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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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Ethics
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
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Animals and humans
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Virtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
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Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
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Film and visual culture
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Bioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
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