What We Don't Know
What We Don't Know
Latest Episodes
Core of a neutron star
Neutron stars are one of the most extreme astronomical objects in the universe. They are so dense that a single teaspoon, if you were strong enough to collect it, would weigh 4 billion tons. They can spin as fast as 43,000 times per minute, and...
The fifth state of matter: Bose-Einstein condensates
Very early in our school career, we learn about the states of matter. This table is hard wood - it's solid. This water flows, we can drink it - it’s a liquid. And the air around us, even though we cannot see it, is a gas. But these three states...
The Cambrian explosion
We often use the phrase ‘it’s the end of an era’ to signify some great change in our lives, like leaving school forever. But actual eras are far, far longer than our brains can comprehend, usually lasting several hundred million years, with dra...
Black hole information paradox (part two)
When particles escape from a black hole via Hawking radiation, they only contain information on the mass, spin and charge of the black hole’s original material. Other information, that is needed to reconstruct the black hole’s past, seems to be...
Black hole information paradox (part one)
Different areas of physics seem to be incompatible inside black holes. When combining general relativity, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, you get a paradox, which suggests that our knowledge of these areas is flawed. A solution, whatever ...
