Listen Now

Things have been busy lately! JWST has launched and is making its way to L2 and I successfully presented and defended my qualifying exam to become a PhD candidate officially! Also, new records have been set in terms of amount of extractable energy from a fusion reaction. Let's talk about the materials and materials science need to achieve this goal. Image of the ITER fusion reactor in Europe from Nature. NASA's official JWST website! JWST launch delays New fusion reactor record from LLNL Check out the show's website!  Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter  Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!  Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! Or suggest a topic, like this one! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Let's face it, Hubble won't be around forever. There needs to be another space observatory launched soon so that it can replace Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may be just the candidate. As it will mostly operate in the infrared region of light, JWST is set to look at extremely old objects and light from potentially the first stars and galaxies to form. Getting closer to the Big Bang and learning about the very early days may soon be in our grasp. Let's talk about JWST, where it's going to be, what it's going to look for, and how it will collect the data. Image of the JWST gold-coated beryllium mirror from NASA. NASA's official JWST website! Check out the show's website!  Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter  Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!  Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! Or suggest a topic, like this one! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

The New York Yankees mission statement every year. And that is to win the World Series. But to do that, you have to make the playoffs. It wasn't looking good back in July. But let's talk about what happened and how the Yankees clinched that second wild card spot. Plus. let's talk about the Wild Card game against Boston and what the Yankees could do to improve the team for next season. Image from Getty Images. Check out the show's website!  Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter  Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!  Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Are you a civilian? Would you like a chance to go to space? That might just be a reality for you in the not too distant future. The Inspiration 4 mission just completed and it was crewed by all civilians. The first all-civilian orbital spaceflight! No governmentally trained astronauts on this SpaceX spacecraft. Plus, this mission is really doing a great job fundraising for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee. Let's talk about the entire mission from the crew, to the spacecraft, to the science, to the cause they are raising money for. Image of the Inspiration 4 flight path from the US Space Force. Donate to St. Jude! Inspiration 4 mission website First sports bets placed from space Check out the show's website!  Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter  Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!  Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Are you concerned about contamination in your drinking water? I think everyone feels that their water should be clean and free of pollutants. One of the common pollutants is a class of compounds that simply do not break down. These are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS compounds. Let's talk about PFAS compounds. Specifically, what they are, why are they trouble, and what is being done to address the contamination. Image of some PFAS contaminated sites from Northeastern University. Basic information and drinking water advisories from the EPA How to remove PFAS from drinking water PFAS in food containers and FDA's warning to manufacturers Maine bans PFAS Current US legislation addressing PFAS contamination  European countries to ban PFAS Check out the show's website!  Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter  Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!  Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode!  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report this month outlining how bad climate change is, how bad it will be, and what will happen if we don't make drastic changes in the way we address the crisis. But that doesn't mean we will not be able to come up with clever solutions to help prevent some of the most extreme and dire consequences of climate change. Let's talk about the what the IPCC report states and one potential solution we could utilize, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and carbon capture. Plus a brief update on the FDA fully approving the Pfizer vaccine for those 16 and older. Image from NOAA. FDA full approval of Pfizer vaccine Worldwide COVID vaccination rates IPCC report on human-caused climate change. NASA study on rainforests losing ability to absorb carbon. Review of carbon capture technologies Metal organic framework (MOF) under development at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Check out the show's website!  Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter  Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!  Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

We have sent so many rovers, landers, and orbiters to Mars over the past few decades, including the Perseverance rover. So surely we know just about everything we need to know about the red planet, right? Absolutely not! We don't even really know what underneath the surface of the crust or how Mars evolved to the point it's at now. It's thought that Mars once had conditions that were beneficial to life, instead of being the desolate wasteland it is today. Luckily, the InSight Mars lander is firmly planted on the surface finding out some critical information that can help scientists learn more about Mars and its evolution. Three new papers, just recently published in Science, shed some light on the composition of the interior of Mars. Let's talk about these pretty interesting results! Image from the journal Science. NASA's announcement of InSight's findings. Summary of the journal articles published in Science. InSight dumping sand and dirt on itself to clean its solar panels! Why the mole couldn't dig itself underground, among other common questions. Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Is the planet's most famous and arguably most successful telescope on the brink of total failure? Luckily, no. The Hubble Space Telescope is still working just fine and producing all kinds of stunning images and valuable data. But the latest problem with the telescope over the past month was not the first problem that Hubble has worked through to become one of the most successful missions NASA has ever launched. Let's talk about Hubble, some of the problems it has overcome, and just a small selection of some of the most important discoveries it has made. Image of the Hubble Space Telescope as seen from the Discovery space shuttle during the second servicing mission from NASA. Timeline of NASA solving the latest computer problem that causes Hubble to be inoperable for about a month. Mission details of Servicing Mission 1 in order to fix the mirror that was manufactured incorrectly. Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

It's been tough to be a Yankees fan in 2021. The team was billed as being reloaded for another run at the World Series as recent failures against the Astros and Rays occurred. But things seem to not be going according to plan. Is it the hitting, the defense, the pitching, the manager, or the front office? Let's talk about these aspects and see why it might be a struggle for the Yankees to make the playoffs. Image from the New York Post. Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Why is carbon such an interesting element? It can take so many forms such as diamonds, coal, graphite, carbon black, carbon nanotubes, and buckyballs, just to name a few. But today, let's talk about graphene and why it could lead a revolution into the next technological age. Plus, let's discuss some interesting new research into graphene's superconducting properties and how it can be produced cheaply and efficiently using an ingenious new method. And all this falls under the umbrella of materials science so we have to understand where society has come from so we can understand how we move forward in terms of understanding and studying materials. Image of the structure of graphene from Caltech. Flash joule heating of carbon sources to synthesize graphene published in Nature Superconductivity of graphene from Quanta Magazine Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Do you enjoy visiting your nearest neighbors? For us, we haven't since 1994. That seems like a long time. So NASA has decided to change that by selecting 2 standalone Venus missions for development. DAVINCI+ and VERITAS have been chosen from NASA's Discovery Program and will be sent to Venus to study its atmosphere and surface features. Venus really is Earth's sister planet and it's similar yet so vastly different in so many ways. Let's talk about why Venus is such and interesting place to study and why it should not have taken this long to get some missions to focus on the planet. Plus, let's talk about the other 2 missions that were not selected that would have focused on 2 very interesting moons in our solar system, Jupiter's moon Io and Neptune's moon Triton. Image of Venus from NASA's Parker Solar Probe as it flew by Venus. DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions selected by NASA Io and Triton missions not selected Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Happy birthday to the show! Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to listen to this show. I truly appreciate all of you! It's been about a year since the show was launched so why not take a look back at what we have talked about over the past year. It's been quite an exciting year across space, sports, spectroscopy, and chemistry so let's recap what we have talked about. And I can't leave you without any new research! Let's talk about the discovery of some fairly complex organic molecules in a cold, dark interstellar dust cloud. Image from NASA. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) discovered in an interstellar dust cloud Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

The NFL Draft is a time when teams can fill the needs that become apparent during the season. It's also a time where teams like the Jets get their next franchise player and hope that he leads them to a Superbowl. And that means the Zach Wilson era has officially begun for the Jets! Let's talk about the other surprises, trades, and players taken during the draft too because there were some massive moves being made. Image from Sports Illustrated. Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

History has been made! The first controlled, powered flight on another planet! And this was all done by the Ingenuity helicopter that hitched a ride on the Perseverance rover. A real Wright Brothers moment! Let's talk about what Ingenuity is attempting to demonstrate flying in the thin atmosphere on Mars and how it's accomplishing this. Also, let's talk about that historic first flight. Image of Ingenuity's shadow on the surface of Mars taken by Ingenuity during its historic first flight from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ingenuity helicopter Check out the show's website! Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Do you watch courtroom dramas on TV? Have you tried one of those family genealogy tests? Have you ever been tested for COVID? If you answered yes to at least one of these, then you have been exposed to a PCR test. This is used to test for DNA or RNA in a sample acquired from the field. Whether that's a person or an environmental site. But how does it work and what are some of the common variations of the PCR test that are utilized today? Let's break it down so you know what happening after that swab is removed from your nose. Image from Time Magazine. Digital PCR (dPCR) characteristics and its major differences from qPCR and conventional PCR Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Chemistry is one of those subjects where getting your hands dirty and doing the research with the necessary chemicals and materials in the lab drives some of the biggest advances. And when you get in there, sometimes you find some unexpected. Something that can change commonly taught concepts, something that hasn't been seen before, or something that could change how we impact our environment. Even something new about one of the basic building blocks of all matter. Check out all of this interesting chemistry that can be very impactful and prepare to learn something new! Image of the einsteinium complex from Nature. Hydrogen bond to covalent bond transition Switchable cobalt catalyst Closed-loop recycling of plastic monomer Anode-free zinc ion battery First ever measurements of einsteinium Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Throughout history, women have contributed significantly in every facet of life. And STEM fields are no different. On this episode, let's talk about some very important women, past and present, that have impacted space science as well as chemistry. Highlighting these women will, hopefully, inspire the next generation of girls to pursue careers in STEM fields. Having diverse and inclusive thoughts and discussions will only give us better solutions to the problems we face. Image from youthareawesome.com. Diana Trujillo's story from cleaning lady to Perseverance Flight Director Frances Arnold and directed evolution President Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and their goals Jennifer Doudna and CRISPR-Cas9 Paula Hammond's career Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

Will your favorite team have the same starting quarterback next season? Now that the Superbowl is over, this triggers the offseason for the NFL. And it seems like there was a memo going around requiring teams to change their starting quarterbacks. Lots of player movement had already taken place and a lot more seems to be in the works. MLB has been in offseason mode since the World Series ended but huge trades of their own took place around the same time as all of these NFL trades. Let's talk about some of the huge trades that have happened or will likely happen across the NFL and MLB. Plus, let's talk about some of the rule changes that MLB will be implementing during the 2021 season. Image from USA Today. The show has a new website! Check it out: sp3podcast.wordpress.com Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

We did it! Absolutely incredible and awe inspiring! Teams around the world have successfully guided three completely different probes to Mars and they all arrived within the last week and a half. Hope from the United Arab Emirates, Tianwen-1 from China, and Perseverance from NASA are all set to begin their missions learning more about the Red Planet. Let's talk about what each probe/orbiter/rover will accomplish during their missions, including the Ingenuity helicopter. And let's not forget the seven minutes of terror that Perseverance endured to reach the surface safely. Also, let's talk about new chlorine chemistry discovered in the atmosphere of Mars and an update on the phosphine that may have been discovered in the atmosphere of Venus. Image of Mars from Hope just after reaching orbit. Update on phosphine discovery in the atmosphere of Venus Chlorine chemistry discovered in the atmosphere of Mars Hope mission details Tianwen-1 mission details Perseverance mission details and the entry, descent, and landing process done during the seven minutes of terror Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support

This pandemic is still ongoing, but that doesn't mean we should sit on our laurels with the two vaccines that are approved. We need more safe and effective vaccines so that more people can get vaccinated quicker. Luckily we are getting closer to more vaccines being approved. But they utilize different technologies to reach the same endpoint. So let's talk about 3 new vaccines that are awaiting approval in the US. Who is making them? How do they work? And how effective are they at preventing you from getting sick with COVID? AstraZeneca clinical trials results Johnson and Johnson clinical trial results Novavax clinical trials results How different types of COVID vaccines work from the CDC and more information on viral vector vaccines Israel study showing higher efficiencies and South Africa suspending AstraZeneca vaccine distribution Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram or Twitter Want to get in touch with the show? Please email SP3Podcast@gmail.com for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions! Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sp3-space-sports-spectro/support