Topic

Science Policy

How scientific knowledge informs public policy decisions.

Topics5 episodesEpisodes
Episodes5
  1. EP 57

    What’s Next in Science? Nobel Prizes, Space Missions & More

    Nobel season, the value of basic research, and the space missions to watch: Roman, Mars’ moons and Mercury. Plus a tour of FFP’s favorite episodes.

    What’s Next in Science? Nobel Prizes, Space Missions & More
  2. EP 53

    What Claude Actually Did to the Riemann Hypothesis

    Claude takes a real run at the Riemann Hypothesis, forcing us to ask what agentic AI can now do in mathematics, before we open the summer transfer window for America’s scientists.

    What Claude Actually Did to the Riemann Hypothesis
  3. EP 50

    AI Breaks a 90-Year Math Problem, Life’s Alphabet in Space, and Science Funding

    Asteroid samples reveal life’s molecular alphabet, Washington battles over who controls science funding, and AI produces a counterexample to a 90-year-old mathematics conjecture.

    AI Breaks a 90-Year Math Problem, Life’s Alphabet in Space, and Science Funding
  4. EP 41

    Dr. John Mulchaey on Carnegie Science and the Future of Astronomy

    A wide-ranging interview with Carnegie Science President John Mulchaey on dark matter, giant telescopes, exoplanets, science funding, and why eclipses still matter.

    Dr. John Mulchaey on Carnegie Science and the Future of Astronomy
  5. EP 12

    From Princeton to the Nobel Prizes — How FFP Started + 2025 Nobel Recap

    Nobel recap, FFP origin story, and a science-policy reality check.

    From Princeton to the Nobel Prizes — How FFP Started + 2025 Nobel Recap
Chapters from these episodes24
  1. EP 53 · 1:49Has AI reached a mathematical singularity?
  2. EP 53 · 10:28Euler and the Basel problem
  3. EP 53 · 15:50How Euler connected the zeta function to primes
  4. EP 53 · 22:05Gauss and the distribution of prime numbers
  5. EP 53 · 25:55Riemann takes the zeta function into the complex plane
  6. EP 53 · 30:26Analytic continuation
  7. EP 53 · 33:15Why 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + … = -1/12
  8. EP 53 · 38:34What is the Riemann Hypothesis?
  9. EP 53 · 41:55Why the non-trivial zeros matter
  10. EP 53 · 47:28A century of progress toward the critical line
  11. EP 53 · 55:10Montgomery, Dyson, and the physics connection
  12. EP 53 · 59:02Claude builds a 60-agent research lab
Show 12 more chapters
  1. EP 53 · 1:03:44650 approaches and the E2 breakthrough
  2. EP 53 · 1:07:20Claude creates hostile referees
  3. EP 53 · 1:09:04Pushing toward two-thirds
  4. EP 53 · 1:13:49Can the proof be machine-verified?
  5. EP 53 · 1:16:16What this actually tells us about AI
  6. EP 53 · 1:25:24The Summer Transfer Window for Scientists
  7. EP 53 · 1:28:52Omar Yaghi: Berkeley → Tsinghua
  8. EP 53 · 1:33:53Shirley Meng: Chicago → Singapore
  9. EP 53 · 1:37:31John Baker: NASA → France
  10. EP 53 · 1:39:59A neuroscience package deal to Birmingham
  11. EP 41 · 5:32Using X-ray gas to measure mass
  12. EP 41 · 9:41Carnegie’s unusual model for scientific freedom