From First Principles
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. The show goes 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. It's for curious, skeptical listeners who enjoy learning in public.
Episodes
How Quantum Computing Actually Works (Part 1) (EP 54)
Quantum 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 Part 1 of our two-part quantum computing deep dive, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary build the field from first principles.The series was prompted by a new Nature cover paper, A digitally controlled silicon quantum process
What Claude Actually Did to the Riemann Hypothesis (EP 53)
Claude 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 can be attacked.In Episode 53, Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary go from first principles on arguably the most famous unsolved problem in mathematics.We begin with Euler and the Basel problem, build the Riemann zeta funct
The Amazon’s Hidden Civilization (One Year Anniversary) (EP 52)
In 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 millions of people around the world, and what they hope to build with FFP Nation in Year Two.Then we turn to a new Nature paper challenging the idea that the precolonial Amazon was sparsely populated. Airborne LiDAR revealed
The Tech Elon Has Been Waiting For (EP 51)
What 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 memory device developed by researchers at USC, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Kumamoto University, and their collaborators.Published in Science, the experimental memristor combines tungsten, hafnium oxide, and graphene
AI Breaks a 90-Year Math Problem, Life’s Alphabet in Space, and Science Funding (EP 50)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode moves from astrobiology to science policy to the rapidly changing frontier of artificial intelligence and mathematics.First, researchers analyzing pristine samples returned from asteroid Ryugu report all five canonical nucleobases used by DNA and RNA. We explain what that does—and does not—mean for the origin of life, how JAXA’s Hayabusa2 m
FIFA Data Scientists Explain Match Momentum (EP 49)
In 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 Analysis, about the data science behind the Match Momentum visualization featured throughout the 2026 World Cup.What does “momentum” actually mean in football—and how can it be measured without reducing the game to possession o
Black Hole Movies, Digital Heart Twins, and World Cup Tech (EP 48)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode returns to the FFP science rundown with stories spanning astrophysics, precision medicine, medical imaging, artificial intelligence, and World Cup technology.We begin with the Event Horizon Telescope and its evolving view of M87*, the supermassive black hole 55 million light-years away. How do you image something that appears about as small
America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 2 (EP 47)
Hosted 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 cultural breakthroughs that helped shape the United States into one of the most important scientific nations in human history.In part one, we traced American science from Benjamin Franklin and the founding documents through Sp
America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 1 (EP 46)
Hosted 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 cultural innovations that helped shape the United States into one of the most important scientific nations in human history.For America’s 250th anniversary, we built an interactive timeline of the discoveries, inventions, inst
The Physics of the World Cup: VAR, Smart Balls, and Soccer Aerodynamics (EP 45)
Hosted 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 start with the offside rule and the controversy around semi-automated VAR. How can a system decide whether a player is onside or offside by only a few inches? Krishna breaks the problem down like an experimental physicist: pl
New Rules For Heredity (Non-Mendelian Inheritance of Epigenetics) (EP 44)
Hosted 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 is about inheritance: not just the classic Mendelian rules most of us learned in biology class, but the stranger, more dynamic world of non-Mendelian epigenetic inheritance.Starting from Gregor Mendel and his pea plants,
Dr. Michael Blanton on Open Data, Galaxy Surveys, and the Future of Astronomy (EP 43)
Hosted 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. Michael Blanton, the new Director of the Carnegie Observatories, for a wide-ranging conversation on how astronomy became one of the most data-rich sciences, how the Sloan Digital Sky Survey helped change the culture around ope
How Scientists Actually Study Dark Matter (EP 42)
Hosted 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 is. Starting from first principles, Lester and Dan walk through why the evidence for dark matter is now so strong, how strong gravitational lensing works, why tiny distortions in lensed light can reveal invisible clumps of
Dr. John Mulchaey on Carnegie Science and the Future of Astronomy (EP 41)
Hosted 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 conversation starts with his early work on galaxy groups and dark matter, then expands into how Carnegie works as a scientific institution, what the Giant Magellan Telescope could unlock for exoplanets and astronomy, how s
Ant Scans, Lunar Chickpeas, Hidden Galaxies & Superconductivity (EP 40)
Hosted 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 microtomography, a lunar agriculture experiment that grew chickpeas in simulated moon soil using fungi and worm waste, AI-assisted discovery of strange objects in the Hubble archive, and a new programmatic roadmap for roo
The Prometheus Constellation: Dramaturgical and Scientific Analysis of the Physicists in Oppenheimer (EP 39)
Hosted 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 fundamental science. Starting with the Manhattan Project figures near the bottom and working up through the giants of quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear physics, and logic, the episode turns a movie cast list into a surpr
Harder Than Diamond? The New Hexagonal Diamond Breakthrough (EP 38)
Hosted 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 researchers have finally synthesized bulk hexagonal diamond, also known as lonsdaleite. They break down why this material matters, how it differs from ordinary cubic diamond, why scientists argued about its existence for more t
Artemis II: Deep Dive on the Moon Flyby, Earthset, and Reentry (EP 37)
Hosted 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. Lester and Krishna break down the mission photo by photo, from launch and translunar injection to Earthset, Earthrise, the in-space solar eclipse, the science of lunar observations, and the skip-entry reentry profile bringin
Artemis II, Claude Code Leak, iPhone Spyware & Project Hail Mary (EP 36)
Hosted 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 the Claude Code incident, a new cancer genomics paper suggesting domesticated cats may be unusually useful real-world models for human cancer, two leaked iPhone spyware toolkits, and a science-focused review of Project Ha
Can AI Help Wake Coma Patients? The Science of Consciousness (EP 35)
Hosted 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 figure out how to turn consciousness back on? We unpack a new paper from Daniel Toker et al. that uses an interpretable AI framework — not a generic black box chatbot model — to reverse engineer the biological mechanisms of p
AI Cancer Vaccines, Strange Fish, Ketamine, and Ancient Life (EP. 34)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is a fast-moving science rundown covering four remarkable stories from across AI, genetics, neuroscience, and paleontology. We dig into the story of a machine learning engineer who used AI tools to help design a personalized cancer vaccine for his dog, explore how an all-female fish species has survived far longer than evolutionary theory w
Can Human Neurons Really Play Doom? The Science Behind Wetware (EP. 33)
Hosted 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 Doom. We go back to the original 2022 DishBrain paper out of Cortical Labs, unpack how biological neurons can be read and written with multi-electrode arrays, and then compare the peer-reviewed Pong result to the much new
5,000-Year-Old Bacteria, Solar Storms, Dogs, and Meta’s AI War (EP. 32)
Hosted 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 full deep dives. This week: bacteria revived from a Romanian ice cave after 5,000 years, a speculative but fascinating theory linking solar storms to earthquakes, new evidence that dogs and humans share genetic roots for p
Optovolution: Teaching Proteins to Think Like Computers (EP. 31)
Hosted 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 — traditional directed evolution is great at making proteins that are always “on,” but biology is full of proteins that need to switch states, respond to stimuli, and behave more like logic gates than static tools. This p
Can We Stop an Asteroid? The Physics Behind NASA’s DART Mission (EP. 30)
Hosted 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 asteroid but to gently nudge it, and why the newest result is even bigger than the original headline: scientists can now directly detect that the Didymos–Dimorphos system changed not just locally, but in its heliocentric path
Astrobiology’s Biggest Survival Test + A Vaccine Against Everything? (EP. 29)
Hosted 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 actually survive the violence of being blasted off a planet by an asteroid impact? Then, after a packed Rundown, we pivot hard into immunology with a radical Stanford paper asking whether we could build one nasal vaccine
Dark Galaxies, Fuzzy Dark Matter, and an Alzheimer’s Breakthrough (EP. 28)
Hosted 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% dark matter), and a major Alzheimer’s mechanism paper tracing how exercise protects the brain by repairing the blood–brain barrier—with an actionable drug-like path already emerging.SummaryCandidate dark galaxy — Hubble + E
Dream Engineering, the Proton Radius Puzzle, and an ALS Breakthrough (EP. 27)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode has three main stories: interactive dream engineering (yes, two-way “communication” during lucid dreaming), the proton radius puzzle finally getting resolved by a precision lab measurement, and a sobering but hopeful look at ALS—including a breakthrough “ALS-in-a-dish” model that could finally make drug screening translate to humans.Summary
Winter Olympics Deep Dive: Ice Physics, Performance Pressure, and Climate Change (EP. 26)
Hosted 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 is slippery: the “water layer” story is incomplete—new nanoscale measurements suggest a far more viscous, thicker interfacial film than textbook intuition.• Choking under pressure: how high stakes can disrupt neural control—
Plants, Quantum Sensors, and Predicting Cancer Evolution (EP. 25)
Hosted 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 that solves a ~50-year mystery in alkaloid biosynthesis—identifying the “missing” enzyme behind a key asymmetric step plants use to build powerful defensive (and pharmaceutically useful) molecules. Then we go deep on quant
Artemis II, Apollo, and the Physics of Going Back to the Moon (EP. 24)
Hosted 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, free-return trajectories), and a first-principles teardown of the most common Apollo “hoax” claims—Van Allen belts, waving flags, shadows, and “why aren’t there stars?”We also run a quick Rundown of wild science headlines (
JWST’s “Little Red Dots,” TimeVaults, and the Dawn of Math (EP. 23)
Hosted 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 recording gene expression over time, to 8,000-year-old Halaf pottery that may encode geometric sequences — plus a quick Cloud9 follow-up on the “starless dark-matter halo” debate.SummaryJWST’s Little Red Dots — why these
Cloud9 Dark Matter Halo, Jellyfish Sleep, and String Theory Hidden in Nature (EP. 22)
Hosted 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 naked dark-matter halo. We open with a Nature paper showing that physical networks in nature (brains, blood vessels, fungal networks) appear to organize like energy-minimizing surfaces—spitting out the same branching rules you
Roman Concrete, Brain “Cognitive Legos,” DeepSeek, and Econophysics (EP. 21)
Hosted 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 shows how Romans mixed their concrete — and why it “self-heals.” Then we pivot into a Princeton neuroscience idea that the brain builds complex thought like LEGO bricks (compositional neural subspaces). From there, we bre
The Physics Behind Fusion’s Biggest Problem (Season Finale) (EP. 20)
Hosted 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 reconnection. We unpack why classic models predicted reconnection should be slow, why nature (and tokamaks) disagree, and how modern “plasmoid” reconnection helps explain solar flares, plasma instabilities, and the real engineering
The Race to the Double Helix — Watson, Crick, Franklin & the Real Story of DNA (EP. 19)
Hosted 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 it. From Mendel’s pea-plant mathematics to Rosalind Franklin’s groundbreaking x-ray crystallography, from Cavendish–King’s College rivalries to the famous Photo 51, this episode follows the scientific and ethical arc behin
3I/ATLAS Explained, Forensic Fingerprints & Alzheimer’s Breakthrough (EP. 18)
Hosted 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 confirmed interstellar object to ever pass through our solar system — larger and stranger than ‘Oumuamua and Borisov, with new imagery released as NASA reopened operations. Then we break down a true-crime forensic breakthroug
Hypersonic Physics, Deep Sea Life & Princeton’s Millisecond Qubits (EP. 17)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode dives into three breakthroughs stretching across aerospace engineering, astrobiology, and quantum computing. We start with a Nature Communications paper from Stevens Institute that experimentally validates a 60-year-old hypothesis underpinning hypersonic flight modeling. Then we head 3,000 meters below the Pacific to explore a newly discove
Octopus Camouflage, Orcas vs. Sharks, Civet Coffee & Sub-Diffraction Telescope Tech (EP. 16)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this super-episode spans four wildly different frontiers: bioengineers hijacking bacterial evolution to mass-produce octopus camouflage pigment; orcas developing cultural hunting strategies against great white sharks; the bizarre chemistry behind civet-processed luxury coffee; and a UCLA breakthrough that pushes telescope resolution beyond the classical
AI-Generated Genomes, Retinal Implants, and Palomar’s Mystery Lights Explained (EP. 15)
AI, Eyes, and the Sky — From Synthetic Genomes to Restored Vision and Cosmic MysteriesHosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode of From First Principles explores three cutting-edge breakthroughs connecting medicine, technology, and astronomy.Summary• AI for Oncology, Minus the Privacy Risk: University of Toronto researchers develop OncoGAN—a generative model that creates realistic
Chen Ning Yang — The Man Who Unlocked Symmetry (EP. 14)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode tells the story of Nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang and how his ideas on symmetry and gauge theory transformed modern physics.Summary• Early Years & Mentorship: From China to Chicago — learning under Fermi and Chandrasekhar.• Parity Violation: How Yang & Lee overturned the mirror-symmetry assumption and changed physics forever.• Gauge
Portable Muon Beams, Sodium Batteries, and the Secret to Long Life (EP. 13)
Aloha internet — Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary return with three extraordinary research stories: portable muon beams, sodium-ion batteries, and the secret to long life.Summary• Lawrence Berkeley’s compact muon beam technology and its applications in archaeology, volcanology, and security.• UC San Diego + U Chicago’s solid-state sodium battery that rivals lithium in power but not in cost.• Tong
From Princeton to the Nobel Prizes — How FFP Started + 2025 Nobel Recap (EP. 12)
After a packed week of Nobel Prize coverage, Lester and Krishna look back on how From First Principles began and why they built it as an “ESPN for Science.” They revisit 2025’s Medicine, Physics and Chemistry winners and discuss why fundamental research and immigration policy are core to America’s scientific edge.Quick note: this week’s episode is in vertical format because of a technical hiccup d
From Cells to Circuits to Crystals — 2025 Nobel Prizes Unpacked (EP. 11)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this one-episode special brings all three 2025 Nobel Prizes in the sciences into a single listen: Medicine (immune tolerance and FOXP3), Physics (macroscopic quantum tunneling in superconducting circuits), and Chemistry (metal–organic frameworks and “new rooms for chemistry”).SummaryMedicine: Regulatory T cells and the FOXP3 gene that prevent autoimmune
AI Supercharges CRISPR & LIGO (Nobel Prize Week Preview) (EP. 10)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this two-story, 2.5-hour special sets the table for Nobel Prize Week with deep dives into two recent Nobel-winning domains—gene editing (CRISPR) and gravitational waves (LIGO)—and how AI is accelerating both. We trace CRISPR from bacterial immunity to Stanford’s new “CRISPR-GPT” lab co-pilot, then pivot to how machine learning upgrades are pushing LIGO
China’s AI Breakthrough, Time Crystals, Hidden Viruses, & Brightest Cosmic Signal (EP. 9)
Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary return for Episode 9 of From First Principles, breaking down the latest breakthroughs across AI, physics, biology, and astronomy. From China’s stunning AI leap with DeepSeek to time crystals you can actually see, hidden viruses in our DNA, and the brightest fast radio burst ever detected—this episode spans the cutting edge of science and its global implications.Su
Strongest Evidence for Alien Life? (Mars, K2-18b & JWST) (EP. 8)
NASA just dropped what they’re calling the strongest evidence yet for biosignatures on Mars, so we spun up an emergency pod. We break down what the rover actually found in Jezero Crater, why geochemical “life-adjacent” reactions matter, revisit April’s hyped K2-18b claim from Cambridge, and close with brand-new JWST hints of atmospheres on Earth-sized exoplanets. Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna
Interstellar Visitor 3I/Atlas, Human Longevity Plateau, New No-Sort Plastic & Analog AI (EP. 7)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, Episode 7 of From First Principles covers four stories at the frontier of science and technology. This week, we dive into new telescope data on the interstellar visitor 3i Atlas, explore a major longevity study that suggests life expectancy may have plateaued, unpack a breakthrough nickel catalyst that could enable no-sort plastic recycling, and look at
New Supernova, Virus+Bacteria vs Cancer, Electron Spin, Bee Superfood (EP. 6)
Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, Episode 6 of From First Principles covers four groundbreaking stories in science—from rare cosmic explosions to synthetic biology breakthroughs that could save our food supply. This week, we dive into a never-before-seen type of supernova, explore a surprising alliance of viruses and bacteria against cancer, unpack how scientists are turning electron sp
Hacking The Human Brain, Unlocking Our DNA, Unbreakable Diamonds & The Quantum Magician (EP. 5)
This week we break down four big stories—no PhD required.Reading “inner speech”: Invasive brain–computer interfaces record neurons in motor cortex and decode attempted vs. inner speech into words. Results from Stanford even generalize to simple symbols and numbers. Cool science, huge privacy questions, and a proposed “brain password” to keep users in control.What makes us human: UC San Diego highl
3rd Interstellar Visitor, Rubin’s Sky Camera, AI CRISPR Boost & T. rex Blood Vessels (EP. 4)
Interstellar visitor #3 is here. We unpack 3I ATLAS (why it’s moving so fast, why we finally saw a tail, and how Hubble/JWST—and maybe even Juno—could nail down its makeup). Then we dive into the Vera Rubin Observatory, the 32-gigapixel camera that will turn the entire sky into a time-lapse movie and supercharge discovery. Next: AI just boosted CRISPR by predicting and guiding DNA repair (Pythia),
Oldest Molecule, Programmable Proteins, Europa Radar & Light’s Double Life (EP. 3)
We go from the universe’s first chemistry to tomorrow’s designer biology, swing by Mars to tune Europa Clipper’s ice radar, and finish with a fresh take on the double-slit experiment.In this episodeThe “oldest molecule” puzzle (HeH⁺), cooling the early universe, and why JWST’s findings matterProgrammable proteins: reassigning codons, recoding organisms, and real biosafetyEuropa Clipper’s REASON ra
Hidden Star in Betelgeuse, Dancing Atoms, Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays & VR Immunity (EP. 2)
Lester and Dr. Krishna dive into:• Beetlejuice & “Bracelet” – why a red super-giant may soon swallow its tiny partner• Atomic Harlem Shake – 0.15 Å resolution images of thermal jiggles in 2-D materials• Too Fast, Too Furious – IceCube’s constraints on proton fractions in 10²⁰ eV cosmic rays• Interstellar Google Maps – New Horizons proves star-pattern navigation works• Mind-Body Woo-Woo – VR co
Earth’s 1-ms Day, Baby Solar Systems, Record Black Hole Crash, CRISPR Cancer Hack & AI Indiana Jones (EP. 1)
Last week the Earth finished a full rotation one millisecond early – but that’s just the opener.In this week’s From First Principles we dive into six mind-bending headlines with our trademark mix of hard science and light-hearted banter:Earth’s fastest spin ever recorded – what shaved a millisecond off the day and why your chakras are still safe.ALMA spots a “baby Earth” forming 1,300 light years
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