Diving straight into the deep end of the universe: supermassive black holes!

An episode with enough gravitational pull that you can’t help but get sucked in.

Host Dr. Jeffrey Zurek welcomes Dr. James Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History and City University of New York, to explore the strange physics and luminous surroundings of the darkest objects in the cosmos.

At the center of the conversation is Dr. Chan’s recent paper in The Astrophysical Journal:

“Reverberation Mapping of Lamp-post and Wind Structures in Accretion Thin Disk.”

Together, they discuss how light echoes and flickers around black holes can reveal their inner geometry — from the “lamp-post” models of X-ray emission to the chaotic winds that shape accretion disks. It’s a look into how we can study what can’t be seen, using timing, modeling, and a dash of cosmic detective work.

Paper at the center of the episode: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.15669

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I scream you scream we all scream for Ice cream.

Time for some sweet delicious science delivered right here on whimsical wavelengths. Food science! Love the breath we get to explore here. This discussion is going to investigate some of the science that goes into perfecting and understanding the greatest frozen dessert that comes in so many different flavours. Yes, ice cream!

Ice cream like other materials, like magma, melt, freeze and deform in complex ways depending on structures within the material. In past episodes I have talked about eruption dynamics and how the viscosity or resistance to flow changes eruption style. Well viscosity or more broadly Rheology (how a substance flows under a force over time) is important here too!

The crossover between scientific disciplines is real! So be ready to chill here on Whimsical Wavelengths as we scoop into the coolest science around! This week's guest is no soft serve when it comes to sweet science— So grab your spoons and prepare for the brain freeze.

Today's guest studied how fat networks within dairy foods like ice cream can alter sensorial and rheological properties. Today she applies that science background as an industry consultant and science communicator. Dr. Abigail Thiel!

Here is Dr. Abigail Thiel's

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@AbbeytheFoodScientist

Blog:https://abbeythefoodscientist.com/

Also she has a kids Colouring book out!

Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FGJWXGHD?ref_=litb_stb_nodl

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGJWXGHD

Its the start of Season 2!! Time for Basaltic plinian eruptions, melt inclusions, viscosity and more. Today we going to head into one of my papers!

Because it’s one of my papers that means heading back to volcanology. Like other historical scientists covered here on Whimsical wavelengths I will follow where the data is pointing. Follow the path.

When I was planning my PhD, yes I was in the envious position of basically picking my projects, I knew I wanted to do more at Masaya Volcano. Masaya is however complicated. It is a unique volcano in many ways.

Here I'll focus on two things:

1. Masaya is persistently active. It has been in a perpetual state of unrest for 100’s of years. The last eruption of any significant amount was 1772 where it produced a lava flow from the central cone. Since that time there have been degassing, occasional lava lakes, and small vent clearing explosions. There is not many volcanoes on earth able to claim constant activity for 100’s of years.
2. It can have basaltic Plinian eruptions……

Basaltic plinian eruptions. For those who know a bit about volcanoes this may seem like an oxymoron.

Join the pod to find out all this apparent oxymoron!

Paper at the center of the episode:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027318303470

example Basaltic plinian eruptions at Masaya (there are lots but here is one):

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00585-5#:~:text=Las%20Sierras%2DMasaya%20volcanic%20system,%2DTIL)13%2C20.

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