Welcome to Quantum Magazine's podcast.

Each episode we bring you stories about developments in science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

Dwarf galaxies weren't supposed to have big black holes.

Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe's

biggest black holes could have formed. That's next.

Imagine you're in a lab where you've synthesized ancient DNA sequences and spliced them into modern bacteria

just to see how they'd react.

They needed each other, but they didn't want each other.

So, you know, it was like a very complicated relationship unfolding in front of me.

This isn't Jurassic Park or some sci-fi movie.

I'm Steve Strogetz, and this is The Joy of Why.

A new podcast from Quantum Magazine that takes you into some of the biggest unanswered mysteries

in science and math today. Join me on The Joy of Why as we explore these questions. We may not

have all the answers yet, but I'm pretty sure the curiosity to figure

them out is in our DNA. Subscribe to the Joy of Why wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes

drop every other Thursday. In 2008, Marta Voluntary helped develop a radical proposal.

Astronomers should search the smallest of galaxies for colossal black holes.

These are hulking behemoths, weighing many thousands of solar masses.

She reasoned that if they could find them, the objects could teach us how the universe's very

first black holes formed. The only problem was that big black holes weren't supposed to

exist in little galaxies. Shrimpy dwarf galaxies

...