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From First Principles

Krishna Choudhary and Lester Nare

From First Principles is a fast, funny, and rigorous breakdown of the biggest science stories of the week, hosted by Lester Nare and physicist Krishna Choudhary, PhD. We go past headlines into the actual mechanics: what happened, why it matters, and what everyone’s missing.

Expect physics, space, AI, energy, biotech, and the occasional “wait… is that real?” story. If you’re curious, skeptical, and you like learning in public — you’re in the right place.

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Episodes

65 episodes

  1. What Happens When AI Gets a Lab? 1:39:00
  2. Nobel Prize 2026: The Science Gets Stranger 1:59:14
  3. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 Explained: Mirror Molecules (EP 63) 1:20:38
  4. Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 Explained: IceCube & Neutrinos (EP 62) 1:02:18
  5. Nobel Prize in Medicine 2026 Explained: Optogenetics (EP 61) 1:11:23
  6. 2026 Nobel Prize Predictions: Medicine, Physics & Chemistry (EP 60) 40:32
  7. Golden Goose Awards 2026: The Science Behind the Winners (Part 1) (EP 59) 2:07:23
  8. What OpenAI Actually Did to Navier-Stokes (EP 58) 4:09:02
  9. What’s Next in Science? Nobel Prizes, Space Missions & More (EP 57) 1:03:30
  10. The Yak Mutation That Could Help Repair the Brain (EP 56) 1:35:38
  11. Why Spin Qubits Will Win the Quantum Race (Part 2) (EP 55) 3:46:21
  12. How Quantum Computing Actually Works (Part 1) (EP 54) 2:11:11
  13. What Claude Actually Did to the Riemann Hypothesis (EP 53) 1:47:25
  14. The Amazon’s Hidden Civilization (One Year Anniversary) (EP 52) 1:47:13
  15. The Tech Elon Has Been Waiting For (EP 51) 1:44:28
  16. AI Breaks a 90-Year Math Problem, Life’s Alphabet in Space, and Science Funding (EP 50) 1:52:35
  17. FIFA Data Scientists Explain Match Momentum (EP 49) 39:45
  18. Black Hole Movies, Digital Heart Twins, and World Cup Tech (EP 48) 1:48:25
  19. America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 2 (EP 47) 2:21:16
  20. America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1 (EP 46) 1:50:16
  21. The Physics of the World Cup: VAR, Smart Balls, and Soccer Aerodynamics (EP 45) 59:44
  22. New Rules For Heredity (Non-Mendelian Inheritance of Epigenetics) (EP 44) 1:37:35
  23. Dr. Michael Blanton on Open Data, Galaxy Surveys, and the Future of Astronomy (EP 43) 43:27
  24. How Scientists Actually Study Dark Matter (EP 42) 1:06:34
  25. Dr. John Mulchaey on Carnegie Science and the Future of Astronomy (EP 41) 37:10
  26. Ant Scans, Lunar Chickpeas, Hidden Galaxies & Superconductivity (EP 40) 36:54
  27. The Prometheus Constellation: Dramaturgical and Scientific Analysis of the Physicists in Oppenheimer (EP 39) 1:37:14
  28. Harder Than Diamond? The New Hexagonal Diamond Breakthrough (EP 38) 57:59
  29. Artemis II: Deep Dive on the Moon Flyby, Earthset, and Reentry (EP 37) 1:25:52
  30. Artemis II, Claude Code Leak, iPhone Spyware & Project Hail Mary (EP 36) 1:01:15
  31. Can AI Help Wake Coma Patients? The Science of Consciousness (EP 35) 1:08:53
  32. AI Cancer Vaccines, Strange Fish, Ketamine, and Ancient Life (EP. 34) 44:58
  33. Can Human Neurons Really Play Doom? The Science Behind Wetware (EP. 33) 1:13:03
  34. 5,000-Year-Old Bacteria, Solar Storms, Dogs, and Meta’s AI War (EP. 32) 38:55
  35. Optovolution: Teaching Proteins to Think Like Computers (EP. 31) 55:32
  36. Can We Stop an Asteroid? The Physics Behind NASA’s DART Mission (EP. 30) 54:29
  37. Astrobiology’s Biggest Survival Test + A Vaccine Against Everything? (EP. 29) 2:04:23
  38. Dark Galaxies, Fuzzy Dark Matter, and an Alzheimer’s Breakthrough (EP. 28) 1:51:32
  39. Dream Engineering, the Proton Radius Puzzle, and an ALS Breakthrough (EP. 27) 2:12:27
  40. Winter Olympics Deep Dive: Ice Physics, Performance Pressure, and Climate Change (EP. 26) 1:50:00
  41. Plants, Quantum Sensors, and Predicting Cancer Evolution (EP. 25) 1:49:03
  42. Artemis II, Apollo, and the Physics of Going Back to the Moon (EP. 24) 1:09:55
  43. JWST’s “Little Red Dots,” TimeVaults, and the Dawn of Math (EP. 23) 1:40:50
  44. Cloud9 Dark Matter Halo, Jellyfish Sleep, and String Theory Hidden in Nature (EP. 22) 1:39:54
  45. Roman Concrete, Brain “Cognitive Legos,” DeepSeek, and Econophysics (EP. 21) 1:58:42
  46. The Physics Behind Fusion’s Biggest Problem (Season Finale) (EP. 20) 1:17:33
  47. The Race to the Double Helix — Watson, Crick, Franklin & the Real Story of DNA (EP. 19) 1:34:13
  48. 3I/ATLAS Explained, Forensic Fingerprints & Alzheimer’s Breakthrough (EP. 18) 1:27:30
  49. Hypersonic Physics, Deep Sea Life & Princeton’s Millisecond Qubits (EP. 17) 1:33:00
  50. Octopus Camouflage, Orcas vs. Sharks, Civet Coffee & Sub-Diffraction Telescope Tech (EP. 16) 1:17:35