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 away – the first direct look at rocky planets in the making. Biggest black-hole merger on record – 15 ☉ of mass vaporized into pure gravitational waves, detected by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA. CRISPR reveals a vitamin-D “kill switch” for tumors – how silencing one gene in pancreatic & colon cancers triggers 4,000 downstream changes. A star that died… then died again – the first confirmed “double-detonation” white-dwarf supernova. DeepMind’s Aeneas AI deciphers broken Latin tablets – giving historians new text, provenance and dating in seconds. 👋 Hosts • Lester Nare – storyteller & professional curiosity machine • Dr. Krishna Choudhary – Princeton-trained physicist & cosmic tour guide 👍 Like what you hear? Hit Subscribe, ring the bell 🔔, and drop your questions for next week’s episode.