Ludwig Boltzmann: Entropy, Atoms, and Mental Health
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
Release Date: 09/30/2025
FLASHCARDS! The Hidden Physics of Shoveling Snow
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
If you enjoy the hidden science behind everyday life, leave a review, subscribe to the podcast and share this episode with someone who is shoveling snow this winter. Shoveling snow looks simple, but it is one of the most punishing everyday tasks your body can perform. In this Flashcard Friday episode, we explore the physics hiding in plain sight every winter, from why lifting snow feels brutal to why wet snow seems impossibly heavy and why shovel design matters more than most people realize. This is not about grit or toughness. It is about gravity, force vectors, density, and torque, all...
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REPOST! Laura Bassi, the First Female Physics Professor
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
Before Isaac Newton’s ideas reshaped Europe, his work struggled to gain traction in Italy. This episode revisits the remarkable life of Laura Bassi, the first woman in history to hold an academic chair, and the physicist who championed Newtonian physics against fierce intellectual and social resistance. In 1776, Laura Bassi achieved a historic milestone, becoming the first woman in the world to hold a chair of experimental physics and the highest-paid lecturer at the University of Bologna. Her advocacy accelerated the acceptance of Newtonian physics in Italy and paved the way for future...
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REPOST! Eponymy and the Sexagesimal Spiral
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
A viral multiplication spiral once attributed to Nikola Tesla opens the door to a much older mathematical story, one rooted in ancient Sumerian and Babylonian base-60 mathematics. In this episode, we explore how sexagesimal counting shaped everything from clocks and geometry to modern science, and how ideas are often misnamed after the most famous figure rather than the original innovator. Along the way, we unpack eponymy, the Matthew Effect, and why credit in science and math is rarely distributed fairly. Learn: 🌀 Why Base-60 Still Runs Our World How the Sumerian sexagesimal system...
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REPOST: The Wake of HMS Challenger
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
In this repost episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak speaks with Professor Gillen D’Arcy Wood, author of . Together, they uncover how a nineteenth-century Royal Navy warship transformed into a floating laboratory and gave humanity its first global snapshot of the oceans. From discovering thousands of new species to inspiring NASA’s Challenger shuttle, the expedition shaped modern oceanography and continues to inform today’s conservation science. Wood’s biocentric storytelling reminds us that to save our planet, we must first fall in love with it again, to be, as he...
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REPOST! The 2220 Holiday Puzzle!
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
Set in the year 2220, this holiday puzzle episode blends science fiction, real scientific legacies, and mathematical reasoning into an immersive problem-solving adventure. The United Nations Time-Travel Division recruits four brilliant scientists, each descended from historically significant scientific families, and sends them back to 2019 with a radical mission: erase the year 2020 from the timeline. What follows is a multi-step logic and distance puzzle involving self-driving hover cars, state capitals, precise velocity calculations, and a final anagram that reveals what humanity might have...
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REPOST! Eccentric Scientists Holiday Party On!
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
This episode marks the very first Math! Science! History! holiday puzzle, a tradition built around logic, problem-solving, and a little historical mischief. Rather than a standard narrative episode, this one invites listeners to actively participate, following clues, working through puzzles, and engaging with science and history in a hands-on way. Designed as a holiday “party for the brain,” the episode blends reasoning, curiosity, and playful challenge. You can listen straight through or pause along the way to work out the puzzles yourself. There’s no rush, no trick answers, and no...
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FLASHCARDS! The Universal Riddle of Love
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
As the year draws to a close, people across cultures have long turned to riddles, puzzles, and quiet forms of reflection. From lantern riddles in China to communal riddles in Africa and contemplative winter traditions in Europe, these practices were never just games. They were tools for slowing down, thinking together, and preparing for change. In this season-ending Flashcard episode, we explore why riddles emerge during moments of transition, how puzzles shape empathy and shared intelligence, and why one enduring answer continues to matter across centuries and cultures. Discover! Why the...
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The History of Jigsaw Puzzles
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
Jigsaw puzzles may seem like quiet, domestic pastimes, but their history tells a much bigger story. In this episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak traces the surprising evolution of the jigsaw puzzle, from its origins as an Enlightenment-era teaching tool to its role as a psychological stabilizer during the Great Depression, and finally to its modern use in cognitive science and brain health. Along the way, we explore how puzzles reflect changes in technology, culture, economics, and how humans think and learn. This episode uncovers how something as simple as fitting pieces...
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FLASHCARDS! Puzzle Brain
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
If you enjoyed today’s Flashcard Friday deep dive, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the episode with a fellow puzzle lover. And don’t forget, this last Tuesday was the big Holiday Time-Travel Puzzle Episode, so keep grab your notebook and check it out for prizes and a gift card! You can listen to it here: Episode Overview Solving puzzles feels good, but why? In this Flashcard Friday episode, Gabrielle explores the neuroscience behind puzzles, how your brain lights up during problem-solving, and how you can train yourself to love puzzles even more. From dopamine...
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It's the MATH! SCIENCE! HISTORY! Holiday Puzzle 2025!
Math Science History with Gabrielle Birchak
It's finally here. The annual math science history holiday puzzle. It's a long one but it is a fun one. When you solve it be sure to send all of your work, handwritten, and your answers too hello at math sciencehistory.com by midnight on December 16th. Be in the top three to get it in first and correct and you will have a chance to win some prizes. All of those in the top three can choose to be interviewed on the podcast to tell us all about their love for math, science and history! First place wins a $25 Amazon gift card and a choice of a Math! Science! History! baseball cap or our latest...
info_outlineWhat does it cost to carry a brilliant idea? Ludwig Boltzmann gave us the statistical foundations of entropy and the famous S = k log W, yet his life was marked by relentless skepticism, isolation, and personal struggle. In this episode, we weave Boltzmann’s story with the modern mental health crisis in academia, where anxiety, depression, and burnout affect scientists at alarming rates. We’ll explore how probability explains not only the arrow of time, but also why community, resilience, and care are essential for science to thrive.
3 Things Listeners Will Learn:
- How Ludwig Boltzmann’s statistical mechanics shaped modern physics and why his ideas met fierce resistance.
- The scale of today’s mental health crisis in academia — from graduate students to faculty.
- Practical tools like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and community support that can help foster resilience in science.
Resources & Further Reading:
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (U.S.)
- International Association for Suicide Prevention Global Helpline Directory
- Evans, T. M., et al. “Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education.” Nature Biotechnology (2018).
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Boltzmann’s Work in Statistical Physics
- Nobel Prize: Jean Perrin’s Nobel Lecture (1926)
🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com
📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h
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Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers
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