 Speaker 1: But one of the really interesting things is that people 802 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,640 Speaker 1: went back to old experiments that they never really understood before. 803 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:22,400 Speaker 1: Like people have been, you know, doing weird things with 804 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,360 Speaker 1: gold for a long time, and sometimes they would do 805 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,960 Speaker 1: experiments and not really understand the results and see they 806 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,239 Speaker 1: were sort of scratch their head and then move on. 807 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:32,759 Speaker 1: And now with this new understanding, we can look back 808 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:37,520 Speaker 1: and realize, oh, we were seeing topological effects in ordinary materials. 809 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,600 Speaker 1: We just didn't really understand it. Like people took gold 810 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:42,960 Speaker 1: and they made like thinner and thinner sheets of gold, 811 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:45,359 Speaker 1: and they studied the conductivity of it, and they were 812 00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:48,160 Speaker 1: sort of surprised that it didn't really depend on like 813 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,600 Speaker 1: the thickness of the gold and only depended on like 814 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,560 Speaker 1: the surface area of the gold. And that was weird 815 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:55,719 Speaker 1: because people thought, like, hm, it should depend on you know, 816 00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:58,400 Speaker 1: the crystal structure and what's going on inside. And so 817 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:01,160 Speaker 1: there's like a whole list of experiments that people didn't 818 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:03,440 Speaker 1: really understand that sort of befuddled the field. And now 819 00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,480 Speaker 1: people go back and like, oh, wow, it turns out 820 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:09,120 Speaker 1: that's a topological material and more broadly as we look 821 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:12,160 Speaker 1: at it. Now people are realizing that something like one 822 00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,239 Speaker 1: third of all materials that are out there have some 823 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,000 Speaker 1: sort of these topological effects that it turns out to 824 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,840 Speaker 1: have been everywhere all the time, we just never noticed it. 825 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,120 Speaker 5: And the other two thirds just don't have these effects 826 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:23,720 Speaker 5: mm hmmm. 827 00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,719 Speaker 1: And so now we're doing these like really complicated calculations 828 00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,120 Speaker 1: to try to understand, like under what conditions can you 829 00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:31,560 Speaker 1: get these kinds of effects. And it turns out that, 830 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:33,640 Speaker 1: you know, a lot of things that we think of 831 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:38,240 Speaker 1: as insulators turn out to have some amount of topological conductivity, 832 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:41,319 Speaker 1: and things that we think about as conductors sometimes are 833 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,880 Speaker 1: insulators on the inside. And so it's like being unaware 834 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:46,280 Speaker 1: of a third phase of matter. 835 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:46,520 Speaker 10: You know. 836 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,280 Speaker 1: It's like if you're a fish scientist, you've been swimming 837 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:51,600 Speaker 1: around water forever and then you go to the surface 838 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: and you discover, oh, wow, there's other things. You know, 839 00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,959 Speaker 1: water has other phases I never even realized. 840 00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:57,440 Speaker 9: You know. 841 00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,480 Speaker 1: It's like opening up an entirely new area for people 842 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,480 Speaker 1: to explore. It's really the beginning of a revolution in 843 00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:04,600 Speaker 1: condensed matter physics. 844 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:07,400 Speaker 5: It's like maybe like figuring out that water can form 845 00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:11,000 Speaker 5: little layers on solid things, and then little animals can 846 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:12,680 Speaker 5: live on that surface. Stuff like that. 847 00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:15,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, or like a fish discovering rain, You're like, oh wow, 848 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:17,880 Speaker 1: water falls through the sky and these weird little drops. 849 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:18,960 Speaker 1: How interesting. 850 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,320 Speaker 5: I invented an umbrella exactly. 851 00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,560 Speaker 1: And the other interesting thing is that this is a 852 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,360 Speaker 1: discovery that was just sort of like sitting there waiting 853 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:30,239 Speaker 1: to happen. Like the mathematical tools that were used to 854 00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:32,720 Speaker 1: come up with this idea and then mid two thousands 855 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,520 Speaker 1: are ancient. This could have been thought of in the fifties, 856 00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:37,880 Speaker 1: and the experimental results were sitting out there in the 857 00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,719 Speaker 1: literature for decades. You know. It's like this pattern of 858 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:44,440 Speaker 1: unexplained experimental measurements that nobody was able to put together. 859 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,520 Speaker 1: So when they put this story together, it's sort of like, 860 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,719 Speaker 1: oh my god, it's so fascinating but kind of obvious. 861 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:52,160 Speaker 1: And that's really exciting to me as a physicist because 862 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,920 Speaker 1: it tells me, like, well, what other discoveries are just 863 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,240 Speaker 1: out there waiting, Like there's gonna be a whole series 864 00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:01,360 Speaker 1: of Nobel Prizes, one for topological material and all of 865 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:03,919 Speaker 1: that information was just like literally sitting out there waiting 866 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:05,640 Speaker 1: for almost anybody to put it together. 867 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,120 Speaker 5: Now is a Nobel Price metal going to be a 868 00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:09,760 Speaker 5: topological material as well? 869 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:11,000 Speaker 12: Well. 870 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:13,239 Speaker 5: One cool effect I think you wrote down here is 871 00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,080 Speaker 5: that you can take an insulator and turn it into 872 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,240 Speaker 5: a conductor and back again just by changing its shape. 873 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:21,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, people used to think that if you had a 874 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,560 Speaker 1: material that's an insulator and you sort of started pulling 875 00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:27,280 Speaker 1: it apart, you made the atoms further and further apart, 876 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,760 Speaker 1: then it would stay an insulator because as the atoms 877 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,239 Speaker 1: get further and further apart, obviously it gets harder and 878 00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:34,399 Speaker 1: harder for electrons to jump from one to the other. 879 00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:36,600 Speaker 1: And so this is sort of like a common belief 880 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,440 Speaker 1: that all insulators are insulators even if you pull them apart. Well, 881 00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,359 Speaker 1: if you have a topological material, then what happens when 882 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:45,480 Speaker 1: you start pulling it apart is that that insulator at 883 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:49,680 Speaker 1: the core becomes a conductor because you're effectively now creating 884 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,520 Speaker 1: like new surfaces, and these things can conduct at surfaces. 885 00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,560 Speaker 1: And then as you keep pulling it apart, then you know, 886 00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:58,799 Speaker 1: the atoms get so far apart that they're basically not 887 00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 1: part of a material anymore, and it's effectively an insulator. 888 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:04,640 Speaker 1: So it's a really weird kind of material that you know, 889 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,480 Speaker 1: the conductivity of it also depends sort of on how 890 00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:09,319 Speaker 1: you smoothly deform it. 891 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:12,880 Speaker 5: Interesting, So it didn't conduct before, even at the surface, 892 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,440 Speaker 5: but once you pull it apart, you're sort of rearranging 893 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:17,239 Speaker 5: the atoms in such a way that suddenly on the 894 00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:18,560 Speaker 5: surface it can conduct. 895 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. It's really interesting. And so this gets condensed 896 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,239 Speaker 1: matter physicists very excited about the kinds of things they 897 00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:27,000 Speaker 1: might be able to invent using these techniques or other 898 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:28,600 Speaker 1: techniques similar in the future. 899 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,960 Speaker 5: Are they thinking topological ice cream? 900 00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:34,600 Speaker 1: That's right, it's frozen in the middle and liquid on 901 00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:35,040 Speaker 1: the center. 902 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:38,720 Speaker 5: I mean that discovery has been there all these years 903 00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:39,560 Speaker 5: for people to find. 904 00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:41,279 Speaker 1: That's right. You get the ice cream Nobel Prize, the 905 00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: Nobel Prize made out of ice cream. 906 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:44,520 Speaker 5: Yeah, you just have to keep it in the freezer 907 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,319 Speaker 5: otherwise it melts. All right, Well, let's get into what 908 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:49,719 Speaker 5: this new kind of material can do. What are some 909 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:52,400 Speaker 5: of the exciting things that might be able to be 910 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:54,480 Speaker 5: made from these and what the potential of that is. 911 00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:56,840 Speaker 5: But first, let's take another quick break. 912 00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,280 Speaker 1: When you pop a piece of cheese into your mouth 913 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:06,520 Speaker 1: or enjoy a rich spoonful of Greek yogurt. You're probably 914 00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:10,640 Speaker 1: not thinking about the environmental impact of each and every bite, 915 00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:13,280 Speaker 1: but the people in the dairy industry are. US Dairy 916 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,600 Speaker 1: has set themselves some ambitious sustainability goals, including being greenhouse 917 00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,200 Speaker 1: gas neutral by twenty to fifty. That's why they're working 918 00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:22,600 Speaker 1: hard every day to find new ways to reduce waste, 919 00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:26,839 Speaker 1: conserve natural resources, and drive down greenhouse gas emissions. Take water, 920 00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:30,000 Speaker 1: for example, most dairy farms reuse water up to four 921 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,520 Speaker 1: times the same water cools the milk, cleans equipment, washes 922 00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,360 Speaker 1: the barn, and irrigates the crops. How is US Dairy 923 00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:40,120 Speaker 1: tackling greenhouse gases. Many farms use anaerobic digestors that turn 924 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:44,080 Speaker 1: the methane from maneuver into renewable energy that can power farms, towns, 925 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,200 Speaker 1: and electric cars. So the next time you grab a 926 00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:48,239 Speaker 1: slice of pizza or lick an ice cream cone, know 927 00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:51,000 Speaker 1: that dairy farmers and processors around the country are using 928 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,520 Speaker 1: the latest practices and innovations to provide the nutrient dense 929 00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:57,359 Speaker 1: dairy products we love with less of an impact. Visit 930 00:43:57,440 --> 00:43:59,960 Speaker 1: usdairy dot com slash sustainability to learn more. 931 00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:04,520 Speaker 2: Our iHeartRadio Music Festival presented by Capitol One coming back 932 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,520 Speaker 2: to Las Vegas, two nights Omber twenty and twenty first 933 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:12,000 Speaker 2: on one stage, stream live only on HU A weekend 934 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:16,279 Speaker 2: full of superstar performances, never seen before collaborations, and once 935 00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:19,680 Speaker 2: in a lifetime artist moments you'll have to see to believe. 936 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,879 Speaker 2: Tickets are on sale now at AXS dot com. Don't 937 00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:29,360 Speaker 2: miss Asap, Rocky Big Sean to Melakavel, Don't You Can, 938 00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:38,680 Speaker 2: Julipa When Stefani Halsy Hoosier, Free Thurban, New Kids on 939 00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:47,080 Speaker 2: the Blocks, Paramore, The Chaboozie, The Black Crows. 940 00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:54,120 Speaker 13: The Weekend, Thomas Rhett, Victoria Monet, a special performance by Coldplays, 941 00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:55,680 Speaker 13: Chris Martin and more. 942 00:44:55,800 --> 00:45:02,839 Speaker 2: Okay, your tickets to be there now at AXS dot com. 943 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:03,200 Speaker 4: Hi. 944 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:06,920 Speaker 3: I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently 945 00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:09,960 Speaker 3: hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a 946 00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:13,880 Speaker 3: neuroscientists at Stanford and I've spent my career exploring the 947 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:15,480 Speaker 3: three pound universe. 948 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:15,960 Speaker 4: In our heads. 949 00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:18,680 Speaker 3: We're looking at a whole new series of episodes this 950 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:22,600 Speaker 3: season to understand why and how our lives look the 951 00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,799 Speaker 3: way they do. Why does your memory drift so much. 952 00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,640 Speaker 3: Why is it so hard to keep a secret, When 953 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:33,520 Speaker 3: should you not trust your intuition? Why do brains so 954 00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,560 Speaker 3: easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love 955 00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:41,800 Speaker 3: conspiracy theories. I'm hitting these questions and hundreds more because 956 00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:44,520 Speaker 3: the more we know about what's running under the hood, 957 00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:47,080 Speaker 3: the better we can steer our lives. 958 00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,760 Speaker 4: Join me weekly to explore the relationship. 959 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:54,799 Speaker 3: Between your brain and your life by digging into unexpected questions. 960 00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,719 Speaker 3: Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, 961 00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:01,680 Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. 962 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:06,640 Speaker 12: Hi everyone, it's me Katie Kuric. If you follow me 963 00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:09,080 Speaker 12: on social media, you know I love to cook, or 964 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:13,080 Speaker 12: at least try, especially alongside some of my favorite chefs 965 00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:17,600 Speaker 12: and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen, Lighty Hoyke, Alison Roman, 966 00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:21,080 Speaker 12: and of course Ina Garten and Martha Stewart. So I 967 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:24,359 Speaker 12: started a free newsletter called Good Tastes that comes out 968 00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:27,839 Speaker 12: every Thursday, and it's serving up recipes that will make 969 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:32,600 Speaker 12: your mouth water. Think a candied bacon, bloody mary tacos 970 00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:36,440 Speaker 12: with cabbage slaw, curry cauliflower with almonds and mint, and 971 00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:39,480 Speaker 12: cherry slab pie with vanilla ice cream to top it 972 00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:42,600 Speaker 12: all off. I mean, young, I'm getting hungry. But if 973 00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,600 Speaker 12: you're not sold yet, we also have kitchen tips like 974 00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,279 Speaker 12: a fool proof way to grill the perfect burger, and 975 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,440 Speaker 12: must have products like the best cast iron skillet. To 976 00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:53,840 Speaker 12: feel like a chef in your own kitchen, all you 977 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:56,280 Speaker 12: need to do is sign up at Katiecuric dot com 978 00:46:56,320 --> 00:47:01,279 Speaker 12: slash good Taste. That's ka t i e cic dot 979 00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:05,359 Speaker 12: com slash good Taste. I promise your taste buds will 980 00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:06,200 Speaker 12: be happy you did. 981 00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:18,960 Speaker 5: All right, we're talking about ice cream Noble prizes for 982 00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:24,520 Speaker 5: discovering new flavors or or discovering ice cream that doesn't melt. 983 00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:27,000 Speaker 1: That's right. Well, you know I would take two blobs 984 00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:28,800 Speaker 1: of ice cream and accelerate them at high speed and 985 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:31,399 Speaker 1: push them together and see if a new flavor comes out. 986 00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:34,440 Speaker 5: Well, nobody would give you a Nobel price. But if 987 00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:37,400 Speaker 5: you can find a solid state ice cream that's permanently solid, 988 00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:38,799 Speaker 5: then maybe you got something there. 989 00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:41,440 Speaker 1: Room temperature ice cream, now there would be an invention. 990 00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:43,920 Speaker 5: Well, it's ice you could eat in the winter, maybe, 991 00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,680 Speaker 5: so it's a new kind of material. These topological matter 992 00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:51,600 Speaker 5: materials because they have interesting conducting and non conducting property. 993 00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:53,239 Speaker 5: So what are some of the things you can do 994 00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:53,560 Speaker 5: with them? 995 00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,880 Speaker 1: Well, one of the most useful immediate applications are to 996 00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:00,680 Speaker 1: use them to build computer chips. The basis of all 997 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,600 Speaker 1: modern computing and your phone and your laptop and your 998 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:07,160 Speaker 1: iPad and everything use these these little silicon chips that 999 00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:11,040 Speaker 1: have tiny little circuits, and those circuits are mostly transistors 1000 00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:13,480 Speaker 1: put together in different ways to make logic gates, and 1001 00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:16,320 Speaker 1: those are printed using silicon, which is a fascinating material 1002 00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:18,120 Speaker 1: because you can dope it in one way to make 1003 00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:19,759 Speaker 1: it a conductor, and dope it another way to make 1004 00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:22,600 Speaker 1: it an insulator. So you can print these circuits. One 1005 00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,680 Speaker 1: issue is that these things get hot, right as electrons 1006 00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:28,160 Speaker 1: pass through the silicon when it's in its conducting mode, 1007 00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,880 Speaker 1: it's not perfectly conducting, and so it heats up a 1008 00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,400 Speaker 1: little bit. And if you know, for example, your laptop, right, 1009 00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:36,480 Speaker 1: it gets hot when you're running really complex game on it, 1010 00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,640 Speaker 1: and that wastes a lot of heat. 1011 00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:40,919 Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, I guess that's an effect that I thought 1012 00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:42,879 Speaker 5: I knew how to work, but now I don't because 1013 00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:45,600 Speaker 5: of this conversation. Because I always felt like, Okay, it's 1014 00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:49,000 Speaker 5: electrons going through the copper, and so it's somehow creating 1015 00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,480 Speaker 5: some kind of friction and that's where the heat comes from. 1016 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:53,800 Speaker 5: But how does resistance cause heat? 1017 00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:56,440 Speaker 1: Well, resistance is when you're taking the motion of the 1018 00:48:56,480 --> 00:48:59,000 Speaker 1: electrons and you're just converting it to the heat of 1019 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,799 Speaker 1: the material. Meaning like you know, an atom absorbs that 1020 00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,080 Speaker 1: electron and now that atom is just sort of like 1021 00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:07,000 Speaker 1: has more energy, so you like sped up the motion 1022 00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:10,040 Speaker 1: of that atom, and so instead of the electrons just 1023 00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,600 Speaker 1: like sort of surfing along on top of the atoms, 1024 00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:15,000 Speaker 1: some of that energy is sort of like sucked down 1025 00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,080 Speaker 1: into the atom and trapped to energize the lattice, to 1026 00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,560 Speaker 1: shake up those atoms in the lattice, And that's what 1027 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,080 Speaker 1: you don't want. You want to keep it cold, you 1028 00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:25,319 Speaker 1: want to keep it firm. It doesn't conduct as well 1029 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:28,080 Speaker 1: when it gets warm also, so it gets worse and worse, 1030 00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,800 Speaker 1: and so what you'd like is something which stays cold. 1031 00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,200 Speaker 1: It just passes the electricity through it. And not just 1032 00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:36,960 Speaker 1: because they would perform better and faster, but also because 1033 00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:39,360 Speaker 1: it's a huge waste of energy. You know, something like 1034 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:44,440 Speaker 1: ten percent of our worldwide energy use goes to running computers, 1035 00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:47,239 Speaker 1: and if we can make that more efficient and we 1036 00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:50,720 Speaker 1: can find materials that have less resistance, then these computers 1037 00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:53,319 Speaker 1: can operate more efficiently and they can operate faster and 1038 00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:54,080 Speaker 1: more reliably. 1039 00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,080 Speaker 5: Yeah, if you can take a chunk out of that, 1040 00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:59,600 Speaker 5: you know, ten percent of worldwide energy, you would save 1041 00:49:59,640 --> 00:49:59,879 Speaker 5: a lot. 1042 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:04,000 Speaker 1: And so these materials are better conductors than for example, 1043 00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:07,880 Speaker 1: copper is and so that's very promising. Practically speaking, there 1044 00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:10,239 Speaker 1: are big obstacles there, Right, You can't just be like, oh, 1045 00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:12,839 Speaker 1: I have a new complex kind of material which only 1046 00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:16,160 Speaker 1: works in the lab in tiny microducees. Can we now 1047 00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:19,239 Speaker 1: insert it into everyday electronics? You know, if you want 1048 00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:22,400 Speaker 1: to get into like the supply chain for the Apple iPhone, 1049 00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,239 Speaker 1: then there's a lot of constraints there. You have to 1050 00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:27,480 Speaker 1: be like cheap and available, you have to be ductiles 1051 00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,239 Speaker 1: so you can make wires out of it. So there's 1052 00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:32,320 Speaker 1: a long road to go there, but it's sort of promising. 1053 00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:35,040 Speaker 5: Maybe give us a sense of how difficult it is 1054 00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:37,360 Speaker 5: to make these materials, Like what's a standard way to 1055 00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:41,880 Speaker 5: make a topological matter conductor? Like using what kind of materials? 1056 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:44,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, so originally you have to make them really really 1057 00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:48,120 Speaker 1: thin and have very powerful magnetic fields. These days, people 1058 00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,920 Speaker 1: have made three D topological materials, and the way they 1059 00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:54,319 Speaker 1: do it is sort of similar to the way you 1060 00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:57,080 Speaker 1: operate with semic conductors, which is that you add other 1061 00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:59,879 Speaker 1: kinds of things, so you like inject weird things into 1062 00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:01,760 Speaker 1: the crystal lattice to get. 1063 00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:03,480 Speaker 5: These effects on the surface you mean. 1064 00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:05,880 Speaker 1: On the surface or in the center also, but you 1065 00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:07,400 Speaker 1: end up getting the same effects. 1066 00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:10,520 Speaker 5: You mean, you code something like you cod a ceramic 1067 00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:11,319 Speaker 5: with something no. 1068 00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:14,760 Speaker 1: No, you add like a new kind of material inside 1069 00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:17,279 Speaker 1: the lattice, so that inside the crystal lattice you have, 1070 00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:19,960 Speaker 1: like you know, some other element that's occupying some of 1071 00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:22,600 Speaker 1: these things, and it changes the behavior of the electrons, 1072 00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:25,600 Speaker 1: forcing them, for example, spin locking them, forcing them to 1073 00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:29,160 Speaker 1: move in these circles without having a powerful magnetic field currently. 1074 00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:32,200 Speaker 1: Of course, it takes sort of complex machinery to fabricate 1075 00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,799 Speaker 1: these things to make these mixtures. But you know, if 1076 00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:38,040 Speaker 1: we find one that's especially useful, especially powerful, I'm sure 1077 00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:39,920 Speaker 1: it will come up with ways to mass produce them. 1078 00:51:40,239 --> 00:51:42,479 Speaker 5: Oh, I see, they're not super easy to make yet. 1079 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:44,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, they're not super easy to make yet, but that's 1080 00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:46,480 Speaker 1: true of almost everything, right, you know, like the first 1081 00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:49,200 Speaker 1: transistor was not simple or small. 1082 00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:51,080 Speaker 5: Right, right, and they've gone in smaller and smaller. But 1083 00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:53,239 Speaker 5: now we're sort of reaching the limits of what we 1084 00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:57,600 Speaker 5: can do even with silicon and these crazy powerful ways 1085 00:51:57,600 --> 00:51:59,880 Speaker 5: to make tiny chips. Like, we're reaching a limit and 1086 00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:01,640 Speaker 5: we're going to need something new for wanting to make 1087 00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:03,560 Speaker 5: things even smaller and more powerful. 1088 00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:06,040 Speaker 1: That's right. We're very used to our computers getting more 1089 00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:09,480 Speaker 1: powerful and smaller every single year. This is Moore's law, 1090 00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:12,920 Speaker 1: where computing power doubles every eighteen months because we can 1091 00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:15,680 Speaker 1: make smaller transistors. But there is a limit there, right, 1092 00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:19,160 Speaker 1: If silicon gets too small, then it loses these properties, 1093 00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:22,240 Speaker 1: it's conductivity and its resistance, and we're pushing up against 1094 00:52:22,239 --> 00:52:24,480 Speaker 1: that limit. So people are working hard to find new 1095 00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:27,319 Speaker 1: materials that we can use to print these transistors. So 1096 00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:29,880 Speaker 1: it's a good time to discover that there's a whole 1097 00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:32,840 Speaker 1: new class of stuff out there that we can design 1098 00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,399 Speaker 1: and build that has weird new properties. 1099 00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:38,440 Speaker 5: Right, right, to make phones even smaller and you know, 1100 00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:40,480 Speaker 5: higher resolution. 1101 00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:42,640 Speaker 1: And to make your batteries last longer. 1102 00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:45,279 Speaker 5: Oh that's right. Yeah, if they're more conductive, then you're 1103 00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:47,760 Speaker 5: not wasting as much energy to heat. 1104 00:52:47,719 --> 00:52:49,640 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, every time you feel your phone get hot, 1105 00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:52,600 Speaker 1: that's energy from your battery that could have been used 1106 00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:55,160 Speaker 1: to play your Netflix show but instead is heating up 1107 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:55,600 Speaker 1: your pocket. 1108 00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,720 Speaker 5: But that's just for regular computers that we know. Now, 1109 00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:01,880 Speaker 5: you could also use these materials for a whole new 1110 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:03,040 Speaker 5: kind of computer. 1111 00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:05,399 Speaker 1: That's right. We think that they might be excellent as 1112 00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:07,920 Speaker 1: a sort of base material out of which to build 1113 00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:11,640 Speaker 1: quantum computers. Quantum computers, remember, don't have the sort of 1114 00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:15,319 Speaker 1: normal switches that classical computers have, like that are either 1115 00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:18,799 Speaker 1: one or zero, that have these things inside them called cbits, 1116 00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:21,880 Speaker 1: which are in a quantum state, a superposition of ones 1117 00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:25,400 Speaker 1: and zeros with various probabilities. And these quantum computers are 1118 00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:28,440 Speaker 1: really fascinating and have some interesting potential to solve some 1119 00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:31,640 Speaker 1: weird problems. But one of the obstacles to building quantum 1120 00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:35,320 Speaker 1: computers is error correction. These quantum computers can be a 1121 00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:37,279 Speaker 1: little bit noisy and a little bit fuzzy, and you 1122 00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:39,319 Speaker 1: don't always get the answer out that you want, and 1123 00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:42,400 Speaker 1: so they have all these complicated error correcting devices that 1124 00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:45,399 Speaker 1: get more and more laborious, more and more difficult as 1125 00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,319 Speaker 1: you get bigger and more powerful computers, which is one 1126 00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:50,960 Speaker 1: reason why we've only ever seen quantum computers with like 1127 00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:54,120 Speaker 1: ten bits or twenty bits. Whereas, for example, you know 1128 00:53:54,200 --> 00:53:57,600 Speaker 1: your phone has megabits and megabits inside of it. We 1129 00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:01,359 Speaker 1: think that potentially these topological materials might have the right 1130 00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:05,080 Speaker 1: ingredients to be sort of self correcting. They might be 1131 00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:08,879 Speaker 1: able to develop cubits that automatically correct themselves. 1132 00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:11,360 Speaker 5: Right Like if there's an error somehow, that error disappears 1133 00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:12,880 Speaker 5: somehow by itself. 1134 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:15,280 Speaker 1: And it comes from the way that the electrons flow 1135 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:18,600 Speaker 1: in these materials. They're actually sort of symmetries that preserve 1136 00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:22,399 Speaker 1: the electrons in these quasi particles. Remember we talked once 1137 00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:24,839 Speaker 1: about what quasi particles are. Like the way we think 1138 00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:29,560 Speaker 1: of photons as excitations in the electromagnetic field, you can 1139 00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:32,800 Speaker 1: also think about other fields fields inside materials and having 1140 00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:36,600 Speaker 1: energy stored inside those fields. So, for example, like a 1141 00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:39,560 Speaker 1: vibration inside of material, you think of that as like 1142 00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:43,600 Speaker 1: a phonen, like a basic element of the vibration field 1143 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:46,680 Speaker 1: inside of material. So some of these topological materials have 1144 00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:50,600 Speaker 1: these symmetries that preserve these quasi particles that allow you 1145 00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:53,880 Speaker 1: to build basically self error correcting quantum bits. 1146 00:54:54,239 --> 00:54:57,400 Speaker 5: I see, Yeah, because these kinds of new kinds of 1147 00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:01,319 Speaker 5: quasi particles can only happen on or special conditions like 1148 00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:04,960 Speaker 5: what you get with these topological materials. 1149 00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:08,200 Speaker 1: Exactly, And the topological nature of them preserves these symmetries 1150 00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:11,400 Speaker 1: that it forces them to act in certain ways, and 1151 00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:14,400 Speaker 1: those ways help prevent errors from cropping up and correct 1152 00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:15,120 Speaker 1: them when they do. 1153 00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:17,400 Speaker 5: Right, Because right now, to make a quantum computer, you 1154 00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:20,120 Speaker 5: need like these extreme machines, right, you need like a 1155 00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:22,520 Speaker 5: machine the size of a room just to have ten cubits. 1156 00:55:22,640 --> 00:55:26,120 Speaker 5: But if you can somehow use these tiny materials, then 1157 00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:28,760 Speaker 5: you might get a quantum computer in your pocket. 1158 00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:31,360 Speaker 1: Yes, you're right, you might, and they might be self 1159 00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:34,319 Speaker 1: air correcting, so you wouldn't need these like really complicated 1160 00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:38,360 Speaker 1: devices to help fix the errors from ten or twenty bits. Currently, 1161 00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,520 Speaker 1: the error rate grows very rapidly as you add quantum bits, 1162 00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:44,160 Speaker 1: and so if they're self air correcting, that might solve 1163 00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:46,680 Speaker 1: that problem. But that's sort of like potential. That's something 1164 00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:49,680 Speaker 1: people are exploring. But you know, the flavor of it 1165 00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:51,600 Speaker 1: is that we have a new kind of material and 1166 00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:54,400 Speaker 1: we don't even really know what it can do. Somebody's 1167 00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:56,719 Speaker 1: going to come along next year or the year after 1168 00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:59,319 Speaker 1: and come up with a crazy idea for how you 1169 00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:02,080 Speaker 1: can put these things together to make something nobody's ever imagined. 1170 00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:02,640 Speaker 12: Mmm. 1171 00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:05,560 Speaker 5: I see, because it's like opened up a whole new 1172 00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:08,839 Speaker 5: kinds of behaviors of matter that we didn't know before. 1173 00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:11,239 Speaker 1: Exactly, Like all the complicated behavior of matter that you're 1174 00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,319 Speaker 1: familiar with is an emergent phenomena from putting together in 1175 00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:16,960 Speaker 1: complex ways, and now we know there are whole new areas. 1176 00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:19,479 Speaker 1: Like imagine if nobody had ever seen a conductor before, 1177 00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:21,799 Speaker 1: we only ever had insulators, and then you showed up 1178 00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:24,520 Speaker 1: with this material that can like zap people and transmit 1179 00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:27,319 Speaker 1: energy and you know, create these arcs through the area. Like, 1180 00:56:27,320 --> 00:56:29,520 Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it's like magic. This is like that 1181 00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:31,759 Speaker 1: moment when somebody's come up with something new. It's not 1182 00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:34,640 Speaker 1: exactly a conductor, not exactly an insulator. It's something new 1183 00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:37,000 Speaker 1: and weird. It can do new stuff, and so you 1184 00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:38,839 Speaker 1: know what it's going to be able to accomplish might 1185 00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:40,440 Speaker 1: seem like magic to us today. 1186 00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:44,200 Speaker 5: Wow, interesting in the future will be like this ice 1187 00:56:44,239 --> 00:56:47,960 Speaker 5: cream tastes amazing. What is it? It's a topological material. 1188 00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:52,440 Speaker 1: Topological mintship is so much better than classical mintship. 1189 00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:56,800 Speaker 5: Oh my god, yeah, it has mintq chips And you're like, 1190 00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:59,120 Speaker 5: oh my goodness, I can't believe most humans have never 1191 00:56:59,200 --> 00:57:01,640 Speaker 5: tasted a mintqu chip. What a tragedy. 1192 00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:03,719 Speaker 1: What did it even mean to be human before that 1193 00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:06,600 Speaker 1: was invented? Right? Like, were they even really fully aware? 1194 00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:09,560 Speaker 5: Life really started when quantum ice cream was invented. 1195 00:57:09,640 --> 00:57:11,360 Speaker 1: That's what the aliens are waiting for, for us to 1196 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:14,279 Speaker 1: achieve that level of technology before they come and visit us. 1197 00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:16,200 Speaker 5: Oh I see, yeah, because they don't want to go 1198 00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:19,720 Speaker 5: anywhere that doesn't have these quantum mint keu chips. It's like, 1199 00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:20,960 Speaker 5: you don't want to go to that place if it 1200 00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:24,560 Speaker 5: doesn't have bathroom. Oh yeah, exactly what kind of occasion 1201 00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:27,400 Speaker 5: is that? All right? Well, again, I think this is 1202 00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:30,400 Speaker 5: an exciting thing because it feels like, you know, we're 1203 00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:33,280 Speaker 5: learning all the time that there are new things yet 1204 00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:36,040 Speaker 5: to be discovered in this universe, like new even new 1205 00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:38,640 Speaker 5: kinds of material and new kinds of matter that we 1206 00:57:38,680 --> 00:57:41,480 Speaker 5: can potentially engineer amazing new devices out of. 1207 00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:44,400 Speaker 1: That's right, So we have not just revolutions in our 1208 00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:48,320 Speaker 1: basic understanding of the fundamental particles and what the universe is. 1209 00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:51,560 Speaker 1: We also have revolutions all the time, and how those 1210 00:57:51,600 --> 00:57:54,400 Speaker 1: bits fit together to make weird kinds of stuff that 1211 00:57:54,520 --> 00:57:57,520 Speaker 1: exist at our scale. So our understanding the universe is 1212 00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:01,200 Speaker 1: constantly transforming, and there are enormous opportunities out there for 1213 00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:04,800 Speaker 1: people to make discoveries. So you young scientists out there, seven, eight, 1214 00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:08,200 Speaker 1: ten years old, fifteen years old, you can still revolutionize 1215 00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:11,720 Speaker 1: our understanding of the universe. There's so much left to do. 1216 00:58:11,880 --> 00:58:14,160 Speaker 5: But if you're sixteen, it's over for you, right, is 1217 00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:17,640 Speaker 5: that what you're saying, Daniel? But no, I mean anything 1218 00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:19,880 Speaker 5: could come up of anyone of any age, right. 1219 00:58:19,840 --> 00:58:23,360 Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, sixteen year olds could totally revolutionize the universe. 1220 00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,120 Speaker 1: I don't know, a's seventeen eighteen a universe haded. No, it's 1221 00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:30,640 Speaker 1: open for everybody. Absolutely, a non exhaustive list of example ages. 1222 00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:32,360 Speaker 5: Ask yourself, do you want to be in the group 1223 00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:34,520 Speaker 5: of humans that have never seen these revolutions? Or do 1224 00:58:34,520 --> 00:58:36,800 Speaker 5: you want to be in the group of humans the future, 1225 00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:40,480 Speaker 5: humans that know these amazing things? All right, Well, we 1226 00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:43,040 Speaker 5: hope you enjoyed that and it blew your mind a 1227 00:58:43,080 --> 00:58:45,880 Speaker 5: little bit, at least on the surface. Thanks for joining us, 1228 00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:47,200 Speaker 5: See you next time. 1229 00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:57,800 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. And remember that. Daniel and Jorge Explain 1230 00:58:57,880 --> 00:59:01,160 Speaker 1: the Universe is a production of iHeart Radio. For more 1231 00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:06,040 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 1232 00:59:06,080 --> 00:59:19,959 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. When you pop 1233 00:59:19,960 --> 00:59:22,000 Speaker 1: a piece of cheese into your mouth, you're probably not 1234 00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:24,960 Speaker 1: thinking about the environmental impact. But the people in the 1235 00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:28,320 Speaker 1: dairy industry are. That's why they're working hard every day 1236 00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:31,440 Speaker 1: to find new ways to reduce waste, conserve natural resources, 1237 00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:35,040 Speaker 1: and drive down greenhouse gas emissions. How is us dairy 1238 00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:39,200 Speaker 1: tackling greenhouse gases? Many farms use anaerobic digestors to turn 1239 00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:43,720 Speaker 1: the methane from manure into renewable energy that can power farms, towns, 1240 00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:47,040 Speaker 1: and electric cars. Visit you as dairy dot COM's Last 1241 00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:48,680 Speaker 1: Sustainability to learn more. 1242 00:59:49,280 --> 00:59:53,280 Speaker 2: Our iHeartRadio Music Festival percentate I Capital one Iming back 1243 00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:56,880 Speaker 2: to Las Vegas September twenty first, a weekend full of 1244 00:59:56,960 --> 01:00:05,640 Speaker 2: superstar performances. Sabracks Come, Look at Bay to Keith, Urban, 1245 01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:09,480 Speaker 2: New Kids on the Block, Paramore, Shoozy, The Black Crows, 1246 01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:13,520 Speaker 2: The Weekend, Thomas Red, Victoria Monett Old plays, Chris Martin, 1247 01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,560 Speaker 2: hand More stream live only on Hulu and get it 1248 01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:20,320 Speaker 2: tigguts to be there at AXS dot com. 1249 01:00:20,440 --> 01:00:24,000 Speaker 3: Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which 1250 01:00:24,040 --> 01:00:27,000 Speaker 3: recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I 1251 01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:30,800 Speaker 3: mean neuroscientists at Stanford and I've spent my career exploring 1252 01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:33,000 Speaker 3: the three pound universe in our heads. 1253 01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:36,320 Speaker 4: Join me weekly to explore the relationship. 1254 01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:38,760 Speaker 3: Between your brain and your life, because the more we 1255 01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:41,160 Speaker 3: know about what's running under the hood. 1256 01:00:41,120 --> 01:00:43,120 Speaker 4: Be or we can steer our lives. 1257 01:00:43,480 --> 01:00:46,800 Speaker 3: Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, 1258 01:00:46,840 --> 01:00:49,720 Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.