334 | Daniel Whiteson on the Physics of and by Aliens

<p>The universe as revealed by physics is objective: it's out there, existing and behaving in ways that are completely independent of human thought. But the process by which we learn about the universe, and the language with which we talk about it, is extremely human-dependent. Does that mean that aliens would do science differently, and even think differently about physics, even if we all live in the same universe? Physicist Daniel Whiteson has teamed with cartoonist Andy Warner to investigate these questions in their new book <a href="https://sites.uci.edu/alienphysics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Do Aliens Speak Physics?</em></a></p> <p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/03/334-daniel-whiteson-on-the-physics-of-and-by-aliens/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/11/03/334-daniel-whiteson-on-the-physics-of-and-by-aliens/</a></p> <p>S<em>upport Mindscape on </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Daniel Whiteson received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of an Emmy nomination. He is the author of several books, often with co-author <a href="http://jorgecham.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jorge Cham</a>. He is the co-host (with <a href="http://www.weinersmith.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kelly Weinersmith</a>) of the podcast <a href="https://sites.uci.edu/danielandkelly/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Daniel and Kelly's Extraordinary Universe</a>.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://sites.uci.edu/daniel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UCI web page</a></li> <li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C21&amp;q=daniel+whiteson&amp;btnG=" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Scholar publications</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Daniel-Whiteson/author/B078H9D52X" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon author page</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Whiteson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li> </ul> <p><br /></p>