Podcast · 132 episodes
Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe, page 3
by iHeartPodcasts · English
Scientists Daniel and Kelly cannot stop talking about our amazing, wonderful, weird Universe! Each episode is a fun, easy-to-understand, and in-depth explanation of topics in science, from particles to black holes to moon colonies to ecosystems to parasites and everything else in the Universe!
All episodes, page 3
Does science fiction inspire real tech?Whether science fiction has inspired real technology, and how often the “sci-fi to engineering” story is accurate versus myth.14 Apr 2026 · 50 min · 25 chapters
Listener Questions #35: Genetics (featuring Dr. Benjamin de Bivort)Listener Questions #35 on genetics and behavior, featuring how DNA stores information, how it becomes proteins (transcription/translation), how proteins fold (origami-like folding; AlphaFold), what…9 Apr 2026 · 1 h 17 min · 25 chapters
Snakes vs Octopi (featuring Dr. Matt Giorgianni)How snake venom evolved and works, including whether venom could affect an octopus, whether snakes are immune to their own venom, and how venom relates to fangs and prey resistance.7 Apr 2026 · 1 h 5 min · 22 chapters
Does consciousness come from quantum processes in the brain?Whether consciousness arises from quantum processes in the brain, focusing on Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff’s Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch-OR) theory, and how it relates to quantum…2 Apr 2026 · 54 min · 15 chapters
Listener Questions #34Listener Questions #34 on Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe covers (1) why fog forms on cold mornings, (2) whether bats and geckos avoid dizziness when upside down, and (3) what a…31 Mar 2026 · 48 min · 22 chapters
How cholera kills you and how we kill itHow Vibrio cholera causes catastrophic diarrhea (including the role of stomach acid, intestinal mucus penetration, and cholera toxin disrupting salt/water balance), where the bacteria live outside…26 Mar 2026 · 47 min · 15 chapters
To swill or to smell: How John Snow determined the cause of choleraCholera’s 19th-century devastation and how physician John Snow used data to overturn miasma (“bad air”) theory, arguing cholera spreads via contaminated drinking water and helping establish germ…24 Mar 2026 · 59 min · 27 chapters
Listener Questions #33Listener Questions #33 on Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe, focusing on (1) “tongue worms” (pentastomids) and their deep evolutionary history and host coevolution, (2) why the SI units were…19 Mar 2026 · 52 min · 27 chapters
Do we live in a super bubble?Whether the solar system is inside a “super bubble” in the Milky Way, and what the interstellar/intergalactic medium is like (density, structure, turbulence, star formation, and feedback).17 Mar 2026 · 42 min · 13 chapters
Is Cold Fusion impossible?Whether “cold fusion” is physically possible, how fusion works in general, how hot-fusion approaches (magnetized tokamaks and laser inertial confinement) differ, and why cold fusion got a bad…12 Mar 2026 · 46 min · 18 chapters
Listener Questions #32Listener Questions #32 on (1) why time appears to move only forward and how that relates to spacetime, cosmic expansion, and entropy; (2) whether sleep aids (Advil PM, melatonin) improve sleep…10 Mar 2026 · 53 min · 29 chapters
Becoming Martian (featuring Dr. Scott Solomon)Whether humans settling Mars would adapt biologically over generations, potentially leading to different traits or even a new species; also what unglamorous science and funding are needed before…5 Mar 2026 · 57 min · 21 chapters
Musk on the MoonThe podcast discusses Elon Musk’s pivot from aiming for a self-sustaining city on Mars to building a self-sustaining (or “self-growing”) city on the Moon first.3 Mar 2026 · 58 min · 24 chapters
Listener Questions #31Listener Questions #31 on genetics/DNA similarity across species, black hole “no-hair” properties and why only mass, spin, and electric charge are observable, and whether lowering fever helps or…26 Feb 2026 · 56 min · 21 chapters
Which planet has the most moons?Moons—what they are, how they’re defined, why planets have them, and a ranking of which solar-system planets have the most moons.24 Feb 2026 · 1 h 3 min · 22 chapters
Why do animals cooperate?How animal cooperation can evolve under natural selection, and why humans are especially social (including why isolation is harmful).19 Feb 2026 · 1 h 10 min · 30 chapters
Listener Questions #30Listener Questions #30 covers (1) whether and how self-awareness could emerge along a spectrum from simple reactivity to sapience, (2) the evolutionary history of chickens and eggs (which came…17 Feb 2026 · 54 min · 19 chapters
Why does the Universe minimize action?The podcast explains the principle of least action—why the universe’s motion can be predicted by choosing the path that minimizes “action,” defined (in classical mechanics) as kinetic energy minus…12 Feb 2026 · 56 min · 24 chapters
RabiesRabies—how it spreads, why it’s usually preventable, what happens after infection, and the history/limits of vaccines and experimental treatments.10 Feb 2026 · 57 min · 23 chapters
Bonus Episode: History Daily - The First Reported Case of the Spanish FluThe first reported Spanish flu case (March 11, 1918) at Fort Riley, Kansas, and how the virus spread globally through World War I troop movements, then worsened in later waves and shaped…7 Feb 2026 · 19 min · 8 chapters
Listener Questions #29Listener Questions #29 covers (1) spruce bark beetles and their fungus symbiosis, (2) the ambipolar electric field in Earth/Mars/Venus, and (3) whether stress can cause gray hair.5 Feb 2026 · 51 min · 20 chapters
Can cosmic rays corrupt computers?Whether cosmic rays can corrupt computer data via “bit flips,” and what that means for everyday devices and space-based data systems.3 Feb 2026 · 52 min · 27 chapters
What is interspecific brood parasitism?Interspecific brood parasitism—one species tricks or coerces parents of another species into raising its offspring, often by laying eggs in the host’s nest and sometimes damaging the nest or…29 Jan 2026 · 52 min · 19 chapters
Listener Questions #28Listener Questions #28 on black holes/white holes and “tiny black holes” from photons; human body symmetry/asymmetry; and a child’s bubble-universe/multiverse scenario.27 Jan 2026 · 44 min · 22 chapters