What 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 impact.
Krishna Choudhary and Lester Nare explore the science behind the 2026 Golden Goose Awards: Zhen Xu's work on histotripsy, NASA's Black Marble nighttime satellite data, and Sidney Nagel's discoveries in soft matter physics.
We start with focused ultrasound and the tiny bubbles that can break apart targeted tissue, tracing the journey from early laboratory experiments to clinical research on liver tumors. Then we look at how Earth's nighttime lights reveal power outages, disaster recovery, and changing human activity. Finally, falling drops, coffee stains, and jammed grains open up a world of robotic grippers and materials that can be trained and retrained.
The thread connecting all three stories is the unexpected value of federally funded basic research. Part 2 will feature conversations with the award-winning researchers and AAAS CEO Sudip Parikh.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Golden Goose Awards trailer
01:19 Introducing our Golden Goose special
02:42 Zhen Xu: From a noise complaint to histotripsy
05:57 The early ultrasound experiments
13:42 Controlling cavitation with microtripsy
20:29 Tumor destruction and the immune response
28:33 Histotripsy through the skull
37:23 The HOPE4LIVER clinical trial
43:55 Why basic research needs time
47:17 FFP updates and supporting the show
49:20 NASA Black Marble: Holiday lights from space
55:29 Turning night lights into reliable data
1:01:36 Hurricane Maria and unequal recovery
1:08:12 COVID-19 and changing nighttime activity
1:10:16 Mapping access to electricity
1:15:20 Where Earth is brightening and dimming
1:32:57 Sidney Nagel and the physics of everyday life
1:37:07 The science of a falling drop
1:46:02 Why coffee leaves a ring
1:51:04 Jamming: When grains become rigid
1:53:35 A robotic gripper filled with grains
1:55:39 Why air pressure changes a splash
1:58:55 Materials that can be trained and retrained
2:03:26 The payoff from curiosity
2:05:29 Coming in Part 2
2:07:06 Outro
FEATURED RESEARCH
Histotripsy: The #HOPE4LIVER single-arm pivotal trial (Radiology, 2024)
https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.233051
NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite (Remote Sensing of Environment, 2018)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.017
Training and retraining liquid crystal elastomer metamaterials for pluripotent functionality (PNAS, 2025)
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504304122
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