Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [August 4, 2023]

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: What would a bio-computer look like?​ - ​Interesting to think whether John Conway's Life is a kind of life. Can you grow life from a computer program?​ - ​Why are there different colors of flowers but not trees?​ - What causes a four-leaf clover? Why are they so rare?​ - ​The mantis shrimp has 12 types of cone cells in its eyes. Do you have any intuition what space all these colors occupy in the brain of this animal? Is it something 11-dimensional?​ - There has been a lot of cool research in regards to photosynthesis recently. Anything to say about that?​ - ​What's the difference between "species" and "variety"? How do you know if something is the main species or its variety?​ - Could it be possible to disable some kind of cone cell (maybe with a paralysis drug) in our eye and thus lead someone to perceive some super-color, i.e. something that activates the other two types of cone cells while not activating the other type, in a way that is not normally physically possible?

Om Podcasten

Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions and innovations in science, technology and business. On his podcast, Stephen discusses topics ranging from the history of science to the future of civilization and ethics of AI.