What’s Next in Science? Nobel Prizes, Space Missions & More (EP 57)

What science should you be watching this fall? From Nobel Prize season to NASA’s Roman Space Telescope, Mars’ moons and Mercury, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary take a relaxed tour of the discoveries and missions on their radar.
In Episode 57 of From First Principles, we explore why curiosity-driven research matters, what the Golden Goose Awards celebrate, and how questions that once sounded impractical can lead to unexpected breakthroughs. Then we turn to space: Roman’s search for dark energy and exoplanets, JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, and the mysteries ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo mission will investigate at Mercury.
Along the way, we tour the updated FFP website, revisit some favorite episodes, and ask which stories you want us to cover in depth next.
A note before we begin: the main conversation was recorded before Labor Day weekend. The opening announcement addresses your requests for a separate episode on OpenAI, Navier–Stokes and the wider AI conversation. This episode is our fall science rundown; that deep dive is still to come.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Update on our upcoming Navier–Stokes and AI coverage
03:43 Episode intro and football banter
05:47 FFP intro
06:01 Nobel Prize season and our coverage plans
10:45 Golden Goose Awards: why basic research matters
21:02 FFP website tour and favorite episodes
42:24 Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
46:20 Microlensing, exoplanets and dark matter
51:25 MMX: where did Mars’ moons come from?
54:40 BepiColombo and the mysteries of Mercury
1:02:17 Your questions, future deep dives and sign-off
1:05:40 Outro
SHOW NOTES
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope:
science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope
JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX):
mmx.jaxa.jp/en/mission
ESA / JAXA BepiColombo:
esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Bepi…
Explore the research and episodes we cover:
ffppod.com
Science R&D Funding Tracker:
ffppod.com/funding
Science Transfer Board:
ffppod.com/transfers
America 250:
ffppod.com/America250
Support the show:
ffppod.com/donate
WATCH ON YOUTUBE
youtu.be/snhQh0fjTX4
Follow @FFPPod on X / Instagram / TikTok / Facebook
Breaking down science news so it makes sense to curious people everywhere.
Which mission or research story deserves a full FFP deep dive? Tell us in the comments.