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Coffee might seem like a simple pleasure, but it’s taken centuries of scientific theory and experimentation to begin to understand the physical mysteries contained in a single cup – and scientists are still working out the details. A collaboration between the French filmmaker Charlotte Arene and the University of Paris-Sud’s Laboratory of Solid State Physics, Physics and Caffeine explores how the best models for understanding the physical world – from electromagnetism to special relativity to quantum mechanics – converge in every cup of coffee.
Director: Charlotte Arene
Website: Physics Reimagined
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Biology
Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings
3 minutes
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Genetics
Why it took a century to work out that humans interbred with Neanderthals
22 minutes
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Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
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Evolution
How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution
60 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
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Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
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Bioethics
Is it ethical to have a second child so that your first might live?
10 minutes
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Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes