About this podcast
From First Principles is a fast, funny, and rigorous breakdown of the biggest science stories of the week, hosted by Lester Nare and physicist Krishna Choudhary, PhD. We go past headlines into the actual mechanics: what happened, why it matters, and what everyone’s missing.
Expect physics, space, AI, energy, biotech, and the occasional “wait… is that real?” story. If you’re curious, skeptical, and you like learning in public — you’re in the right place.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 66 episodes
- Destroying Tumors With Sound: Histotripsy with Dr. Zhen Xu · 1 h 4 min · Season 2 Episode 66Can sound destroy a tumor without an incision? Dr. Zhen Xu joins Krishna Choudhary to explain histotripsy: focused ultrasound that creates tiny bubbles to mechanically break…
- What Happens When AI Gets a Lab? · 1 h 39 min · Season 2 Episode 65What happens when AI moves beyond the chatbot and into the laboratory? From Claude-designed proteins that bind scorpion toxins to robots that assemble optics experiments, we…
- Nobel Prize 2026: The Science Gets Stranger · 1 h 59 min · Season 1 Episode 64Can light restore aspects of sight? Can recalling a cold experience change an animal's metabolism? And what can ghost particles and mirror-image molecules tell us about the…
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 Explained: Mirror Molecules (EP 63) · 1 h 20 min · Season 1 Episode 63Why does life favor one molecular mirror image? The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric…
- Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 Explained: IceCube & Neutrinos (EP 62) · 1 h 2 min · Season 1 Episode 62Why build a telescope inside a billion tons of Antarctic ice? The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes Francis Halzen's work on IceCube and the discovery of high-energy…
- Nobel Prize in Medicine 2026 Explained: Optogenetics (EP 61) · 1 h 11 min · Season 1 Episode 61How do you prove what a brain cell actually does? The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine celebrates a remarkable answer: give cells a light-sensitive protein, then switch their…
- 2026 Nobel Prize Predictions: Medicine, Physics & Chemistry (EP 60) · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 60Who could win the 2026 Nobel Prizes? From the science behind Ozempic to quantum interference and droplets inside living cells, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary make their picks…
- Golden Goose Awards 2026: The Science Behind the Winners (Part 1) (EP 59) · 2 h 7 min · Season 1 Episode 59What connects a noise complaint, holiday lights seen from space, and the physics of a coffee stain? Three unexpected paths from basic research to discoveries with real-world…
- What OpenAI Actually Did to Navier-Stokes (EP 58) · 4 h 9 min · Season 1 Episode 58What does it mean to solve an equation that describes almost every fluid around us, from the air over a wing to the water swirling down a drain? In Episode 58 of From First…
- What’s Next in Science? Nobel Prizes, Space Missions & More (EP 57) · 1 h 3 min · Season 1 Episode 57What 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…
- The Yak Mutation That Could Help Repair the Brain (EP 56) · 1 h 35 min · Season 1 Episode 56What can a yak living thousands of meters above sea level teach us about repairing the human brain? In Episode 56 of From First Principles, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary…
- Why Spin Qubits Will Win the Quantum Race (Part 2) (EP 55) · 3 h 46 min · Season 1 Episode 55Which quantum computer will actually scale? In Part 2 of our quantum computing deep dive, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary move from theory to hardware—comparing superconducting…
- How Quantum Computing Actually Works (Part 1) (EP 54) · 2 h 11 min · Season 1 Episode 54Quantum computers do not simply “try every answer at once.” So what do they actually do—and why have governments and technology companies spent billions trying to build them? In…
- What Claude Actually Did to the Riemann Hypothesis (EP 53) · 1 h 47 min · Season 1 Episode 53Claude did not solve the Riemann Hypothesis. But what it actually did may be one of the clearest examples yet of how rapidly AI systems are changing the way difficult mathematics…
- The Amazon’s Hidden Civilization (One Year Anniversary) (EP 52) · 1 h 47 min · Season 1 Episode 52In this anniversary episode, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary look back at how two longtime friends turned their regular conversations about science into a show now shared by…
- The Tech Elon Has Been Waiting For (EP 51) · 1 h 44 min · Season 1 Episode 51What happens when electronics can operate at temperatures hot enough to melt aluminum? In this deep-dive episode, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary examine a new high-temperature…
- AI Breaks a 90-Year Math Problem, Life’s Alphabet in Space, and Science Funding (EP 50) · 1 h 52 min · Season 1 Episode 50Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode moves from astrobiology to science policy to the rapidly changing frontier of artificial intelligence and mathematics…
- FIFA Data Scientists Explain Match Momentum (EP 49) · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 49In this special interview episode, Lester Nare speaks with Juan Busso, Senior Football Data Scientist at FIFA, and Arron Ackerman, FIFA’s Team Lead for Football Performance…
- Black Hole Movies, Digital Heart Twins, and World Cup Tech (EP 48) · 1 h 48 min · Season 1 Episode 48Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode returns to the FFP science rundown with stories spanning astrophysics, precision medicine, medical imaging, artificial…
- America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 2 (EP 47) · 2 h 21 min · Season 1 Episode 47Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is part two of our July 4th America 250 special: a celebration of the scientific, technological, institutional, and…
- America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1 (EP 46) · 1 h 50 min · Season 1 Episode 46Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is part one of our July 4th America 250 special: a celebration of the scientific, technological, institutional, and…
- The Physics of the World Cup: VAR, Smart Balls, and Soccer Aerodynamics (EP 45) · 60 min · Season 1 Episode 45Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is our World Cup special — a deep dive into the science, physics, engineering, and data behind the beautiful game. We…
- New Rules For Heredity (Non-Mendelian Inheritance of Epigenetics) (EP 44) · 1 h 37 min · Season 2 Episode 44Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode marks Krishna’s return to the studio after paternity leave — and the timing could not be more fitting. Today’s deep dive…
- Dr. Michael Blanton on Open Data, Galaxy Surveys, and the Future of Astronomy (EP 43) · 43 min · Season 2 Episode 43Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is the second interview in our ongoing collaboration series with Carnegie Observatories. Krishna sits down with Dr…
- How Scientists Actually Study Dark Matter (EP 42) · 1 h 6 min · Season 2 Episode 42Hosted by Lester Nare, this episode features astrophysicist Dan Gilman for a deep conversation on one of the biggest open questions in modern physics: what dark matter actually…
- Dr. John Mulchaey on Carnegie Science and the Future of Astronomy (EP 41) · 37 min · Season 2 Episode 41Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this interview features John Mulchaey, the 12th President of Carnegie Science and former Director of the Carnegie Observatories. The…
- Ant Scans, Lunar Chickpeas, Hidden Galaxies & Superconductivity (EP 40) · 37 min · Season 2 Episode 40Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this rundown episode covers four new science stories at a high level: a huge new 3D ant imaging database built with synchrotron X-ray…
- The Prometheus Constellation: Dramaturgical and Scientific Analysis of the Physicists in Oppenheimer (EP 39) · 1 h 37 min · Season 2 Episode 39Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this special episode ranks the 26 scientists shown in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer by one standard only: their contribution to…
- Harder Than Diamond? The New Hexagonal Diamond Breakthrough (EP 38) · 58 min · Season 2 Episode 38Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a deep dive into one of the strangest and most hard-fought materials science stories in decades: the claim that…
- Artemis II: Deep Dive on the Moon Flyby, Earthset, and Reentry (EP 37) · 1 h 25 min · Season 2 Episode 37Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a full deep dive on Artemis II as the crew returns from humanity’s first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years…
- Artemis II, Claude Code Leak, iPhone Spyware & Project Hail Mary (EP 36) · 1 h 1 min · Season 2 Episode 36Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this rundown episode covers five new science and tech stories at a high level: NASA’s Artemis 2 moon mission, what actually leaked in…
- Can AI Help Wake Coma Patients? The Science of Consciousness (EP 35) · 1 h 8 min · Season 2 Episode 35Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a deep dive into one of the hardest questions in neuroscience: what breaks in the brain during a coma, and can we…
- AI Cancer Vaccines, Strange Fish, Ketamine, and Ancient Life (EP. 34) · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 34Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a fast-moving science rundown covering four remarkable stories from across AI, genetics, neuroscience, and…
- Can Human Neurons Really Play Doom? The Science Behind Wetware (EP. 33) · 1 h 13 min · Season 2 Episode 33Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a deep dive into one of the strangest science stories of the year: a dish of human neurons allegedly learning to play…
- 5,000-Year-Old Bacteria, Solar Storms, Dogs, and Meta’s AI War (EP. 32) · 39 min · Season 2 Episode 32Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this is our first standalone rundown episode — a faster, looser format where we hit several stories we didn’t have room to turn into…
- Optovolution: Teaching Proteins to Think Like Computers (EP. 31) · 56 min · Season 2 Episode 31Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a deep dive into a new synthetic-biology breakthrough out of EPFL: OptoEvolution. The big idea is simple but powerful…
- Can We Stop an Asteroid? The Physics Behind NASA’s DART Mission (EP. 30) · 54 min · Season 2 Episode 30Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a full deep dive on planetary defense. We break down NASA’s DART mission, why the goal was never to “blow up” an…
- Astrobiology’s Biggest Survival Test + A Vaccine Against Everything? (EP. 29) · 2 h 4 min · Season 2 Episode 29Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode starts in astrobiology with a fresh experimental challenge to one of the biggest objections to lithopanspermia: can life…
- Dark Galaxies, Fuzzy Dark Matter, and an Alzheimer’s Breakthrough (EP. 28) · 1 h 51 min · Season 2 Episode 28Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode has two main stories: an astrophysics update on a candidate “dark galaxy” in the Perseus Cluster (a halo that’s ~99.9%…
- Dream Engineering, the Proton Radius Puzzle, and an ALS Breakthrough (EP. 27) · 2 h 12 min · Season 2 Episode 27Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode has three main stories: interactive dream engineering (yes, two-way “communication” during lucid dreaming), the proton…
- Winter Olympics Deep Dive: Ice Physics, Performance Pressure, and Climate Change (EP. 26) · 1 h 50 min · Season 2 Episode 26Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a Winter Olympics deep dive from first principles—physics, neuroscience, and climate science in one ride. • Why ice…
- Plants, Quantum Sensors, and Predicting Cancer Evolution (EP. 25) · 1 h 49 min · Season 2 Episode 25Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode jumps from plant biochemistry to quantum metrology to cancer evolution. We start with a University of York breakthrough…
- Artemis II, Apollo, and the Physics of Going Back to the Moon (EP. 24) · 1 h 9 min · Season 2 Episode 24Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a full-spectrum moonshot: why Artemis II matters, how the mission actually works (SLS, Orion, translunar injection…
- JWST’s “Little Red Dots,” TimeVaults, and the Dawn of Math (EP. 23) · 1 h 40 min · Season 2 Episode 23Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode runs from JWST’s “Little Red Dots” (and what they imply about early supermassive black holes), to a TimeVault method for…
- Cloud9 Dark Matter Halo, Jellyfish Sleep, and String Theory Hidden in Nature (EP. 22) · 1 h 39 min · Season 2 Episode 22Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode runs from the deep math of string theory to the biology of sleep—then out to a starless “ghost cloud” that may be a…
- Roman Concrete, Brain “Cognitive Legos,” DeepSeek, and Econophysics (EP. 21) · 1 h 58 min · Season 2 Episode 21Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode jumps from ancient engineering to modern AI and markets. We start with the newly uncovered Pompeii worksite that finally…
- The Physics Behind Fusion’s Biggest Problem (Season Finale) (EP. 20) · 1 h 17 min · Season 1 Episode 20Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this Season Finale closes out Season 1 with a deep dive into the physics behind fusion’s biggest bottleneck: fast magnetic…
- The Race to the Double Helix — Watson, Crick, Franklin & the Real Story of DNA (EP. 19) · 1 h 34 min · Season 1 Episode 19Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this single-story deep dive tells the full story of how humanity uncovered the structure of DNA — and the human tensions that shaped…
- 3I/ATLAS Explained, Forensic Fingerprints & Alzheimer’s Breakthrough (EP. 18) · 1 h 27 min · Season 1 Episode 18Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode spans astrophysics, forensic chemistry, and neuroimmunology. We begin with a deep dive into 3I/ATLAS, only the third…
- Hypersonic Physics, Deep Sea Life & Princeton’s Millisecond Qubits (EP. 17) · 1 h 33 min · Season 1 Episode 17Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode dives into three breakthroughs stretching across aerospace engineering, astrobiology, and quantum computing. We start…
