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Endless Thread

Nerd Fight

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.22.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The halls of science, known for prim propriety and careful debate, are feuding. A new theory of gravity challenges Einstein's general relativity, our current understanding of that thing that keeps our feet on the ground. Physicists are upset.

"Cotton gravity"—named in honor of mathematician Émile Cotton, not fluffy flora—was first posited by Japanese researcher Junpei Harada in 2021. The idea, which modifies general relativity and discounts the theory of dark matter, spurred a surprisingly catty argument on arXiv.org, an open-access website for scientific preprints.

Things got nerdy. And hilarious. Endless Thread explains.

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Credits: This episode was written and produced by Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. The hosts are Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Funding for this podcast comes from Math Works, creators of Mat Lab and Simulink software,

0:06.0

accelerating the pace of engineering and science. Learn more at Math Works.

0:11.0

This episode is brought to you by Krakan.

0:14.4

Cripo is like the financial system but different. It doesn't care where you come

0:19.9

from, what you look like, your credit score, or your outrageous food delivery habits.

0:25.0

crypto is financed for everyone, everywhere, all the time.

0:29.0

Visit Kraken.com slash see what crypto can be. To learn more, don't invest unless you're prepared to lose

0:36.4

all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected

0:40.4

if something goes wrong. Hey y'all, it's Ben Brock Johnson.

0:45.0

And Amore Severtson.

0:47.0

And you've probably heard a say about a gagillion, trans, million, fagillion times that... trans million

0:52.8

fagillion times that our show Endless Thread is produced at W-B-U-R-E-R-In-B-R in Boston.

1:01.2

We are public media. Yeah, we don't have paywalls for our work. We don't say

1:06.1

insert credit card get great stories. No Bitcoin wallets. No Bitcoin wallets. No Bitcoin

1:10.8

wallets. No, we say here is a great story for free and then if you value it if you believe in what we're doing if you find yourself thinking about the stories that we tell talking about it with your friends and family, and maybe even seeing the world

1:25.6

a little differently because of it, then we ask you to support it.

1:30.0

And we really want to let you know what is happening at W-B-U-R right now.

1:34.0

Our radio shows, our podcasts are getting some of the biggest audiences we have ever had at W-B-U-R.

1:40.6

Our journalism is winning awards. We are reaching new and more diverse audiences and endless thread is a huge part of that piece of it.

1:48.0

You know, our work has never been stronger, but the business we are in has never been harder. We have had a big loss of

1:56.6

sponsorship dollars at WBUR like a lot of media companies have in recent years.

2:01.8

Yeah but the one thing we've been pretty dang good at is getting support from our listeners

...

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