Curved space-time, distant planets and the mind, explained by its guests
Indian Genes gives its guests room to explain difficult ideas, from Einstein's curved space-time and the TESS search for transiting planets to a neurologist's case of lost mental imagery. The same feed has Chris French asking whether ghost sightings and premonitions can be explained, and a conversation that moves between consciousness and qubits.
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Indian Genes is an interview show that gives its guests room to explain difficult ideas about physics, astronomy, the mind and unusual experience. Its range is the first thing to notice. Within a handful of conversations it moves between general relativity, the search for planets around other stars, the neurology of imagination and the study of paranormal belief, with a turn into consciousness and quantum information along the way. Shami Chatterjee starts from something every infant learns, that a dropped object falls. From there he goes to Newton's universal law of gravitation, and then to Einstein, for whom gravity is not a force at all. His compact version is that matter tells space-time how to curve, and space-time tells matter how to move. He describes orbiting neutron stars that slowly spiral inward, radiating energy and sending ripples through space-time, and he calls a theory of quantum gravity the big quest in physics. Sara Seager's conversation stays closer to the instruments. She explains how the TESS mission stares at one strip of sky for about a month before moving to the next, covering a hemisphere in a year and passing planet candidates to astronomers for follow-up from ground-based telescopes. Adam Zeman, a neurologist, brings a case rather than a cosmos. He describes a patient who could once picture a sunrise vividly and afterward could only know he was thinking about one, even though his other cognitive performance stayed very good. Chris French approaches ghosts, psychic powers and alien abduction reports by asking whether those experiences can be explained. His speculative example is a person who skips a daily walk over a railway bridge on the day it collapses. Was it a premonition, or had they half-noticed odd noises from the bridge? He argues that controlled laboratory studies would give the best evidence, and he admits that real disasters are hard to test that way. James Glattfelder moves furthest from the lab. He asks how physicists can avoid asking what reality fundamentally is, notes that Western academia treated consciousness as a fringe topic until fairly recently, and connects qubits to Wheeler's 'it from bit'. The host keeps the explanations on track. In one exchange a description of merging neutron stars pauses so the host can ask what 'merge' means, and the guest explains it again. The closings are warm, with invitations to return and thanks, one of them offered on behalf of everyone in India. In one sign-off the host suggests letting listeners choose the topic of a follow-up conversation. As a starting point, Chatterjee or Seager suits someone drawn to space, Zeman someone curious about the mind's eye, and French someone who wants paranormal claims tested against evidence.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants gravity, exoplanet hunting, mental imagery or paranormal claims explained by the guest in their own words, with an interviewer who stops to clarify a point.
What sets it apart: Its range sets it apart: general relativity, the TESS planet search, a neurologist's case of lost mental imagery and an evidence-minded look at ghosts and premonitions all share one feed. Each is explained by a guest rather than summarized by the host.
Indian Genes is committed to bringing in ideas and thoughts from Global leaders in their field to every listener and home, with the intention of providing free and easy access to this information to all that would want to continue their quest for continuous learning. We also are very focused on our young talent that would benefit from this exposure as they plan and move ahead in the careers and life path, hopefully inspiring them to greater heights and clarity in thought that builds both character and career. We look to achieve this by maintaining premium production values that places this platform in line with international standards and credibility that is based on strong values that suppo…
A missing mind's eye meets ripples in spacetime; your curiosity may need a bigger notebook.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A lucid path from falling objects to Einstein's ripples in space-time.
Gravity starts from the simple sight of an infant dropping an object, then follows that familiar moment into Newton's account of planetary orbits, Einstein's reshaping of gravity as curved space-time, and the still-unfinished search for quantum gravity.
A clear-headed look at ghost photos, psychic claims, shared memory, and the difficult question of testing precognition.
Paranormal belief is handled here as a question of explanation, not dismissal. The episode moves between striking personal experience and the conditions that can shape how those experiences are remembered.
A thoughtful episode on consciousness, quantum information, and the limits of randomness as an explanation for reality.
This episode looks at what may get lost when contemporary physicists wave away metaphysics, then follows the question toward consciousness, chance, and the basic nature of reality.
A patient's vanished mind's eye becomes a precise inquiry into imagination and the brain.
The episode is strongest when it stays with the patient whose inner cinema abruptly went dark. He could no longer picture a novel's visual world, search for lost keys in his mind, or summon a rising sun as anything more than knowledge.
A grounded look at TESS and the chemistry that could broaden the search for habitable worlds.
This single-episode review follows the search for worlds beyond the solar system, then shifts into the more unexpected question of whether life could depend on something other than water.
Books, systems, and the questions that unlock them.
Coastal science, patiently and beautifully reported.
Soil life, climate repair, practical regeneration.
["Shami Chatterjee turns gravity into a tour from Newton's inverse-square law to Einstein's curved space-time, using Mercury's slow perihelion precession as the anomaly Newton could not explain.", "He says physics still lacks a theory of quantum gravity, even though general relativity and quantum mechanics each work very well in their own domains.", "The discussion moves to gravitational waves, Russell Hulse and Joe Taylor's binary pulsar at Arecibo, and how LIGO measures interference from stretched and squeezed arms.", "Chatterjee then extends the picture to supermassive black holes, nanohertz signals, LIGO India, the Event Horizon Telescope, and a skeptical reading of the Wow signal."]
Indian Genes interviews Emeritus Professor Chris French, who retired from Goldsmiths and ran the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, about how people explain ghosts, UFOs, psychic powers, and spells on Etsy.
On Indian Genes, James Glattfelder argues that contemporary physics still leaves time, elementary particles, and consciousness unresolved, and he contrasts physicalism with idealism as rival metaphysical assumptions.
Professor Adam Zaymon says about 20,000 people contacted him after he coined aphantasia, and he puts lifelong aphantasia at about 4% of the population.
Indian Genes interviews MIT astrophysicist and planetary scientist Sara Sager about exoplanets, Venus, and the search for life in concentrated sulfuric acid.
Sara Sager argues that Venus's cloud layer, not its surface, is the place to test whether life could exist in concentrated sulfuric acid.
Indian Genes interviews Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb about Project Galileo’s search for unfamiliar objects near Earth and evidence of extraterrestrial technology.
Nicole Kulewa, Executive Director of the Space Generation Advisory Council, describes an organization with more than 35,000 members in 165 countries and five main activity pillars.
An interview with geologist Dr.
An interview with a research coordinator about the Gobekli Tepe archaeological site and its implications for early human civilization.
An interview with astronomer Jonathan McTowell about his career in space exploration and science communication.
An interview with philosopher Alfred Mele discussing whether free will is an illusion.
An interview with astronomer Jill Tarter about her work on SETI and space exploration.
An interview with a Harvard astronomer discussing his book on the first interstellar visitor and the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
An interview with Professor Mithul Mehta discussing his research in neuroimaging and psychopharmacology at King's College London.