History of Science & Technology Q&A (May 22, 2024)

The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Questions include: How are new words adopted into language? Can anyone invent a new word, or are there certain processes? ​​ - Who discovered the dinosaurs? How has technology assisted with research?​​ - ​​Which ecosystem could accommodate woolly elephants?​​ - ​​Isn't it so strange that every kid has a passion for dinosaurs?​​ - A subset of dinosaurs evolved into birds.​​ - Aren't bees considered too fat to fly?​​ - How has our understanding of the asteroid impact theory evolved since its introduction in the 1980s?​​ - ​​If it were technically possible, would submarines be more efficient if they copied fish or aquatic mammals?​​ - In your background, I see minerals or corals. Do you like petrology?​​ - In popular culture, dinosaurs are often portrayed as solitary and aggressive creatures, akin to fierce monsters. However, scientific research suggests that many dinosaurs may have had complex social behaviors and interpersonal relationships. Could you share an example of a dinosaur whose social behavior has been discovered or hypothesized based on fossil evidence? How do these discoveries influence our perception of dinosaurs, and how they are portrayed in the media?​​ - What came first, the dinosaur or the egg?​​ - How much computational irreducibility exists in DNA engineering?​​ - ​​Do you know what the first written description of human handedness was? There are some depictions and artifacts, but when did we realize "some people are like this"? - ​Did Isaac Newton get the idea for the inverse square law of gravity from reading a book by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli?​​ - Are there good simulations of warm periods of the Earth?​​ - What would be the physics on Earth with such huge creatures like the dinosaurs? To grow that big, they would have to either have a lot of food or the gravity must have been weirder. - ​​Yeah, there's not enough logged data for that to be predicted accurately, IMO. When did they start keeping track of the average temperature, the ~1920s?​​ - ​​During the time of the dinosaurs, atmospheric oxygen levels were significantly higher, which contributed to the existence of very large insects.​​ - When a space shuttle reenters Earth's atmosphere, does it affect our protection from solar and cosmic radiation? Could this piercing of Earth's barrier impact the stability of the magnetosphere? Is it like a wound that closes gradually or immediately?​​