Bridge the Gap

On exoplanets and star-quakes

How can we detect exoplanets, i.e. planets orbiting other stars, potentially a few tens of lightyears away from Earth? What can we learn about their host stars from the w

How do clouds affect climate?

What is the effect of clouds on the global and local climate on Earth? How much of the solar radiation can they reflect back to space? How much of the surface heat can th

Enzymes

What is a catalyst? And what is an enzyme instead? It turns out catalysts are fundamental in speeding up chemical reactions that would otherwise occur in a very, very lon

The Physics of Pasta Cacio e Pepe

Who says phase transitions are only diagrams and critical lines? What if they could be understood through something as simple as making a smooth, cheesy sauce? In this ep

How fast is ultrafast spectroscopy?

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle prevents us from pinpointing an electron in real time with arbitrary accuracy. What this means is that if we were to shine light on a

Neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are disorders characterised by a gradual, yet steady, loss or death of neurons, the brain cells, a condition that eventually leads to decline i

Do metals and polymers get along well?

Johanna Byloff is a PhD candidate at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. In this episode, she will talk about experimental techniques to stick together metals and polymers to

Solar physics

How does a star like our Sun actually work? What fuels this giant ball of gas—and how does it change over time? And where do the elements of the periodic table really com

Biophysics

What is biophysics? What does it study, and why is it so difficult to apply physics to predict the behavior of living organisms? Professor Douwe Bonthuis from Graz Univer

Plasma physics

What if we told you there is a fourth state of matter all around us—one that powers neon signs, lights up the aurora and fuels fusion reactors? Christopher Albert, from G

Space and satellite communication

Have you ever heard about Guglielmo Marconi? Ever wondered how we can communicate with satellites in orbit around Earth efficiently? And also, how many satellites are "up

Laser spectroscopy

What is matter made of? If we could zoom in to unimaginably small scales, we’d see atoms and gases teeming with electrons in constant motion. Laser spectroscopy is one of

Philosophy and Physics - Part 2

What does one mean by philosophy of physics? How can philosophy help us understand the physical world? In particular, when it comes to quantum mechanics, human intuition

Philosophy and Physics - Part 1

What does one mean by philosophy of physics? How can philosophy help us understand the physical world?In particular, when it comes to quantum mechanics, human intuition s

Pigments colors and other shades of physics

If sunlight is often described as "white," why do we see so many colors? How are colors connected to the wavelengths of light? And what exactly is a wavelength? Anna Gall

Paper...

What do you know about paper? It is a very common "object" in our everyday experience and still there is so much to discover about it! Karin Zojer, Professor at Graz Univ

Superconductivity

What if we could "kick" one electron now and have a current going on forever? Christoph Heil, Professor at Graz University of Technology, tells us that when things get re

Many-body physics

"More is different". The famous quote from P. Anderson. What did he mean by that? Why is interaction between particles so interesting and difficult to describe? We contin

Quantum physics

Have you ever heard about the Schroedinger cat? And what about particles that move like waves? Quantum mechanics is full of wonders but provides answers that often chall

Bridge the Gap - Trailer

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