#100 – Alexander Fridman: My Dad, the Plasma Physicist


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Jun 03 2020 219 mins   4.1k 2 0
Alexander Fridman is a professor at Drexel University and the director of the Nyheim Plasma Institute. He is one of the top plasma physicists and plasma chemists in the world. And most importantly to me, he is my dad. Support this podcast by supporting these sponsors: The Jordan Harbinger Show: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/subscribe Magic Spoon: https://magicspoon.com/lex and use code LEX at checkout! This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon. Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. OUTLINE: 00:00 – Introduction 06:57 – Einstein and beautiful ideas in physics 10:03 – Simple, powerful ideas 12:57 – Falling in love with science 19:45 – Gagarin and space race 21:29 – Poetry 29:31 – Early school days 38:33 – Soviet education 43:31 – A stressful experience 51:49 – Childhood – memories of mom and dad 54:26 – Losing dad 1:02:30 – World War II 1:12:21 – Soviet Union 1:13:50 – Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology 1:24:18 – Theoretical physics 1:26:29 – Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy 1:37:34 – Meeting mom 1:45:16 – Becoming a father 2:06:28 – Chernobyl nuclear disaster 2:17:35 – What is plasma? 2:26:54 – Hot plasma and cold plasma 2:31:24 – Mysteries in plasma 2:36:38 – Plasma physics and plasma chemistry 2:39:42 – Plasma medicine 2:45:12 – Nobel prizes in plasma 2:50:17 – Cold fusion 2:54:16 – Journey to America 2:59:43 – Nyheim Plasma Institute 3:12:10 – Artificial intelligence 3:21:43 – Mortality 3:27:59 – Meaning of life 3:35:32 – Toast