We’re experimenting with a new audio series called Condensed Matters, where experts give us their short explanations of complex scientific ideas. We pull each ‘episode’ from the amazing conversations we’re having with scientists, engineers, mathematicians and doctors. The idea is to condense big ideas into their most essential form. Although there is inherent tension in increasing understanding at the expense of complexity, we think the best people to do that are experts like the three scientists below.

First up, we explore the standard model, dark matter and consciousness.

Dark Matter

Check out this quick take on dark matter and the standard model by Neal Weiner, a physicist at New York University.

We reached out to him after Janna Levin chatted with us at Pioneer Works on the mysteries of what, exactly, makes up our universe.

Try This Next

• Join Massive: Stay up-to-date and get involved in the hunt for dark matter.
• Read: Dark Matter makes up a quarter of our universe, but we still have no idea what it is.
• Experiment: Help researchers find black holes with Galaxy Zoo Radio.

Consciousness

We sat down with Elizaveta Solomonova after her fascinating talk at the Rubin Museum on lucid dreaming and asked her to summarize her thoughts on consciousness as a spectrum. Elizaveta is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Montreal in Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy. Her work is focused on interdisciplinary research of consciousness and experience across wake-sleep states.

Love That? Try This

• Join Massive: Get involved in the quest to understand consciousness.
• Watch: What Sleep Can Teach Us About Consciousness
• Experiment: Learn to detect and manipulate neurons with this kit from Backyard Brains

Stay Tuned

We’re experimenting more generally at Massive with new media formats, series and modes of science communication. One of our priorities is providing access to science and scientific thinking in different ways, and playing with audio, video and text formats allows us to explain and investigate scientific ideas and test whether or not you, our audience, will like those formats and learn from them.

With Condensed Matters we hope to create a large archive of scientific thought in short form. Eventually we will bring animators, illustrators and composers on board as collaborators in visualizing and elevating some of these audio recordings.

Follow us on Soundcloud to get updates as we bring you more Condensed Matters.