A new episode of Why Not Change the World? The RPI Podcast focuses on discoveries in space. Specifically, it highlights a recent finding about the nature of the Milky Way galaxy and technology being used aboard the International Space Station to make strides in pharmaceutical research and other areas.

This episode features interviews with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty members and their graduate students, highlighting the robust opportunities for graduate students at the Institute.

Heidi Jo Newberg, professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, is joined by graduate student Thomas Donlan II to discuss the implications of their recent discoveries relating to a 3 billion-year-old “stellar version of a T-bone crash” between a dwarf galaxy and the Milky Way.

Additionally, Amir Hirsa, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, and his graduate student, Joe Adams, discuss their novel approach for studying fluid dynamics in a way that more closely mimics many aspects of the human body. The only hitch is that it requires a microgravity environment, so the best place to test it out is in space.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or TuneIn.