The Stuff You Should Know Doin’ Science Playlist: How Chaos Theory Changed the Universe
episodePreviously titled “How Chaos Theory Changed the Universe” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 4, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hey everybody, Chuck here, and welcome to our Sciency Playlist. Super excited about this one. And I'm going to kick it off, everybody, with this episode on how chaos theory changed the universe.
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com.
Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and there's Jerry over there. So this is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast about chaos theory. Have you ever seen Event Horizon? Uh, I did. Not bad. Great movie.
How did historical views on determinism influence scientific thought?
Are you crazy? I don't think it was great. Oh, it was so imaginative. I thought it was okay. It was, uh, like a Lovecraftian thing in outer space.
Yeah.
Loved it. It was alright. I Lovecrafted it. Yeah. I liked it. Um, that's what I think of when I think of chaos. You know, there's that one part where they kind of give you like a glimpse behind like the dimension that this action is taking place in. Yeah. To see the chaos underneath. Oh, I should check that out again. I think about Jurassic Park and Jeff Goldblum as the creep, Dr. Malcolm explaining chaos in the little auto-driving SUV or whatever that was. That's what it was called in the script, the auto-driving SUV scene. Yeah, and you know what? I actually re-watched that scene and it confirmed two things. One is that he actually did a pretty decent job for a Hollywood movie of a very rudimentary explanation of chaos.
Yeah.
Oh, you watched it for this?
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, just that scene.
Yeah. And then it also confirmed of what a creep that character was. Yeah. If you watch that scene, he's like... he was all gross and flirty with her right in front of her ex. But he's talking to her, I didn't even notice this at first. He just touches her hair out of nowhere for no reason. He's just talking to her and he just grabs her hair and touches it. And I'm like, what a creep. I know, if you look closely, you can see the hormones emerging through his chest hair. It's grody. And I love Jeff Goldblum, it's not a reflection on him. He was basically doing Jeff Goldblum. Yeah, sure. He's Jeff Goldblum. That's the manner in which he speaks, but I don't think he's a creep. Do you? Wow. I've got nothing against Jeff Goldblum.
I think he's doing Jeff Goldblum. It was also a sign of the times. Like if that movie were made today, Dr. what was her name in the movie?
Ellie Sattler, I think.
Yeah, Dr. Sattler would be like, it's very inappropriate to stroke my hair, dude.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:20
2
How did historical views on determinism influence scientific thought?
2:20–8:21
3
What is the significance of the N-body problem in chaos theory?
8:21–18:09
4
How did Edward Lorenz contribute to our understanding of chaos?
18:09–26:17
5
What is the butterfly effect and why is it important?
26:17–28:38
6
How does the concept of attractors relate to chaos theory?
28:38–34:49
7
What role do supercomputers play in studying chaotic systems?
34:49–41:40
8
How has chaos theory changed our understanding of the universe?
41:40–1:03:35
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Stuff You Should Know
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SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: Mermaids: Not a real thing
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: The Max Headroom Incident
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: The Creepy Legacy of the Hotel Cecil
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: Will We Find Evidence of Aliens by Their Engineering Projects?
SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: What's the deal with blue people?