Episode 120: Thermal Protection Systems

Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast by Taylor Sparks and Andrew Falkowski

Aug 7, 202601:00:39Science & Medicine

We have all seen the heat of atmospheric reentry depicted a thousand times in movies and TV shows, but how do we actually protect spacecraft from that danger? Taylor and Andrew sit down with Nate Olson, an aerospace engi...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast.

Episode 119: Closing the Discovery Loop with Radical AI

Jun 30, 2026 - 00:43:44

What if a materials lab on Earth could screen a hundred alloys a day with little input from the scientist...

Episode 118: The Molecular Universe with SES AI

May 18, 2026 - 00:44:11

What if you could know which batteries are worth building before you actually build them? Taylor and Andr...

Episode 117: Textiles in Space

May 4, 2026 - 00:37:54

The fanciest suit isn't on the runway, it's in orbit. In this follow-up episode, Taylor and Andrew bring...

Episode 116: Textile Materials

Mar 31, 2026 - 00:55:56

Textiles are all around us, they are literally woven into nearly every part of our daily lives. From the...

Episode 115: Phase Field Modeling

Mar 6, 2026 - 00:40:20

Many digital models use hard boundaries to simulate how materials change, but the real world is rarely th...

Episode 114: Synchrotron XRD on Demand

Jan 21, 2026 - 00:47:42

Having access to advanced characterization tools sounds great but sadly they aren't easily attainable. Mo...

Episode 113: Metal Organic Frameworks

Dec 11, 2025 - 00:51:21

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to pioneers in the field of MOFs, but what exactly is a MOF...

Episode 112: Merging 3D Printing and SPS

Nov 11, 2025 - 00:32:47

3D printing and SPS(Spark Plasma Sintering) are two incredible techniques that are best suited for differ...