The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss What's New in Science With Sabine and Lawrence | Ghost Murmers, New Wires, Cosmic Questions, And AI cures?
28 snips
Apr 24, 2026 
Sabine Hossenfelder, theoretical physicist and clear explainer of quantum and cosmology, joins Lawrence to tackle bold science headlines. They debunk sensational quantum magnetometry claims, unpack real quantum imaging, and weigh a new high-thermal-conductivity metal that could ease AI heat woes. They also debate novel Big Bang ideas, a tabletop gravitational-wave proposal, and a striking case of AI-driven personalized cancer treatment.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Solve Heat By Changing Materials Not Adding Cooling Machines
- Prioritize materials engineering over bulky cooling systems to scale computing density.
- Sabine notes stacking transistors fails due to heat; a better heat-conducting material avoids complex fluid or laser cooling add-ons.
Quadratic Gravity Offers A Minimal Inflationary Route
- Quadratic gravity can be renormalizable and serve as a high-energy completion of gravity that yields inflation.
- Sabine describes a minimal model where low-energy Einstein gravity transitions to quadratic gravity at high energies, producing inflation and graceful exit with tunable assumptions.
Quantum Gravity Models Can Fit Inflation Yet Remain Tuned
- Calculable quantum-gravity models can reproduce inflation but require assumptions and tuning to match observations.
- Lawrence Krauss notes such models (e.g., Starobinsky-like) can predict gravitational waves yet may be engineered to fit data rather than derived uniquely.