Good in Theory

Why does your tea get cold if you leave it standing around for too long? Because the temperature of the tea adjusts to the temperature of the room, but why? The process of transferring heat puzzled many scientists. In the late 18th century caloric theory emerged in which the temperature of a body depends on the amount of “caloric” it possesses. Caloric was thought to be a weightless fluid which flows from hotter to colder bodies. The theory succeeded in explaining phenomena like your tea going cold. Although the theory managed to capture some key properties of heat it had several shortcomings and ultimately didn’t stand the test of time. If you are burning to learn more, listen to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

How are living things created? Was there some major event of creation where all generations to come were nested inside their ancestors? Or is the creation of life a process starting when paternal and maternal fluids come together? Before the discovery of cells and atoms, some scientists believed things were infinitely divisible. This led them to the theory that even before a pregnancy there is a small human inside its parent that in turn has all possible children it will have inside itself and so on. This infinite tower of mini humans was thought to avoid the problem of how things that are not alive can create a living being. In the end this theory of preformationism in embryology found its downfall. Listen to the whole story this week on the Good in Theory podcast.

To explain why some continents that are now oceans apart seem to have once fit together, scientists hypothesized that the Earth itself must be dynamic. More precisely they thought it was expanding over time, slowly inflating like a balloon, pushing continents apart and creating oceans in between. This theory was momentarily popular but cracks soon started showing. Why was it expanding? Was it getting heavier too? Did it affect gravity? And if this was really how planets worked, why wasn’t Mars or Venus doing the same thing? Expand your minds by listening to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

The bridge between alchemy and chemistry was crossed when scientists tried to answer the question: “Why do things burn?”. Starting from the perspective of four elements and arriving at the discovery of oxygen, this 100 year journey is a brilliant showcase of the difference between pseudoscience and science. Why do some materials burn and others don’t? How can we explain why things cease burning? To answer these questions scientists assumed that there was a material substance that left the material while burning. To learn about how this substance could help explain combustion and what hydrogen has to do with it, listen to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

Four seasons, four elements, four directions... four humours. In ancient Greece it seemed clear that just as our world was built from four elements, our bodies must be regulated by four vital fluids. When these humours fell out of balance, disease and bad moods followed. For centuries doctors practiced medicine based on this idea: identify which fluid is winning and remove some of it until the patient stops complaining. It wasn’t until the 20th century that a discovery truly revolutionised medicine and finally laid this theory to rest. Cure your curiosity and listen to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

How do animals adjust to changing environments? Why are some living things much more complex than others? Before Darwin came up with his theory of evolution, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck had a theory of evolution of his own. Instead of using language such as “mutation” and “natural selection”, his theory is one of gradual and intentional change. “Extinction” was also not in his vocabulary, instead he talked about “spontaneous generation” and “complexifying force”. To evolve your understanding of Lamarck's theory of evolution and how it was used culturally and politically, listen to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

Clear skies, fresh air, that must mean there are no diseases here? For millennia people believed that the spread of diseases was connected to the quality of the air. If the air was cold, polluted and smelt rotten you were sure to get infected with cholera or the black plague if you were out too long. Miasma theory had an enormous impact on people's habits and even the economy of southern China. It was only in the 19th century that this medical belief was seriously challenged, which led to more effective ways of dealing with pandemics and the prevention of many deaths. For tips on hygiene and disease control listen to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

Water waves are movements in water, so light waves are movements in… aether. At least that was the leading theory in the 18th century. Sounds simple enough but nailing down what this aether is leads to curious properties. In truth light waves are quite different from water waves in many respects including that their speed is constant no matter how fast you yourself are going. The history of aether theory is tied to the emergence of both quantum theory and relativity. It records how scientists struggled to let go of their intuition and see the reality of space and time in a new light. Join us on our mission to understand the true nature of light and listen to this week’s episode of Good in Theory.

Naming the planet closest to the sun after the roman god of fire seems appropriate. The problem: it doesn’t exist. When confronted with data of planetary movements that do not fit your calculations you have two options: your theory is wrong or there is some big object influencing the planetary motion that you did not take into account. Since the latter turned out to be the case once before - and led to the discovery of Neptune - you might want to go that route again. At least that was what Urbain Le Verrier did. To hear more about the search for the mysterious planet of Vulcan and what Einstein has to do with all this, listen to this week's episode of Good in Theory. Created and produced by: Rita Neves and Sofie RiedIntro/outro music: Andrew Glover