This is an episode about electron microscopes with Bernard van Vlimmeren and Kees Kooijman of FEI Company. Among other things, we talk about the various kinds of electron microscopes, the components that go into electron microscopes, the important role of the sensors and a couple of example applications.

 

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This episode is a conversation with Volker Springel about the Millenium Simulation, which at the time was the largest simulation of the growth of cosmic structure, including a detailed model for the formation of galaxies and supermassive black holes. In the episode we talk about the physical/cosmological background, the simulation process and approach as well as some details about the hard- and software.

 

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This episode is a conversation with CERN’s Rolf Landua about the Large Hadron Collider. We start out by discussing the science and theory behind the LHC what the LHC aims to research, including the higgs boson, the standard model, super symmetry and extra dimensions. We then talked about how the LHC works (proton source, acceleration, superconducting magnets). We conclude the conversation by looking at the LHC experiments and discussing in some detail how the ATLAS detector works.

 

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This episode covers neutron science at the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble. Helmut Schober and Ulli Köster cover what neutron science is used for, some interesting scientific experiments conducted at ILL as well as the physical fundamentals and the workings of the reactor and the detectors. We conclude the epsiode with a discussion of the ILL as a “research service facility” that offers all-around research support to visiting scientists.

 

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This episode is a bit different. I produced it together with Joe D’Eon from the wonderful Fly With Me podcast. Together, we explored the question of how aerodynamic lift really works – in other words: why airplanes fly. He went out and asked a fellow pilot about what he thinks how lift works. I went to the University of Stuttgart’s Intitute for Aero- and Gasdynamics and talked with Thorsten Lutz. He explained the details of how it works. If his explanation still doesn’t do it for you, take a look at Wikipedia. They have a couple of nice illustrations.

 

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This episode covers my visit to the Max Plack Institut for Plasmaphysik where I spent a couple of hours with Matthias Reich talking about nuclear fusion. The episode has three parts. In part one we talk about the scienfic and physical basics of nuclear fusion. Part two covers some of the ways the MPI facilities work, and part three discusses the ASDEX Upgrade experiment at IPP in Garching.

 

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