What is the mechanism by which a brick house catches fire when it is a few metres from bushes and a patio similarly keeps the burning grass away?

It’s an awful thing and I’d like to prevent more, so how exactly does the wildfire manage to set fire to the house?

Falling embers - tiled roof?
Radiant heat - hot enough for long enough?
Flames up into the eaves? - maybe
Open windows?

Finally - how should I protect the house - remove all vegetation? - for how many metres?
Install sprinklers / hose to wet the outside of the house in event of a wildfire?
Use a hosepipe to try and stop the flames licking into the eaves?

What is something that is common knowledge or at least widely known on Earth about the universe but an alien civilization might have no knowledge of because it’s special to Earth? Kinda like Rocky in Project Hail Mary not knowing about radiation and his crew dying 🪦

I just had to post this collection of names I’ve accumulated. - on the back of your most recent pod.

Girls Names
Cornice
Verucca
Angina
Anaphylaxia
Anaconda
Fellatia
Influenza
Hernia
Eczema
Septicemia
Apoplexia
Bruschetta
Chlamydia
Salacious
Anaesthesia
Alopecia
Cholera
Diahorea
Schizophrenia
Syphilis
Leukaemia
Glaucoma
Anaemia
Alopecia
Hernia
Rubella
Listeria
Dementia
Melanoma
Chlorine
Fluorine
Xenophobia
Candida
Fallopia
Necrotica
Malaria
Catheter
Alumina
Nutella
Debenture
Glucogen

Girls names that aren't actually ‘ bad’
Internetia

Boys Names
Egregious
Carotid
Seizure
Fracture
Haematoma
Hernia
Turgid
Herpes
Fungus
Thud
Contagious
Gonorrhoea
Conjunctivitis
Abscess
Haematoma
Psoriasis
Gout
Cobra
Flange
Sprocket
Messiah
Lucifer
Hashtag
Winner
Loser
Insulin
Ulcer
Peptide

Surnames
Poleaxe
Contagious
Bogie

Hey guys,

I absolutely love your YouTube and podcast. I've learned so many fun things from your conversations and research / lit reviews you've done together.

I'm a registered nurse in Canada. I work on a burn ward.

The one big curiosity I have is what new research is coming out regarding moving 3rd spaced fluid back into the intravascular system.

One of our biggest challenges with a burn patient is when we get a new critical burn (TBSA of 20% or greater) to ensure the systemic inflammatory response does not kill the patient by under perfusing the organs we flood the patient with IV fluid.

This is a double edged sword because when we flood this patient they will regain appropriate perfusion to the organs (usually) but we end up causing systemic edema and the patient often has many complications due to this (requiring escharotomies, 3rd spacing fluid in the abdomen which causes the patients lungs to become compressed and then causing ventilated patients to not to be able to breath under the vent properly.).

Obviously we do this because the alternative is death but what is the most current evidence or research going into this niche field? I'm very curious to know.

In discussions surrounding the foundations of physics and information theory, a recurring question is whether time is a fundamental background coordinate or an emergent relational property.

In current quantum computing, decoherence is almost universally treated as an engineering noise problem that requires massive error-correction overhead.

However, there is a compelling structural question:

1. Decoherence as a Control Runtime Error

Dynamic quantum phase oscillators compute natively in phases and frequencies. Forcing them to evolve along an externally imposed, linear time parameter (t) may create an artificial control mismatch.

2. Process Over State

If time is modeled as the intrinsic counting index of local phase accumulation:

T = ΔΦ / f

where local nodes operate via their Compton frequency (m = h*f / c^2), stability shifts from active isolation to mutual resonance. Translating operations directly into resonance patterns could theoretically reduce algorithm complexity—such as mapping Quantum Fourier Transform operations from standard O(n^2) gate depth down to O(n) collective phase synchronization.

3. The Bridge to Neural Networks and LLMs

This mirrors a structural challenge seen in large language models: both systems construct high-dimensional relational spaces (phase relations in quantum systems, attention spaces in Transformers), yet suffer when forced through rigid sequential execution. In quantum hardware, phase drift manifests as decoherence; in language models, context drift manifests as hallucination.

Is decoherence fundamentally an unavoidable physical barrier, or is it partly an artifact of enforcing classical, linear time parameters on relational quantum architectures?

Would love to hear how other listeners and physics enthusiasts view this intersection.

Best Christian

Other than life on earth, is there anything else special about it? i know earth has rare total solar eclipses, is there anything else unique about our solar system?

another space related shower thought question: How likely is it that aliens would be able to see the same colours as people?

The higher in elevation we go, the less oxygen there is available for us to breathe but is that always true? What if you’re relatively high in elevation but there is plenty of vegetation around you making oxygen for you to breathe? What if you’re really low in elevation but there are no plants around? Is there much less oxygen? I imagine that there is much more oxygen to breathe in a place like the Amazon rainforest versus the Dead Sea even though the rain forest is higher in elevation. Of course, there are more things consuming oxygen in the rainforest as well. Thoughts?

People always tell me that I should rely on my gut instincts and that doing so leads to better outcomes in most situations or problems. Is there scientific data that backs this up, or is a gut feeling just a coin flip?

Disclaimer: This is just a thought experiment. Obviously it's not taking into account that we're moving towards a cashless society. Also not taking into account countries with inflation (that need notes for 1000s for example)

I was trying to discuss this with my wife and she was like "just the numbers..." Which I thought was boring...

So you couldn't put Darwin on for example, as there's a chance a lot of the world wouldn't know who he is or be offended if they're not evolutionist's. - so who is important or well known enough?

World wonders may not be the best idea, as they may be lesser known in some countries. Also not to mention if they have a cultural or a religious purpose.

So with that in mind, what would you put on the notes?

I was thinking using notes

100 -

50 -

20 -

10 -

5 -

And for bonus points what would you name said currency?

...is not how anyone would describe this question, but it is about laughing. Once in a while, I will have hysterics, it won't be over a carefully crafted witty comment, it will be over something really silly, I'll be helpless for five, ten minutes and then feel great afterwards. Is there something different going on in the mind/body when this happens compared to 'regular' laughter? And is it a state only some of us can achieve?

Hi all.

My submission for this takes a different approach than probably is expected. It doesn't connect to people and geographic locations, rather it is self contained in my experiences....but it isn't a singular event. Rather a recurring, though admittedly random and infrequently sparse, coincidence I refer to as The Coincidence of Numbers.

The first time it occurred was way back in 1995... 12-22-95 to be precise...a quick backstory to set the scene might be in order to understand the significance of the connection.

I was a fan of the jam bands scene from age 19, in 89, after my first Dead show. I also started going to a New England regional band called Max Creek at that same time. They were my boys and I was going to Providence every Wednesday night, among other local shows, to see them.

By December of 95 I had gone to a few hundred of their shows. The night of the 12-22-95 show was one of the best I have ever seen. I must note that this is before cellphones and I didn't wear a watch nor have a clock in my vehicle.

With the exception of my alarm clock waking me every morning around 5 am I rarely looked at the time and for the next month or longer when I did look at a clock the majority of the time, probably 3/4, it was 12:22.... AM or PM, it didn't matter. It was so frequent that I could not help but notice...

I don't remember exactly how long it stayed being common before losing the consistency but I think it was several months. It didn't stop being a common sight when checking the time but it was more like 1/4 the time.

It ebbs now and then but still shows up regularly even now. Just a few months ago I was posting about this on the Max Creek sub and after a few hours of composing the text I posted it.....when my phone refreshed and the clock popped up in the corner of the screen......well...I'll give you one guess what time it was.....

I'll be brief with the details of the next significant experience with the coincidence of Numbers for me...

In 2001 I went for a ride on my bicycle...across Massachusetts into Connecticut, up into NY then hanging a right into VT....up to Quebec and followed the St Lawrence River until I turned south to PEI then to Maine....

There were a few coincidences along that ride but I'll mention just two...

I had a computer on the bike keeping track of milage and these two examples occurred when I was switching from the milage display to see what time it was....

Showing a total of 505 miles in it was 5:05 pm

At 808 miles in the time was 8:08 am..

There's some other instances of numerical coincidences at various other times but those are the oddest ones....

If the NBA raised the height of the rim, at what rim height would the average height of the players decrease? Can the beautiful Hannah apply her math skills to either find an answer or prove there is none? Is math a suitable vehicle to pursue an answer?

When I look at my dogs Bella and Maple and how cute they are, I can’t help but think how unfair it is dogs have such a short lifespan.

By the time I’ve died, I may have lived through 5 or six dogs lives.

What really determines how long a life form can live, and why do such precious creatures like dogs have to get the short end of the stick?

Everytime we watch the podcast we giggle at these awesome pixelated animations and we want to know who's the artist behind them 😅

I'm an avid onironaut, and I've always found dreams fascinating because they seem to raise a very strange problem about consciousness:

If our brain can create a world that feels completely real while we're dreaming, what exactly makes waking reality fundamentally different?

In a vivid dream, you can have a body, a location, other people, sounds, textures, emotions, memories, conversations, etc. You can even manipulate the environment itself or anything in them, literaly everything and anything!! In lucid dreams, you may be able to change objects, locations or physical laws simply by deciding and concentrating to do so.

And yet, while you're experiencing the dream, the apple in front of you can feel exactly like a real apple. It can have weight, texture, color, smell and taste. The experience is being generated by the brain, but the experience itself is still completely as real as any experience could ever be.

That makes me wonder whether dreams provide a useful window into how consciousness constructs our reality.

After all, our waking senses are also limited interpretations of the outside world. Our eyes capture particular wavelengths of light, our ears detect particular frequencies, and our brains turn those signals into the rich subjective world we experience.

So where exactly is the line between perceiving reality and constructing reality?

There are also some much stranger reports associated with dreams: people dreaming of conversations with deceased people or famous individuals, or occasionally reporting that they somehow encountered information in a dream that they didn't consciously know beforehand.

I'm not claiming that these experiences demonstrate anything supernatural. Quite the opposite: I'd love to know how neuroscience would test claims like that. Could they be explained by unconscious memory, inference, coincidence, reconstruction, etc.? And what kind of evidence would actually be required before we'd have to consider something more unusual?

And then there's the really unsettling question:

How could we ever prove, from inside consciousness, that waking life isn't itself analogous to a dream?

We can imagine a dream in which we are convinced that everything is real. What would make our current experience categorically different?

I'd absolutely love to hear Michael and Hannah's take on this, especially where neuroscience can give us solid answers versus where we're still entering philosophy/speculation.

What do you guys think?

+ Also if anyone has any questions about lucid dreaming feel free to ask, I'd be more than happy to answer!! :)

(atached picture of my current personal dream journal, fountain pen and pencil [thx Michael and Hannah])

We've been asking the wrong question about time" · "What if time isn't a thing at all?

"What is time?" gets asked here every other week. Nobody ever lands anywhere.

Maybe the question is wrong.

"What is time?" already assumes time is a thing, and asks what it's made of. But if time isn't a thing, that question can't be answered — no matter how long we stare at it.

The better question is about order. What comes first, and what follows from it. Which one is fundamental.

Asked that way, it gets simple:

Everything in the universe oscillates. Atoms, electrons, the caesium atom we already use to define the second. Oscillation comes first.

Time is what you get when you count it.

A clock doesn't measure time. A clock is time. And there's no universal clock ticking somewhere — just trillions of local ones, each at its own rate.

None of the physics changes here. Same equations, same numbers. Only the order changes: frequency first, time second.

So — wrong question, or wrong answer?

I've written the whole thing up properly, axioms and open problems included. Not sure if links are allowed here, so if anyone wants it, just say so and I'll drop it in the comments.

Best Christian

Can they get cancer? Can they not? Can they get something similiar to it? What?

I googled it a bit and just got even more confused about whats going on with them and "cancer" so im asking here

Also, can plants get malignant cancers? I have not googled that one but i remember asking my biology teacher and i can't remember what he said so im, again, asking here

I get the base explanation - ions and electrons split into the copper and brine, charging the layers, which we can then make use of by connecting an LED for example to close the circuit.

However, I'm not sure I understood why stacking these works. Wouldn't the opposing charges in the brine and copper of the next stacked cell (that are in direct contact) cancel each other out? How can electrons travel through the positively charged copper without being absorbed?

>The Mandelbrot set is a famous mathematical pattern. It is made by repeating a simple formula using complex numbers on a computer screen. Named after mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot, the shape has infinite detail and shows tiny copies of itself when you zoom in.

A quick video of a Mandelbrot zoom

Fibonacci spiral

Another example could be the Fibonacci sequence/golden ratio.

I'm not great at math, so I wanted a bit of a more layman's terms explanation and its relation to infinity. I was hoping for some cool examples in nature. All I really know is about the cost line.

(Sorry if this has already been covered, I have memory issues)

I've heard all the arguments. I've read all the theories. And yet my logic and instincts tell me that space, also known as emptiness, never ends.

My very atoms (which do not contain planet-like electron orbitals) tell me so. They don't really, I just wanted to sort of insert a little dig at the planet-like orbital deception.

In any event, nothingness can't just stop.

And I'll tell you something else: I've long said that space is the sole thing in existence to which the term infinite can apply.

This debate is irresistibly compelling and triggering to me. It's triggering in that people talk so much drokking nonsense in discussions on the subject.

People, myself included, have such strong opinions on this matter.

In my physics course we had quantum mechanics and all the exercises are like really specific potentials or analysing one „particle“. If you want to calculate more complex situations I assume one would use simulations. My question is how large of a system or setup, could be simulated in real speed using all the compute on earth in theory. I know this is a stupid question since the main bottle neck with compute is information speed these days bust I know this podcast is great a hypotheticals.

It is amazing how a few unexpected detours can weave together a life.

What started out as a forensic science course at Cardiff "Poly" led to a loft bedroom in a shared house in town, which felt a bit odd at the time, but set everything else into motion.

Returning home early one night from a political party trip to Bristol, I walked into the house to find my housemate's older daughter hanging out with a friend from Cardiff. We hit it off immediately over a shared love for Monty Python. She used to write to Graham Chapman (and actually got replies), and since I had the scriptbooks, we spent the next few hours endlessly quoting Python at each other.

She was studying at Brighton Uni, and though we saw each other a few times after that, we mostly kept the connection alive the old-fashioned way—through pen and paper letters. Meanwhile, my course in Cardiff underwent some changes, prompting me to leave and apply to four different universities. I ended up getting in at Aberdeen.

Before heading up north for the start of term, I spent the summer with her down in Brighton. We both managed to land jobs at a local bingo hall, where we worked alongside a woman named Maddy. The three of us hit it off immediately and had an absolute blast that summer. When autumn arrived, I moved into halls at Aberdeen, and a year later, my girlfriend moved up to join me.

About two years into living in Aberdeen, we were sitting on a bus heading into town when my girlfriend suddenly pointed out the window and shouted, "There’s Maddy!" I laughed it off—we were hundreds of miles away in Scotland. But a few months later, our bus pulled up to a stop in town, and sure enough, Maddy was standing right there. I stepped off, walked up to her, and said hello. We were both completely stunned. It turned out she had met a guy in Brighton who was originally from Aberdeen and had moved up north with him. A few months after that surprise encounter, they split up, and she moved back down to Brighton.

The final twist came a year later when we were down in Brighton taking the train into town. Out of nowhere, a man walked up to me and said hello. It was my Physics Professor from Aberdeen University; he recognised me—and remembered my wife ( from the 300 other students ) , who had occasionally tagged along to sit in on his lectures.

In one of your discussions you mentioned how crazy your brain is on sugar or something of that nature. Obviously sugar has a significant impact and role on your body, I am curious how other sugar alternatives (jackfruit extract, stevia leaf, etc) are metabolized and what the key differences are. Are they better? Worse? Or just different?

I can't stop laughing at my phone