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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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Computing and artificial intelligence
The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?
12 minutes
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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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Evolution
How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution
60 minutes
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Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
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Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
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Biology
A spectacular, close-up look at the starfish with a ‘hands-on’ approach to parenting
5 minutes
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Technology and the self
A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg
11 minutes
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Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes