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We are born of supernovas – our spectacular and totally ordinary origin story
You might have heard that we are made of ‘star stuff’, but what exactly does that mean? In this collaboration between The Atlantic and the podcast TRBQ (The Really Big Questions), the NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller explains how every atom in the human body – and, indeed, every object in the Universe that is composed of anything more complex than hydrogen and helium atoms – can be traced back to the life cycle of a star.
Producer: Flora Lichtman, Katherine Wells
Websites: Soundvision Productions, TRBQ
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Biology
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Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Why large language models are mysterious – even to their creators
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Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
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Biology
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
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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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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
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Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
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