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<v Speaker 1>Imagine the place where you can escape for a day,

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<v Speaker 1>get immersed in a world of rooms, inspiration, and expertise,

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<v Speaker 1>where you can lay luxury, accommodation, and kids can fees

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<v Speaker 1>from ninety five sets. Tickets are free to everyone and

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<v Speaker 1>include all the attractions you've just imagined a day out

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<v Speaker 1>at the kia Ikia the Wonderful every Day.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh hey, it's that guy in your video editing class

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<v Speaker 2>who choose so much gum you're actually worried about him.

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<v Speaker 2>Ali Ward back with another episode of Ologies. So this episode,

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<v Speaker 2>I'm just I'm gonna say this up top, just getting

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<v Speaker 2>out of the way.

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<v Speaker 3>It's out of this world.

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<v Speaker 2>Okay, I said it, It's out of this world. Now

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<v Speaker 2>we're going to start by talking about the passions that

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<v Speaker 2>lead to a career in extraterrestrial alien searches as well

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<v Speaker 2>as laid down some foundations on mission in our Solar system,

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<v Speaker 2>and then we'll get to what could live where. But

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<v Speaker 2>before we get to a live things on distant space bodies,

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<v Speaker 2>let's thank some earthlinks. So thank you to all the

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<v Speaker 2>people who make the podcast possible on Patreon dot com,

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<v Speaker 2>slash Ologies, all my buddies there, to all the folks

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<v Speaker 2>sporting ologies swag from ologiesmerch dot com. Thank you to

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<v Speaker 2>all the folks who are rating and making sure you're

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<v Speaker 2>subscribed and leaving reviews for me to peruse like a

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<v Speaker 2>semi creep, such as, for example, one left by anonymous

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<v Speaker 2>epidemiologists to speak, who said more years of grad school

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<v Speaker 2>than I like to admit tends to hamper my ability

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<v Speaker 2>to talk about my research without being boring, condescending, inaccurate,

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<v Speaker 2>or worse all three. I love this podcast because it

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<v Speaker 2>helps me figure out how to talk about my own

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<v Speaker 2>work in a way that is true but hopefully relatable.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm going to say I think a lot of folks

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<v Speaker 2>listening probably related to that. So boom, there you go. Okay, astrobiology,

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<v Speaker 2>let's get to it. Once called exobiology, but let's consult

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<v Speaker 2>the grip, shall we. So astro comes from the word

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<v Speaker 2>for star, and biology has its roots in the verb

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<v Speaker 2>to live. So what is out there living on those

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<v Speaker 2>ding dang stars? What's on the planets? That's the big question?

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<v Speaker 2>Is anything alive out there? What are the odds?

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<v Speaker 3>Is it big?

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<v Speaker 2>Is it small? Is it cooler than us? So to

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<v Speaker 2>get some answers, will consult a professional. So over the

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<v Speaker 2>course of eleven months and twenty seven gentle desperate emails

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<v Speaker 2>for me. This ologist kindly obliged, and the resulting interview

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<v Speaker 2>is I was literally about to say stellar. I'm not

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<v Speaker 2>going to I swear that was an accident, but it

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<v Speaker 2>was a stellar interview.

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<v Speaker 3>He's such a great dude.

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<v Speaker 2>So he has been a researcher at the SETI Institute,

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<v Speaker 2>the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence that was founded by Carl

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<v Speaker 2>Sagan and Frank Drake. He's a National geographic explorer who

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<v Speaker 2>has stretched the Arctic and down to the depths of

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<v Speaker 2>the Sea. You may have seen him in James Cameron

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<v Speaker 2>Aliens of the Deep and is currently the Deputy Chief

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<v Speaker 2>Scientist for Solar System Exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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<v Speaker 2>in Pasadena, California. And side note, the opinions he expresses

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<v Speaker 2>therein are his own and not those of JPL or NASA,

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<v Speaker 2>because when you're in charge of looking for space aliens

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<v Speaker 2>from NASA, you got to toss out some disclaimers. He

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<v Speaker 2>stopped by last week after work and we settled in

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<v Speaker 2>for an evening talk about icy moons and space drills,

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<v Speaker 2>ty extraterrestrials sci fi movies, extremophile tartar grades, subsurface oceans, squirrels, ghosts. Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>I brought up the ghost I'm sorry, various voyages made

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<v Speaker 2>by NASA spacecraft and essentially what is lurking in the

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<v Speaker 2>great darkness of the universe and doesn't want to kill us?

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<v Speaker 2>So make some space in your brain for the brilliant

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<v Speaker 2>and wonderful astrobiologist, doctor Kevin Peter Hand. Okay, that's what

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<v Speaker 2>I thought, But just in case it was hond, I've

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<v Speaker 2>never said it aloud.

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<v Speaker 3>I thought i'd ask.

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<v Speaker 2>Now, you are an astrobiologist, correct, when you toss that

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<v Speaker 2>out at parties?

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<v Speaker 3>Do people know what that means?

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<v Speaker 4>No, because I don't toss it out at parties.

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<v Speaker 3>That's one way to avoid that. What exactly does it mean?

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<v Speaker 4>It's a it's a very good question, many different ways

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<v Speaker 4>to answer it, but simply put, astrobiology is the study

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<v Speaker 4>of the living universe. And yeah, that's that's it, in

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<v Speaker 4>a nutshell.

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<v Speaker 2>The study of the living universe. So this is excluding

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<v Speaker 2>rocks air.

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<v Speaker 4>Well, keep going and welcome back to some of that.

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<v Speaker 3>Rocks light cars.

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<v Speaker 4>So what's important about it being the study of the

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<v Speaker 4>living universe is that Oftentimes when people think about astrobiology,

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<v Speaker 4>they say, you know, okay, this is the search for

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<v Speaker 4>life beyond Earth, And that's correct, that's certainly part of astrobiology.

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<v Speaker 4>But what's also very central to astrobiology is the study

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<v Speaker 4>of the origin, evolution, and future of life on Earth.

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<v Speaker 4>Where did we come from, where are we going? How

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<v Speaker 4>did life originate? And so when you think about the

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<v Speaker 4>living universe, of course, right now all we know of

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<v Speaker 4>is life on Earth. We have yet to find even

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<v Speaker 4>a little speck of life beyond Earth. But based on

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<v Speaker 4>what we know from life on Earth, and based on

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<v Speaker 4>what we know about the other major sciences physics, chemistry, geology,

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<v Speaker 4>we can make the prediction that, if the conditions are right,

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<v Speaker 4>life should potentially arise beyond Earth.

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<v Speaker 2>So to be an interplanetary alien hunter it helps to

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<v Speaker 2>have a background that's a bit interdisciplinary. So Kevin doctor

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<v Speaker 2>Hand got his bachelors from Dartmouth and physics with a

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<v Speaker 2>minor in astronomy and studied some psychology in there as well,

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<v Speaker 2>then went on to get a master's at Stanford in

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<v Speaker 2>mechanical engineering with a focus on robots. He continued on

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<v Speaker 2>at Stanford there for a PhD and his dissertation was

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<v Speaker 2>titled on the Physics and Chemistry of the ice shell

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<v Speaker 2>and subsurface Ocean of Europa. It used Galileo spacecraft magnetometer data.

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<v Speaker 2>More on that later. Now. The abstract for Kevin's dissertation

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<v Speaker 2>uses the term holophilic organisms, and yes, I look that

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<v Speaker 2>shit up, and halophilic means I love me some salt

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<v Speaker 2>in science talk. So next time you single handedly finish

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<v Speaker 2>off the onion dip at a party, don't be shamed

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<v Speaker 2>to say I'm a halophile. Just own it, salty bitches.

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<v Speaker 3>How did you start to get into this field?

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<v Speaker 2>Were you more of an astro nerd or a biology nerd,

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<v Speaker 2>or like an alien nerd?

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<v Speaker 4>What was your history? Sorry for the cough, but yeah,

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<v Speaker 4>I don't know. I'm a bit of an intellectual platypus

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<v Speaker 4>in that so I studied physics and astronomy and psychology

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<v Speaker 4>and undergrad and part of the rationale for the psychology was, well,

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<v Speaker 4>let's say we do get a signal from extraterrestrial intelligence,

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<v Speaker 4>how do we with our five senses are senses that

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<v Speaker 4>evolved under the conditions that planet Earth has presented us with.

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<v Speaker 4>But from a just captivation standpoint, my curiosity and my

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<v Speaker 4>obsession with this question started at a young age and

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<v Speaker 4>just looking up at the at the night sky, did.

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<v Speaker 3>You see e T? Did you see aliens?

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<v Speaker 2>Like there's no lack of aliens in pop culture? Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>what's your what's your flavor? What's your flavor of alien entertainment?

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<v Speaker 4>Well that's that's a broad question. Well, so to your

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<v Speaker 4>question of of E T. As a as a young child,

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<v Speaker 4>I grew up in a small town in Vermont, and

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<v Speaker 4>so the night sky of Vermont captivated my imagination early on.

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<v Speaker 4>You it's hard to grow up under a clear night

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<v Speaker 4>sky and not wonder what could be out there. And

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<v Speaker 4>so that coupled with Carl Sagan's Cosmos, both the TV

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<v Speaker 4>series and his books, uh and some great science teachers

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<v Speaker 4>early on, those were all big influenced.

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<v Speaker 1>The cosmos is were rich beyond measure.

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<v Speaker 5>The total number of stars and you know, Verse is larger.

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<v Speaker 4>Than all the grains of sand, than all the beaches

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<v Speaker 4>of the planet Earth. And then yeah, ET Close Encounters

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<v Speaker 4>of the Third kind. And not only did I watch ET,

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<v Speaker 4>but I also was ET for Halloween. Nice.

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<v Speaker 3>How many years in a row?

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<v Speaker 4>Still going still? Yeah, I haven't stopped all yet. As

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<v Speaker 4>a kid, my mom soda and et outfit for me,

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<v Speaker 4>and I just lived in that thing.

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<v Speaker 2>That's the best I can just imagine. They're like Kevin,

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<v Speaker 2>it's February.

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<v Speaker 4>Shut up, not taking it off.

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<v Speaker 2>So when looking for alien life real quick, let's get

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<v Speaker 2>some stats out of the way. Now, the Big Bang

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<v Speaker 2>happened approximately thirteen point eight billion years ago. For more

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<v Speaker 2>on that, you can see the two parter with cosmologist

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<v Speaker 2>doctor Katie Mack. And Earth has been around for four

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<v Speaker 2>point five billion years, and there's evidence that life began

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<v Speaker 2>on our planet at least three point seven billion years ago,

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<v Speaker 2>maybe even over four billion years ago. So now we

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<v Speaker 2>are one. It's a bitsy tan ten ten pale blue

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<v Speaker 2>dot in the cosmos, but we know there are a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of grains of sand out there, so how many

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<v Speaker 2>could have life. This is where you just grab an

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<v Speaker 2>envelope and flip it over because it's time for the

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<v Speaker 2>Drake equation. So Frank Drake. He's a round faced man

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<v Speaker 2>of eighty eight who looks like he could play a

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<v Speaker 2>grandpa in an oatmeal commercial. He's one of the founders

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<v Speaker 2>of SETI, and in their very first meeting in nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>sixty one, he busted out the Drake equation, posing that

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<v Speaker 2>the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication

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<v Speaker 2>might be possible is based on ready whole bunch of math.

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<v Speaker 2>Here we go the rate of star formation, the fraction

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<v Speaker 2>of those stars that even have planets, and the number

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<v Speaker 2>of planets per star in a habitable zone, and then

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<v Speaker 2>the fraction that actually do the develop life, the fraction

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<v Speaker 2>of those planets that have in intelligent life or civilization,

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<v Speaker 2>and then the fraction of those civilizations that make technology.

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<v Speaker 2>They can communicate their own existence to the universe times

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<v Speaker 2>a length of time they're beaming there, hey, into the cosmos.

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<v Speaker 2>So this Drake equation can come up with different outcomes

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<v Speaker 2>that vary widely depending on your estimations for all those factors,

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<v Speaker 2>but overwhelmingly, at the very most, our chances of being

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<v Speaker 2>alone are thirty percent, just thirty percent, based on some calculations.

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<v Speaker 2>It came out last summer by some Oxford astrobiologists, which

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<v Speaker 2>included someone on the team named Ander Sandberg, not to

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<v Speaker 2>be confused with Brooklyn nine nine's Andy Sandberg.

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<v Speaker 4>Welcome to the Space of Olympics a year thirty twenty two.

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<v Speaker 2>Anyway, that back of the envelope deduction is called a

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<v Speaker 2>Fermi problem. This was named after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi,

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<v Speaker 2>who's known for those equations like how many piano tuners

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<v Speaker 2>are there in Chicago? First you gott figure out how

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<v Speaker 2>many people are in Chicago, how many people have pianos,

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<v Speaker 2>how many people need tuners, blah blah blah blah blah. Also,

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<v Speaker 2>Fermi famously uttered what is now known as Fermi's paradox

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<v Speaker 2>when discussing astrobiology over a summer luncheon in nineteen fifty.

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<v Speaker 2>Discussing the seeming absence of aliens, he asked, informally, oh,

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<v Speaker 2>where is everybody?

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<v Speaker 1>Where?

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<v Speaker 4>Is everybody? Where?

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<v Speaker 3>Is everybody?

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<v Speaker 4>Where's everybody?

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<v Speaker 3>Where? Is everybody? Everybody?

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<v Speaker 1>Where?

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<v Speaker 3>Is everybody?

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<v Speaker 2>Fermi's paradox has become one of the smartest stupid questions

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<v Speaker 2>ever asked. Now, speaking of those questions, back to Kevin.

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<v Speaker 2>When Kevin was an undergrad, he interned at the NASA

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<v Speaker 2>Ames Research Center, and he went to see his hero,

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<v Speaker 2>Frank Drake give a talk.

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<v Speaker 4>I love this story and I was obsessed with this

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<v Speaker 4>stuff since I was a little kid. Got to see

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<v Speaker 4>Frank Drake give a talk and afterward with a lot

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<v Speaker 4>of trepidation, Doctor Drake, I just had a little question

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<v Speaker 4>for you, and it's probably crazy, et cetera. And I said, so,

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<v Speaker 4>if we think about life on Earth, what do you

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<v Speaker 4>think is going to be the next tool using communicating

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<v Speaker 4>uh organism. That means that's not a crazy question, it's

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<v Speaker 4>it's it's obviously going to be squirrels and raccoons. Mind blown, uh,

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<v Speaker 4>And you can you explained to his rationale which is

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<v Speaker 4>quite sound, which is that those creatures are coexisting with

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<v Speaker 4>us right now and they are problem solving.

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<v Speaker 2>My god, he's going to delight my dad, who has

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<v Speaker 2>now constructed four squirrel houses on the property. It's like

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<v Speaker 2>I am welcoming the next species.

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<v Speaker 4>And I like Frank's logic. And that was that was

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<v Speaker 4>a fond memory that I have of my first interaction

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<v Speaker 4>with a living, breathing scientist, and to some extent having

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<v Speaker 4>my uh, crazy obsession validated by his like, oh, great question.

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<v Speaker 4>Raccoons and squirrels the best.

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<v Speaker 3>Oh my god.

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<v Speaker 2>So ask some more people stupid questions because they're great questions. Also,

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<v Speaker 2>hide your wallet from raccoons. Don't tell any of your

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<v Speaker 2>secrets to squirrels. Dad now in his work Kevin has

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<v Speaker 2>traveled to all sorts of biomes, but he says that

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<v Speaker 2>if you have the travel bug, you don't have to

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<v Speaker 2>do astrobiology specifically to have field work adventures kind of

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<v Speaker 2>any Earth science will get you out about. Also side note,

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<v Speaker 2>there's a real need for folks who want to study geobiology,

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<v Speaker 2>which is the study of microbes that eat rocks. Anyway,

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<v Speaker 2>he loves to bop around for science.

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<v Speaker 4>I grew up doing a lot of skiing, climbing, mountaineering,

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<v Speaker 4>various things, and I've got to get out and see

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<v Speaker 4>planet Earth. And it's exploring Planet Earth is part of

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<v Speaker 4>what grounds me, centers me, connects me back with the

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<v Speaker 4>night sky and helps reignite that that curiosity and that

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<v Speaker 4>that passion for exploration and discovery. Uh. And so I

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<v Speaker 4>feel very fortunate that I've been able to have some

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<v Speaker 4>research programs where I've gone to Antarctica, made dives in

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<v Speaker 4>submersibles to the bottom of to some hydrothermal vents and

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<v Speaker 4>orosi and gone up to uh the Arctic and explored

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<v Speaker 4>icy environments up there. Yeah. So it's uh, it's been

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<v Speaker 4>amazing going to those places.

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<v Speaker 2>Now, what is a day in the life of an astrobiologist, like, like,

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<v Speaker 2>what does your work look like?

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, well, well that's there's many different layers to that.

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<v Speaker 4>My is so, I'm a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

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<v Speaker 4>and part of the job of scientists at JPL is

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<v Speaker 4>not only to do their own research and to publish papers,

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<v Speaker 4>publisher parish, et cetera, et cetera, write proposals and get

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<v Speaker 4>in that that hamster wheel of of of research. But

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<v Speaker 4>we also are very engaged with the formulation and implementation

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<v Speaker 4>of missions. Missions to all sorts of different places, small objects,

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<v Speaker 4>big objects, nearby objects, far away objects. And for me,

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<v Speaker 4>what that means is a focus on worlds in our

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<v Speaker 4>solar system that could harbor life.

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<v Speaker 2>Sorry, I'm just a mouth therament over here.

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<v Speaker 4>I focus most of my time, both from a research

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<v Speaker 4>standpoint and a mission standpoint, on Jupiter's moon Europa and

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<v Speaker 4>to a slightly lesser extent, Saturn's moon Enceladus.

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<v Speaker 2>Why are we looking at moons so much rather than

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<v Speaker 2>the planets?

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so this has been one of the big game

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<v Speaker 4>changers in astrobiology. I think people probably appreciate that an

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<v Speaker 4>amazing revolution has happened in our understanding of of planets.

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<v Speaker 4>Existing beyond our own Solar system. This goes back to

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<v Speaker 4>the early nineteen nineties when the first exoplanets were discovered.

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<v Speaker 4>Fast forward to to today, and we've got both ground

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<v Speaker 4>based telescopic observations and spacecraft observations, Kepler being the most

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<v Speaker 4>recent example that have discovered thousands of exoplanets. So I

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<v Speaker 4>think people are for the most part pretty familiar with

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<v Speaker 4>the exoplanet revolution in the prospect for potentially habitable worlds.

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<v Speaker 2>Okay, quick aside, in case you're like, remind me what

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<v Speaker 2>Kepler was all about again. Okay, So this is a

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<v Speaker 2>space telescope that NASA launched in two thousand and nine,

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<v Speaker 2>and it flew around to determine the percentage of Earth

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<v Speaker 2>like planets out there. It weighed about twenty three hundred pounds,

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<v Speaker 2>and I did a bunch of comparisons size wise, it

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<v Speaker 2>was about as big as a hum vy. It scooted around,

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<v Speaker 2>taken dope ass photos, observing five hundred and thirty five

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<v Speaker 2>hundred and six stars. It discovered two thousand, six hundred

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<v Speaker 2>and sixty two exoplanets, and after nine years, way beyond

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<v Speaker 2>its expected lifetime, Kepler ran out of fuel last fall

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<v Speaker 2>in twenty eighteen, it was deactivated with a good night

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<v Speaker 2>command sent for a mission control. It's now just kicking

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<v Speaker 2>it in space millions of miles away orbiting the Sun,

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<v Speaker 2>but its data helped astrobiologists conclude that there may be

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<v Speaker 2>eleven billion Earth like planets orbiting Sun like stars in

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<v Speaker 2>the Milky Way galaxy. Eleven billion planets in the Milky

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<v Speaker 2>Way Galaxy a lot like Earth whoa Also it was

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<v Speaker 2>named after Johann Kepler, who in the sixteen hundreds was

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<v Speaker 2>a contemporary of Tiko Brahe, the Danish astronomer who not

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<v Speaker 2>only had a beer guzzling drunk pet moose that lived

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<v Speaker 2>in his castle, but also had a metal nose after

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<v Speaker 2>a sword fighting incident, and who later died after his

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<v Speaker 2>bladder exploded because he was too polite to go potty

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<v Speaker 2>at a fancy dinner party. For more on that, see

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<v Speaker 2>Selenology Moon episode. But anyway, Kepler changed the game in

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<v Speaker 2>helping discover so many planets that could harbor life.

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<v Speaker 4>The other big game changer, in my opinion, has been

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<v Speaker 4>what I like to call sort of a new Goldilocks.

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<v Speaker 3>I think I see where this is going.

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<v Speaker 4>So in the early days of astronomy and planetary science

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<v Speaker 4>and astrobiology. Back in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, when

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<v Speaker 4>planetary scientists, astronomers, exobiologists thought about what it takes for

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<v Speaker 4>a world to be habitable, that framework was largely based

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<v Speaker 4>on our Earth biases. Wherever we look and find liquid

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<v Speaker 4>water on Earth, we generally find life. Therefore, you need

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<v Speaker 4>liquid water for life, and in order for a planet

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<v Speaker 4>to harbor liquid water, you've got to have liquid water

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<v Speaker 4>on the surface in contact with a nice atmosphere. And

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<v Speaker 4>for a planet to be able to sustain those kind

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<v Speaker 4>of conditions, you have to be at just the right

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<v Speaker 4>distance from your parent star so that you're not too

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<v Speaker 4>hot or not too cold. If you're too close to

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<v Speaker 4>your parent star, like Venuses, then you're too hot and

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<v Speaker 4>you probably boiled off any ocean that you once had.

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<v Speaker 4>If you're too far away like Mars, and maybe some

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<v Speaker 4>of the water froze out or you lost much of

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<v Speaker 4>your water to space. But if you're at the Earth

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<v Speaker 4>Sun distance, then you're in that sort of Goldilocks sweet spot.

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<v Speaker 6>And it was neither too hot nor too cold.

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<v Speaker 4>It was just right, and you can have liquid water

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<v Speaker 4>on the surface of your planet, and potentially it's off

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<v Speaker 4>to the races from a biology stamp, that Goldilock scenario

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<v Speaker 4>has kind of been the paradigm what we've learned in

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<v Speaker 4>the past few decades, and this was largely informed by

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<v Speaker 4>the Voyager spacecraft and then the Galley of spacecraft and

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<v Speaker 4>then the Cassini's spacecraft that went into the Outer Solar System.

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<v Speaker 2>Quick aside, let's do a rapid rundown of these spacecrafts

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<v Speaker 2>for your next pub trivia victory. Okay, ready, So Voyager

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<v Speaker 2>one and two are a set of twin spacecrafts launched

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen seventy seven. They explored all of the giant

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<v Speaker 2>planets of our Outer Solar System. We're talking Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,

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<v Speaker 2>and Neptune forty eight of their moons, plus a bunch

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<v Speaker 2>of planetary rings, some magnetic fields. So as of November fifth,

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<v Speaker 2>twenty eighteen, both are now exploring interstellar space. This is

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<v Speaker 2>between eleven and thirteen billion miles away. So NASA JPL's

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<v Speaker 2>website has a constantly updated ticker of their location, which

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<v Speaker 2>is kind of like Find My Friends, but for forty

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<v Speaker 2>year old, very famous and respected spacecraft. Now. Galileo was

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<v Speaker 2>launched in nineteen eighty nine. It got to Jupiter nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>ninety five and it orbited the Jovian aka Jupiterium system.

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<v Speaker 2>It did eleven flybys of Jupiter's moon Europa during this

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<v Speaker 2>outer space stint. It went from nineteen eighty nine to

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<v Speaker 2>two thousand and three. Now Cassini was launched in nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>ninety seven. This was all about Saturn, and it entered

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<v Speaker 2>Saturn's orbit in two thousand and four. It did two

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<v Speaker 2>flybys of Venus, saw a cool asteroid, checked out Jupiter,

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<v Speaker 2>and it also deployed a lander on Titan, which is

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<v Speaker 2>one of Saturn's moons, in two thousand and five, and

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<v Speaker 2>then we crashed and burned it on purpose in September

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<v Speaker 2>twenty seventeen. Okay, so moons Europa is one of Jupiter's,

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<v Speaker 2>Titan is one of Saturn's. Now, if you already knew

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<v Speaker 2>that awesome, Here's something you might not know. In Scotland,

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<v Speaker 2>it's illegal to walk a pig on a leash.

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<v Speaker 4>Is that these moons of the outer Solar System are

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<v Speaker 4>presenting us with a new Goldilock scenario. It's a Goldilock

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<v Speaker 4>scenario where the energy to maintain and sustain liquid water

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<v Speaker 4>comes not from the energy of your parent star, but

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<v Speaker 4>rather from the energy of tie. It's the tug and

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<v Speaker 4>pull that these moons experience as they go around their

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<v Speaker 4>gas giants or their ice giants, and so the Jovian system.

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<v Speaker 4>The moons of Jupiter are a great example of this.

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<v Speaker 4>There are four large moons Io, your rope Aganamine a chlysto.

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<v Speaker 4>Io does not have an ocean. Io doesn't really have

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<v Speaker 4>any water, Io orbits Jupiter, and Io is tugged to

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<v Speaker 4>such a great degree that it is the most volcanically

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<v Speaker 4>active body in our solar system, more volcanically active than

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<v Speaker 4>the Earth. The volcanoes are erupting on Io right now.

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<v Speaker 4>It's just a beautiful, beautiful gem of a world. And

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<v Speaker 4>it really does kind of look like a gemstone when

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<v Speaker 4>you look at these pictures.

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<v Speaker 3>It's a lava party happening so far away it is.

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<v Speaker 1>It is.

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<v Speaker 4>Break out the popcorn and just watch. So in this

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<v Speaker 4>new Goldilocks paradigm, Io it's kind of like Venus. It's

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<v Speaker 4>got too much tidal energy. It's too closer. It's you know,

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<v Speaker 4>Venus is too close to warm. Io has got too

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<v Speaker 4>much tidal activity. Let's go to the further furthest out

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<v Speaker 4>of the large moons Calisto. Now Calisto, we think it

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<v Speaker 4>does have an ocean trapped beneath a very thick ice shell,

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<v Speaker 4>But Calisto has very little tidal energy dissipation going on

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<v Speaker 4>in it. So in that scenario, Callisto is kind of

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<v Speaker 4>like Mars. It's it's maybe doesn't have quite enough energy

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<v Speaker 4>to really make it an ocean that we could explore

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<v Speaker 4>and think could sustain life today. But in the middle

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<v Speaker 4>we've got Europa and Ganymede, and Europa in particular, we

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<v Speaker 4>think occupies this new Goldilocks sweet spot where it's got

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<v Speaker 4>just the right amount of tidal energy dissipation. So it's

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<v Speaker 4>to sustain a global salty liquid water that's one hundred

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<v Speaker 4>kilometers or sixty miles in depth. Oh my god, yeah,

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<v Speaker 4>that's the right response.

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<v Speaker 3>How deep are are oceans?

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<v Speaker 4>So it's about ten times as deep as our ocean.

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<v Speaker 3>Oh, the smokes the octopods we must have.

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<v Speaker 4>So in the Marianto Trench we're about seven miles deep,

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<v Speaker 4>eleven kilometers down. Europe was ocean ten times as deep.

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<v Speaker 2>So our oceans are seven or so miles deep. But

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<v Speaker 2>where did the water come from? Kevin says, they're two

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<v Speaker 2>sources water from the rocks from which Earth itself formed.

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<v Speaker 2>And then there's what they call water that's exotic in

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<v Speaker 2>its delivery. So coming from comets are asteroids. This is

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<v Speaker 2>like Postmates, but a dirty ball of frozen space ocean

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<v Speaker 2>ding goong, I'll get it.

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<v Speaker 4>And so yeah, water elsewhere in the Solar System was

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<v Speaker 4>delivered to the Earth. And when it comes to finding

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<v Speaker 4>water elsewhere, we now that know that it exists not

418
00:25:58.079 --> 00:26:00.200
<v Speaker 4>just on Earth but also on our moon and these

419
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:04.799
<v Speaker 4>various asteroids, comets, the moons of the outer Solar System,

420
00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:07.279
<v Speaker 4>in the permafrost of Mars.

421
00:26:07.480 --> 00:26:07.960
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god.

422
00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:10.440
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there's a lot of water out there. And I

423
00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:13.680
<v Speaker 4>should be clear when I say water, I'm not differentiating

424
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:17.640
<v Speaker 4>for the most part. I'm referring to water in ice form.

425
00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:20.559
<v Speaker 4>Right when we get to Europa in the ocean world's there,

426
00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:23.240
<v Speaker 4>we are then talking about water in the liquid phase.

427
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:26.799
<v Speaker 2>Slichy, sloshy water is what a lot of scientists cologists

428
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:28.640
<v Speaker 2>in case you need to use that in a meeting.

429
00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:33.160
<v Speaker 2>So there's plenty of water on Jupiter's moon Europa, both

430
00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:36.880
<v Speaker 2>in ice and in liquid form, and is deep. Now,

431
00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:41.759
<v Speaker 2>could extraterrestrials be lurking in those deep dark waters.

432
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:44.480
<v Speaker 4>The Europe is small, It's about the size of our moon.

433
00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:50.119
<v Speaker 4>It's Europe is about one seventh of the Earth's gravity.

434
00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:53.240
<v Speaker 4>So when you do the math the pressure within Europa's ocean,

435
00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:56.799
<v Speaker 4>it's comparable to it's a bit more, but it's comparable

436
00:26:56.799 --> 00:26:59.680
<v Speaker 4>to the pressure found within the deepest trenches of our ocean.

437
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:02.359
<v Speaker 4>Oh and so when we think about, well, you know,

438
00:27:02.599 --> 00:27:07.359
<v Speaker 4>could life survive within europos ocean, we can actually do

439
00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:10.160
<v Speaker 4>the experiment and look at places on planet Earth where

440
00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:15.319
<v Speaker 4>the conditions are comparable and say, oh wow, life found

441
00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:18.720
<v Speaker 4>a way in that environment that has parameters similar to

442
00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:21.640
<v Speaker 4>Europa's ocean, or in solidus is ocean, and so on

443
00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:22.359
<v Speaker 4>and so forth.

444
00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:26.440
<v Speaker 1>Life will find a way if you want so eloquently

445
00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:27.000
<v Speaker 1>put it.

446
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.880
<v Speaker 4>And we can make the sort of biological plausibility connection.

447
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:33.440
<v Speaker 2>So Kevin says that they analyze magnetometer data to figure

448
00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:37.160
<v Speaker 2>out what's creating the gravity fields on those worlds, and

449
00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.759
<v Speaker 2>then with a lot of whiteboard number crunching, came to

450
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:45.200
<v Speaker 2>the conclusion that Europa is encrusted in ice with liquid

451
00:27:45.359 --> 00:27:49.440
<v Speaker 2>salty water below it. But how thick is that magic

452
00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:52.319
<v Speaker 2>shell of ice? So most of his colleagues would say,

453
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:56.000
<v Speaker 2>like twenty kilometers thick, but he's in the minority. He

454
00:27:56.039 --> 00:27:59.240
<v Speaker 2>thinks it's quite a bit thinner, perhaps less than ten

455
00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:02.519
<v Speaker 2>kilometers thick. So when do we get to bore into

456
00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:06.279
<v Speaker 2>it like an icy coconut? While NASA is planning to

457
00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:08.759
<v Speaker 2>launch the orbiting space.

458
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.960
<v Speaker 3>Probe that's called the Europa Clipper.

459
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:13.599
<v Speaker 2>In about twenty twenty two, and that's going to take

460
00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:17.200
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of sassy photos and determine some chemical composition.

461
00:28:17.400 --> 00:28:21.720
<v Speaker 2>It'll set the stage for a chilly, icy Europa landing

462
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:25.119
<v Speaker 2>by twenty thirty. What do we call this lander? Well,

463
00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:28.519
<v Speaker 2>Kevin kicked around the nickname Europa Landing Probe for Surface

464
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:31.400
<v Speaker 2>Astrobiology or ELSA.

465
00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.920
<v Speaker 5>Co never bothered me anyway.

466
00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:35.960
<v Speaker 2>How will they bust through this ice? This isn't a

467
00:28:36.039 --> 00:28:40.240
<v Speaker 2>crem breulet. At JPL, they're prototyping these robotic arms and

468
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.240
<v Speaker 2>drills and saws and sampling systems, and some of the

469
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.839
<v Speaker 2>oceanic diving technology that they're tinkering with has a win

470
00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:51.880
<v Speaker 2>wind bonus because it's making waves in our own undersea

471
00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:54.279
<v Speaker 2>exploration for this whole planet we call Earth.

472
00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:55.480
<v Speaker 3>And now Europa.

473
00:28:55.640 --> 00:28:59.559
<v Speaker 2>Is that where we're really looking in terms of searching

474
00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:00.960
<v Speaker 2>for something alive?

475
00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:03.160
<v Speaker 3>Is that really where all eyes are?

476
00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:07.759
<v Speaker 4>Kind of on Europa, well, I love to highlight three

477
00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:17.519
<v Speaker 4>prime ocean world candidates, Europa and Solidus and Titan Titan.

478
00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:20.160
<v Speaker 4>When we talk about Titan briefly first and we can

479
00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:23.559
<v Speaker 4>come back to it. Titan is just an amazing world

480
00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:26.759
<v Speaker 4>with its atmosphere and liquid methane ethane lakes carving out

481
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:31.319
<v Speaker 4>its icy surface, and there's liquid water ocean beneath its

482
00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:37.960
<v Speaker 4>ice crust. And from the standpoint of astrobiology, Titan is

483
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:40.920
<v Speaker 4>my favorite place to go and look for weird life.

484
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.680
<v Speaker 4>And what I mean by weird life is life unlike

485
00:29:45.799 --> 00:29:49.240
<v Speaker 4>life as we know it. Life as we know it

486
00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:53.920
<v Speaker 4>is based on liquid water as the solvents the substance

487
00:29:53.960 --> 00:29:57.279
<v Speaker 4>in which the chemical reactions of life take place, and

488
00:29:57.319 --> 00:29:59.559
<v Speaker 4>those chemical reactions and the building blocks are of course

489
00:29:59.559 --> 00:30:02.279
<v Speaker 4>based on carbon. We are a carbon and water based

490
00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:09.200
<v Speaker 4>life form. On Titan, life would potentially also be carbon based,

491
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:14.039
<v Speaker 4>but the solvent might be liquid methane and ethane in

492
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:17.880
<v Speaker 4>those lakes that we see on Titan. Could life? Could

493
00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:21.559
<v Speaker 4>the business of life get done? Could life originate? Is

494
00:30:21.559 --> 00:30:23.880
<v Speaker 4>there a weird life form that could arise in those

495
00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:26.880
<v Speaker 4>lakes and seas. I don't know, but I'd sure love

496
00:30:26.920 --> 00:30:31.119
<v Speaker 4>to get there and explore. And then Titan could, of course,

497
00:30:31.319 --> 00:30:34.039
<v Speaker 4>within its liquid water ocean beneath its its icy shell,

498
00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:40.119
<v Speaker 4>harbor water and carbon based life similar to what we

499
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:41.480
<v Speaker 4>know and love here on Earth.

500
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:43.720
<v Speaker 3>How flammable.

501
00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:50.119
<v Speaker 4>Can you start titaned on fire? This short answer is no,

502
00:30:50.279 --> 00:30:53.920
<v Speaker 4>because in order to light something on fire, what do

503
00:30:53.960 --> 00:31:02.240
<v Speaker 4>you need? Yes, And so Titan's atmosphere as basically no oxygen,

504
00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:06.440
<v Speaker 4>and so that actually is one of the limiting factors

505
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:09.680
<v Speaker 4>for me when I think about the feasibility of life

506
00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:10.720
<v Speaker 4>on Titan.

507
00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:15.200
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so back to general habitability. Kevin says liquid water

508
00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:17.839
<v Speaker 2>is one of the keystones. So what else is on

509
00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:19.519
<v Speaker 2>our intergalactic shopping list?

510
00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:22.119
<v Speaker 4>The other keystones for life are that you need the

511
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:26.079
<v Speaker 4>building blocks, the stuff that life is made of, the

512
00:31:26.359 --> 00:31:30.839
<v Speaker 4>bricks and mortar. For us, that's carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,

513
00:31:31.319 --> 00:31:34.720
<v Speaker 4>a smattering of some fifty four elements from the periodic table.

514
00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:40.720
<v Speaker 4>Then the third kind of lesser appreciated keystone is life

515
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:44.400
<v Speaker 4>needs energy. It needs a power source. It needs something

516
00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:50.880
<v Speaker 4>that can sustain the growth and reproduction and the maintenance

517
00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:55.400
<v Speaker 4>of life. Technically, we call that the redox gradients that

518
00:31:55.839 --> 00:32:01.039
<v Speaker 4>life harnesses. You bring together a reductant compound that likes

519
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:04.960
<v Speaker 4>to give up electrons with an oxygen that likes to

520
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:12.279
<v Speaker 4>accept electrons. And for us, we Homo sapiens, that redox

521
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:18.920
<v Speaker 4>reaction is eat some carbohydrates, eat some food, and breathe

522
00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:22.640
<v Speaker 4>in oxygen, and then we do a slow burn in

523
00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:29.759
<v Speaker 4>our stomachs and biology in us we're glorified campfire man,

524
00:32:29.799 --> 00:32:32.960
<v Speaker 4>so we're doing a slow burn with our redox chemistry

525
00:32:33.880 --> 00:32:34.839
<v Speaker 4>inside our bodies.

526
00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:38.319
<v Speaker 2>So next time you're eating fistfuls of cookie dough, just holler,

527
00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:41.880
<v Speaker 2>I'm redoxing. Microbes, however, can vary quite a bit and

528
00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:45.880
<v Speaker 2>have all kinds of metabolic pathways. So by studying how

529
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:48.079
<v Speaker 2>they do it at the bottom of trenches and then

530
00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:50.440
<v Speaker 2>the Arctic and next to volcanoes, we can try to

531
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.680
<v Speaker 2>determine how those little bibis on other planets and moons

532
00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:56.880
<v Speaker 2>might go about their business of eating and farting and

533
00:32:56.880 --> 00:32:58.559
<v Speaker 2>pooping and mating as it were.

534
00:32:58.920 --> 00:32:59.680
<v Speaker 3>Now on some.

535
00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:02.680
<v Speaker 2>Moons that may be easier to envision than on others,

536
00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:05.440
<v Speaker 2>Kevin explains.

537
00:33:04.559 --> 00:33:09.240
<v Speaker 4>And I think for Enceladus and Europa there probably is

538
00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:13.519
<v Speaker 4>some redox chemistry, a reductant oxygen coupling that microbes could

539
00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:22.039
<v Speaker 4>harness potentially quite easily on Titan. The chemical story there

540
00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:26.839
<v Speaker 4>for redox pairing is a little more complicated than what

541
00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:28.440
<v Speaker 4>we gotta go. We got to explore, We got to

542
00:33:28.440 --> 00:33:32.000
<v Speaker 4>get out there and just see because biology doesn't care

543
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:35.759
<v Speaker 4>what our hypotheses are. It's just gonna if it can

544
00:33:35.799 --> 00:33:36.640
<v Speaker 4>take hold, it will.

545
00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:41.559
<v Speaker 2>And do you think in terms of alien life? Well,

546
00:33:41.640 --> 00:33:44.839
<v Speaker 2>number one, let me ask this, is it correct to

547
00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:50.160
<v Speaker 2>call alien life alien life? Extraterrestrials? I mean, aren't we aliens?

548
00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:51.720
<v Speaker 2>As soon as we go to Europa?

549
00:33:51.799 --> 00:33:53.519
<v Speaker 3>So why? How are they the aliens?

550
00:33:53.559 --> 00:33:53.640
<v Speaker 4>Like?

551
00:33:53.720 --> 00:33:56.119
<v Speaker 3>How what's the proper terminology?

552
00:33:56.279 --> 00:34:01.559
<v Speaker 4>Yes, frame of reference is important in all of these endeavors.

553
00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:06.720
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, uh yeah, if you're an intelligent octopus on

554
00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:13.360
<v Speaker 4>Europa and and our uh spacecraft lands there, then to them,

555
00:34:13.639 --> 00:34:14.960
<v Speaker 4>we of course are the aliens.

556
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.960
<v Speaker 3>Right is it weird that we're aliens to someone else?

557
00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:19.480
<v Speaker 2>Right? Now?

558
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:21.199
<v Speaker 4>I love it. Let's just hope we play that Close

559
00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:23.920
<v Speaker 4>Encounters music bomb.

560
00:34:26.280 --> 00:34:29.679
<v Speaker 3>And so do you think that when we find life?

561
00:34:30.119 --> 00:34:34.000
<v Speaker 4>Well, but let's let's dive into that a little bit more.

562
00:34:34.440 --> 00:34:36.440
<v Speaker 4>But go ahead and say, when do.

563
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:39.760
<v Speaker 2>You think we will find teeny tiny critters or do

564
00:34:39.840 --> 00:34:44.719
<v Speaker 2>you think we'll find crazy translucent mammoths?

565
00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:47.039
<v Speaker 3>What do you think we might find?

566
00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:52.559
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so a lot to kind of unpacking there.

567
00:34:54.360 --> 00:34:54.440
<v Speaker 2>But.

568
00:34:56.079 --> 00:35:01.840
<v Speaker 4>First let's change that when, if that's important, because both

569
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:10.400
<v Speaker 4>outcomes are incredibly profound. I certainly am excited about the

570
00:35:10.519 --> 00:35:13.679
<v Speaker 4>prospect of discovering life elsewhere, and that's in part because,

571
00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:23.719
<v Speaker 4>at a more kind of philosophical and human level, and

572
00:35:23.880 --> 00:35:27.079
<v Speaker 4>taking off my real sort of science brain, biology is beautiful.

573
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:33.360
<v Speaker 4>I love life forms and seeing how life works, and

574
00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:38.920
<v Speaker 4>so I'm excited by the prospect of biology being out

575
00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:43.719
<v Speaker 4>there in different ecosystems, different planets, and so I do

576
00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:46.920
<v Speaker 4>hope it is a when. But there again, the universe

577
00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:50.360
<v Speaker 4>doesn't care what we want, and so it could be

578
00:35:50.400 --> 00:35:54.559
<v Speaker 4>that life and the origin of life is a singularity.

579
00:35:55.119 --> 00:35:59.199
<v Speaker 4>It's only occurred here on Earth, and we are the

580
00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:02.800
<v Speaker 4>first and only instance of it. And so if we

581
00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:05.280
<v Speaker 4>do go out and explore and we don't find life elsewhere,

582
00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:12.239
<v Speaker 4>that also is pretty profound because that means that life

583
00:36:12.280 --> 00:36:16.960
<v Speaker 4>is rare and and it also puts an even bigger

584
00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:21.840
<v Speaker 4>onus on us to take care of the only life

585
00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:23.519
<v Speaker 4>we know. We of course have to do that even

586
00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:25.000
<v Speaker 4>if we do discover life elsewhere.

587
00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:28.119
<v Speaker 2>But isn't it kind of like if you're looking for

588
00:36:28.199 --> 00:36:31.360
<v Speaker 2>your cell phone and you're like, well, I checked my purse,

589
00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:32.639
<v Speaker 2>it's not there.

590
00:36:32.840 --> 00:36:34.000
<v Speaker 3>My cell phone doesn't exist.

591
00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:37.199
<v Speaker 2>And meanwhile, your cell phone could be anywhere, like if

592
00:36:37.239 --> 00:36:39.320
<v Speaker 2>we go, if we go check places, like, there's an

593
00:36:39.400 --> 00:36:41.000
<v Speaker 2>infinite number of places we.

594
00:36:40.920 --> 00:36:45.079
<v Speaker 6>Would have to check on prove it, like you'll almost

595
00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:51.159
<v Speaker 6>never prove a null result, right, But then.

596
00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:53.639
<v Speaker 4>So let's let's come back to the other part of

597
00:36:53.639 --> 00:36:57.719
<v Speaker 4>your question. Were we to find it, would it be small,

598
00:36:57.719 --> 00:37:01.480
<v Speaker 4>would it be large? Microbial? More complex? And this helps

599
00:37:02.360 --> 00:37:05.480
<v Speaker 4>me sort of triangulate on one of the aspects of

600
00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:08.719
<v Speaker 4>the exploration of ocean worlds like Europa, Enceladus, and Titan

601
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:11.360
<v Speaker 4>that I think is particularly important, and that is that

602
00:37:14.400 --> 00:37:18.639
<v Speaker 4>I'm really motivated by the prospect of finding what we

603
00:37:18.719 --> 00:37:23.760
<v Speaker 4>call extant life as opposed to extinct life, in other words,

604
00:37:23.880 --> 00:37:29.039
<v Speaker 4>life that is alive today, life that we could see

605
00:37:29.039 --> 00:37:32.320
<v Speaker 4>and study and understand how it works. And the reason

606
00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:35.800
<v Speaker 4>for that is because I'm in large part interested in

607
00:37:35.880 --> 00:37:39.280
<v Speaker 4>the question of is the origin of life easier hard?

608
00:37:40.159 --> 00:37:43.000
<v Speaker 4>Is there a second origin of life in our own

609
00:37:43.079 --> 00:37:47.000
<v Speaker 4>backyard here in the Solar system. And the reason for

610
00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:50.280
<v Speaker 4>that is because if we discover life in our own backyard,

611
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:53.519
<v Speaker 4>if we discover a second origin of life, one that

612
00:37:53.639 --> 00:37:58.480
<v Speaker 4>was not seeded by life on Earth, then that means

613
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:02.480
<v Speaker 4>that the origin of life is probably easy. Life arises

614
00:38:02.480 --> 00:38:06.599
<v Speaker 4>wherever the conditions are right, and we potentially live in

615
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:10.360
<v Speaker 4>a biological universe. So looking out at all those exoplanets

616
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.400
<v Speaker 4>and everything and say, okay, there's a decent chance that

617
00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:16.440
<v Speaker 4>since we found two instances to independent instances of life

618
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:20.800
<v Speaker 4>in our own solar system, the origin of life probably

619
00:38:20.840 --> 00:38:22.679
<v Speaker 4>proceeds in many different places.

620
00:38:23.320 --> 00:38:26.079
<v Speaker 2>So we're looking for life in our backyard, i e.

621
00:38:26.199 --> 00:38:29.239
<v Speaker 2>Our own solar system, because if it arose on its own,

622
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:32.199
<v Speaker 2>it would prove that life might be easy. The universe

623
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:35.320
<v Speaker 2>might be filled with critters, and if it's still alive

624
00:38:35.559 --> 00:38:38.639
<v Speaker 2>or extant as opposed to fossilized, we could find out

625
00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:42.679
<v Speaker 2>if the building blocks and genetic code involving DNA and RNA.

626
00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:45.800
<v Speaker 2>The whole business of ATP is, as Kevin says, not

627
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:49.320
<v Speaker 2>the only game in town. Is there another system besides

628
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:52.480
<v Speaker 2>DNA and RNA. This is like asking are there other

629
00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:55.400
<v Speaker 2>restaurants in your neighborhood, and are they doing good business?

630
00:38:55.440 --> 00:38:56.079
<v Speaker 3>Are they busy?

631
00:38:56.159 --> 00:38:59.199
<v Speaker 2>Also? Are they pizza places? Or is this something totally

632
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:02.480
<v Speaker 2>different like a Sahi balls? Now would Kevin care about,

633
00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:07.280
<v Speaker 2>say a shuttered and abandoned restaurant like, for example, extinct

634
00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:08.320
<v Speaker 2>life on Mars.

635
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:11.519
<v Speaker 4>I love Mars. I do some work on Mars.

636
00:39:13.559 --> 00:39:15.840
<v Speaker 2>I'm sensing there's going to be a however, or a

637
00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:19.519
<v Speaker 2>butt coming up like you're this sounds like you're breaking

638
00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:20.559
<v Speaker 2>up with Mars right now.

639
00:39:20.840 --> 00:39:21.960
<v Speaker 3>Mars, I love you.

640
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:29.679
<v Speaker 4>But Mars is absolutely fantastic, and there could be extant

641
00:39:29.719 --> 00:39:31.920
<v Speaker 4>life on Mars in the in the subsurface of Mars,

642
00:39:32.159 --> 00:39:36.599
<v Speaker 4>and I hope we explore Mars in that context. But

643
00:39:36.719 --> 00:39:41.360
<v Speaker 4>right now, our Mars exploration program is primarily focused on

644
00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:44.639
<v Speaker 4>the past habitability of Mars. And that's for very good reason.

645
00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:50.199
<v Speaker 4>You look at at the geological and geochemical history of

646
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:54.320
<v Speaker 4>Mars and we see that three and a half billion

647
00:39:54.400 --> 00:40:01.119
<v Speaker 4>years ago, it had flowing water, rivers, lakes, perhaps even

648
00:40:01.639 --> 00:40:07.039
<v Speaker 4>fast oceans that would have been potentially very earth like

649
00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:11.519
<v Speaker 4>and great places for life as we know it to

650
00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:20.199
<v Speaker 4>have existed and thrived. Now today, as for example, the

651
00:40:20.280 --> 00:40:24.840
<v Speaker 4>Mars curiosity rovers is making its way up Mount sharp

652
00:40:25.159 --> 00:40:32.360
<v Speaker 4>In on Mars in Gale Crater. Tomorrow it could turn

653
00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:38.360
<v Speaker 4>a corner and see stromatolites. Stromatolites are or textures in

654
00:40:38.599 --> 00:40:43.920
<v Speaker 4>rocks that can often be traced back to microbial mats,

655
00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:49.800
<v Speaker 4>microbes that have worked in a consortia and perhaps lived

656
00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:52.880
<v Speaker 4>three and a half billion years ago and left behind

657
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:56.760
<v Speaker 4>their sort of microbial fossil. That would be astonishing, That

658
00:40:56.800 --> 00:40:58.880
<v Speaker 4>would be a game changer, like we'd be jumping up

659
00:40:58.880 --> 00:41:02.519
<v Speaker 4>and down. I'd be super excited about that. But there

660
00:41:02.519 --> 00:41:08.440
<v Speaker 4>are some limitations. We can't drill into a stromatolite on

661
00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:13.480
<v Speaker 4>Mars and search for DNA. We can't do that on

662
00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:17.760
<v Speaker 4>planet Earth. DNA, the large biomolecules of life, do not

663
00:41:17.920 --> 00:41:21.639
<v Speaker 4>last long in the rock record, So then we'd find

664
00:41:21.639 --> 00:41:27.599
<v Speaker 4>ourselves at a crossroads. Are these stromatolites from a rock

665
00:41:27.639 --> 00:41:33.840
<v Speaker 4>on Mars evidence of an independent origin of life on

666
00:41:33.880 --> 00:41:39.400
<v Speaker 4>Mars billions of years ago, or are they evidence of

667
00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:43.280
<v Speaker 4>life on Earth that was transported to Mars hitchhiked on

668
00:41:43.320 --> 00:41:47.880
<v Speaker 4>some ejecta from an asteroid impact which then seated life

669
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:51.159
<v Speaker 4>on Mars, or vice versa. It was life on Earth

670
00:41:51.239 --> 00:41:53.960
<v Speaker 4>seated by this ancient strmatolite. Life form on Mars and

671
00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:56.800
<v Speaker 4>then came here. So Earth and Mars have got a

672
00:41:56.880 --> 00:41:59.760
<v Speaker 4>long standing relationship of trading material.

673
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:05.280
<v Speaker 2>Let's say turn a corner they find a dancing Martian

674
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:06.719
<v Speaker 2>and it's like.

675
00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:09.639
<v Speaker 3>Surprise, I was waiting to get here. Where have you been?

676
00:42:10.280 --> 00:42:14.119
<v Speaker 3>It's just like it's got maybe a camelback full of water.

677
00:42:14.199 --> 00:42:18.039
<v Speaker 3>It's good. Do you think the government would tell us

678
00:42:18.280 --> 00:42:20.880
<v Speaker 3>how soon before? Like a lay person who know.

679
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:24.119
<v Speaker 4>Now you're you're trying to get the real secrets out

680
00:42:24.119 --> 00:42:24.559
<v Speaker 4>of the alley.

681
00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:28.360
<v Speaker 2>Listen, I'm asking the questions. I know that you have,

682
00:42:28.639 --> 00:42:31.639
<v Speaker 2>I know you're wondering this, but like, how soon would

683
00:42:31.719 --> 00:42:33.719
<v Speaker 2>that come out? Because that would be something that would

684
00:42:33.840 --> 00:42:38.800
<v Speaker 2>rock every society on Earth to find out that they're aliens.

685
00:42:38.880 --> 00:42:40.440
<v Speaker 3>Right, people would freak.

686
00:42:40.159 --> 00:42:46.800
<v Speaker 4>Out if there was a little marching Martian. Yes, that

687
00:42:48.199 --> 00:42:56.880
<v Speaker 4>would would freak everybody out. Yeah, absolutely, But let's be clear,

688
00:42:56.960 --> 00:43:01.679
<v Speaker 4>there's his historical president precedent for exact actly this. The

689
00:43:01.719 --> 00:43:07.639
<v Speaker 4>al eight four double one meteorite, the Mars meteorite, the

690
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:15.119
<v Speaker 4>Allen Hills meteorite that was landed in Antarctica and was

691
00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:18.559
<v Speaker 4>studied and could be determined to have come from Mars

692
00:43:19.639 --> 00:43:22.559
<v Speaker 4>back in the late nineties, and this actually helped catalyze

693
00:43:22.639 --> 00:43:27.840
<v Speaker 4>and initiate much of the current field of astronology. Back

694
00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:32.079
<v Speaker 4>in the late nineties, there was a big press release

695
00:43:32.159 --> 00:43:39.960
<v Speaker 4>and publications about a set of evidence from studies of

696
00:43:39.960 --> 00:43:46.079
<v Speaker 4>that asteroid, of that meteorite that pointed to pass life

697
00:43:46.079 --> 00:43:46.679
<v Speaker 4>on Mars.

698
00:43:47.719 --> 00:43:49.000
<v Speaker 3>Oly Smokes.

699
00:43:49.119 --> 00:43:51.719
<v Speaker 4>Bill Clinton got up and said, Hey, look at this.

700
00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:53.320
<v Speaker 4>How amazing is this.

701
00:43:53.320 --> 00:43:56.639
<v Speaker 3>This discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of

702
00:43:56.679 --> 00:44:01.559
<v Speaker 3>the most stunning insights into our universe that signed ever uncovered.

703
00:44:01.679 --> 00:44:05.920
<v Speaker 4>Great job, NASA, and it was incredibly exciting for NASA

704
00:44:05.920 --> 00:44:08.480
<v Speaker 4>in the community. Now, granted, that was a meteorite that

705
00:44:08.559 --> 00:44:13.840
<v Speaker 4>landed on Earth. It wasn't a little Martian waving to curiosity,

706
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:18.920
<v Speaker 4>but even that Martian meteorite created a tremendous amount of excitement.

707
00:44:19.519 --> 00:44:21.320
<v Speaker 4>Fast forward to today, and just to make sure that

708
00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:25.360
<v Speaker 4>I put a cap on the Mars meteorite story, most

709
00:44:25.480 --> 00:44:29.719
<v Speaker 4>scientists who study that meteaite think that probably what was

710
00:44:29.760 --> 00:44:35.280
<v Speaker 4>seen in that meteorite was contamination from organics on Earth

711
00:44:35.719 --> 00:44:43.039
<v Speaker 4>and potentially microbes on Earth. Yeah, back to your question,

712
00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:49.360
<v Speaker 4>if we did find if a spacecraft visiting another world,

713
00:44:50.199 --> 00:44:52.880
<v Speaker 4>such as a spacecraft on Mars or a spacecraft going

714
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:55.519
<v Speaker 4>to your Ropo or a spacecraft going to enceladuscer Titan,

715
00:44:56.159 --> 00:45:03.440
<v Speaker 4>if it did find obvious evidence, if biology on those

716
00:45:03.480 --> 00:45:09.119
<v Speaker 4>worlds was very generous and made itself readily apparent, that

717
00:45:09.159 --> 00:45:12.679
<v Speaker 4>would just be phenomenal. I hope that everybody would be

718
00:45:12.760 --> 00:45:19.920
<v Speaker 4>thrilled and excited. And I often get asked, well, then

719
00:45:20.119 --> 00:45:22.880
<v Speaker 4>you know, what good is that? Why should we be

720
00:45:22.960 --> 00:45:25.519
<v Speaker 4>spending money on this area other thing? It's like, yeah,

721
00:45:26.199 --> 00:45:27.840
<v Speaker 4>that discovery. It's not going to change the way you

722
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:29.320
<v Speaker 4>make your coffee in the morning, it's not going to

723
00:45:29.679 --> 00:45:37.199
<v Speaker 4>shorten your commute, but it really would mark the beginning

724
00:45:37.239 --> 00:45:41.920
<v Speaker 4>of a new understanding, a new revolution in how we

725
00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:47.000
<v Speaker 4>think about biology, The science of biology and the stuff

726
00:45:47.039 --> 00:45:51.119
<v Speaker 4>that is us. The phenomenon of life are very phenomenon

727
00:45:52.559 --> 00:45:57.480
<v Speaker 4>and to put that in context, and it's also very

728
00:45:57.519 --> 00:46:00.000
<v Speaker 4>exciting in terms of the time in which we live.

729
00:46:01.239 --> 00:46:05.239
<v Speaker 4>Galileo couldn't send a spacecraft to Mars to search for

730
00:46:05.239 --> 00:46:07.480
<v Speaker 4>evidence of life on Mars, or to Europa or in

731
00:46:07.519 --> 00:46:09.719
<v Speaker 4>Solidus or Titan or a in these other places. For

732
00:46:09.760 --> 00:46:12.840
<v Speaker 4>the first time in the history of humanity, we have

733
00:46:12.920 --> 00:46:17.800
<v Speaker 4>the tools and technology to do this last great experiment,

734
00:46:18.199 --> 00:46:20.840
<v Speaker 4>to see whether or not biology and the phenomenon of

735
00:46:20.880 --> 00:46:24.519
<v Speaker 4>life works beyond Earth. So let's get it done. You know,

736
00:46:24.559 --> 00:46:25.679
<v Speaker 4>I'd love to get out there.

737
00:46:26.119 --> 00:46:29.320
<v Speaker 2>So when you think of the aliens, like just slow

738
00:46:29.360 --> 00:46:32.800
<v Speaker 2>your roll, start small, Maybe think of like a little goofy,

739
00:46:32.840 --> 00:46:37.320
<v Speaker 2>little bleep bloor microbes instead of you know what we

740
00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:41.159
<v Speaker 2>all think about when we talk about extraterrestrials. Why do

741
00:46:41.159 --> 00:46:43.920
<v Speaker 2>they always make it? Why do you think we have

742
00:46:44.440 --> 00:46:49.719
<v Speaker 2>such iconic imagery of these gray aliens with big heads?

743
00:46:49.760 --> 00:46:52.280
<v Speaker 2>Where do you think these kind of stories are coming from?

744
00:46:52.280 --> 00:46:55.039
<v Speaker 2>Because when we expect to see aliens, why do you

745
00:46:55.039 --> 00:46:58.000
<v Speaker 2>think we expect to see these particular visions?

746
00:46:58.960 --> 00:47:10.119
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's I don't have a good succinct answer to that.

747
00:47:10.719 --> 00:47:14.039
<v Speaker 4>I think it really, at the heart of it reveals

748
00:47:14.079 --> 00:47:19.480
<v Speaker 4>some of our own anthropocentric bias. I'm a tremendous fan

749
00:47:19.519 --> 00:47:28.960
<v Speaker 4>of what Arrival did and thinking about life forms that

750
00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:33.719
<v Speaker 4>would evolve in much different environments. But I think the

751
00:47:34.079 --> 00:47:38.880
<v Speaker 4>whole phenomenon of aliens, UFOs, et cetera, that kind of stuff.

752
00:47:39.320 --> 00:47:44.719
<v Speaker 4>It is interesting historically, if you look at William James,

753
00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:47.360
<v Speaker 4>the varieties of religious experience quick aside.

754
00:47:47.360 --> 00:47:51.079
<v Speaker 2>So doctor William James was a Victorian era psychologist who

755
00:47:51.559 --> 00:47:55.360
<v Speaker 2>believed in ghosts and telepathy, but who thought that religious

756
00:47:55.400 --> 00:47:58.000
<v Speaker 2>experiences can come in all shapes and sizes. From what

757
00:47:58.039 --> 00:48:01.760
<v Speaker 2>I gather now, this dead psychology doctor William James is

758
00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:06.599
<v Speaker 2>not to be confused with the alive UFO ologist ufologist

759
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:12.199
<v Speaker 2>doctor William J. Burns, who's the editor of UFO Magazine

760
00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:15.920
<v Speaker 2>and believes that like an influencer wielding face tune, NASA

761
00:48:15.960 --> 00:48:20.679
<v Speaker 2>airbrushes extraterrestrials out of photos all the time. Anyway, theories

762
00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:22.679
<v Speaker 2>have been simmering for centuries.

763
00:48:22.519 --> 00:48:29.320
<v Speaker 4>And the different kinds of experience people had centuries ago

764
00:48:29.960 --> 00:48:33.280
<v Speaker 4>that they ascribed to divine intervention, et cetera, et cetera.

765
00:48:33.920 --> 00:48:39.480
<v Speaker 4>I think some of those same psychological phenomenon also informed

766
00:48:39.559 --> 00:48:46.039
<v Speaker 4>the experiences that people have when they think that they've

767
00:48:46.079 --> 00:48:50.679
<v Speaker 4>experienced something with alien life forms, abductions and all those things.

768
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:53.920
<v Speaker 4>I'm by no means a specialist in that, but there again,

769
00:48:54.400 --> 00:48:57.480
<v Speaker 4>my interest in psychology has sent me down those roads

770
00:48:57.480 --> 00:48:58.239
<v Speaker 4>many times.

771
00:48:58.480 --> 00:49:01.599
<v Speaker 2>So how many people in the US believe in aliens?

772
00:49:01.840 --> 00:49:05.199
<v Speaker 2>While a twenty seventeen poll showed that nearly half did,

773
00:49:05.519 --> 00:49:09.519
<v Speaker 2>but a slim sixteen percent had reported seeing a UFO

774
00:49:09.880 --> 00:49:13.599
<v Speaker 2>now among the believers Kesha Nick Jonas, that lady from

775
00:49:13.599 --> 00:49:18.400
<v Speaker 2>The Nanny, Casey Musgraves, Russell Crowe, Kendall Jenner, and Demi Lovado, who,

776
00:49:18.440 --> 00:49:21.039
<v Speaker 2>if nothing else, has admirable conviction.

777
00:49:21.519 --> 00:49:26.239
<v Speaker 5>I believe that there could possibly be mermaids, which is

778
00:49:26.599 --> 00:49:30.280
<v Speaker 5>actually an alien species that lives in parts of the

779
00:49:30.320 --> 00:49:33.199
<v Speaker 5>Indian Ocean which we have never explored before as human.

780
00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:34.480
<v Speaker 3>Beings also top cruise.

781
00:49:34.519 --> 00:49:38.599
<v Speaker 2>But uh okay, so now, Kevin remember was a researcher

782
00:49:38.679 --> 00:49:41.920
<v Speaker 2>at SETI listening for signals. Now I found one very

783
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:45.000
<v Speaker 2>sketchy article claiming that a bunch of astronauts have reported

784
00:49:45.039 --> 00:49:47.800
<v Speaker 2>that the skies above us are just a traffic jam

785
00:49:47.800 --> 00:49:50.400
<v Speaker 2>of flying saucers and there's an alien space station on

786
00:49:50.440 --> 00:49:54.119
<v Speaker 2>the Moon. But even supposing all of that is true,

787
00:49:54.480 --> 00:49:58.199
<v Speaker 2>how would we communicate? What do we do charades when

788
00:49:58.239 --> 00:50:02.199
<v Speaker 2>it comes to trying to say, signals from other planets,

789
00:50:02.280 --> 00:50:05.039
<v Speaker 2>other civilizations? How do we know that we will have

790
00:50:05.079 --> 00:50:07.800
<v Speaker 2>the right intendant to pick it up like we don't?

791
00:50:08.599 --> 00:50:12.360
<v Speaker 4>And so it's a great question, and my friends and

792
00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:17.000
<v Speaker 4>colleagues at the same institute obsess over that kind of question.

793
00:50:18.119 --> 00:50:27.079
<v Speaker 4>Even within the frequency space of our radio search, there's

794
00:50:27.079 --> 00:50:32.599
<v Speaker 4>still so much to explore, and Frank Drake and Jill

795
00:50:32.679 --> 00:50:38.119
<v Speaker 4>Tarter and Seth and Dan Warteimer and others have focused

796
00:50:38.119 --> 00:50:42.840
<v Speaker 4>in throughout the years on particular wavelengths where the cosmos

797
00:50:42.840 --> 00:50:45.559
<v Speaker 4>itself is quiet and it would sort of make for

798
00:50:46.159 --> 00:50:50.559
<v Speaker 4>a good broadcast and transmission in the radio part of

799
00:50:50.599 --> 00:50:54.760
<v Speaker 4>the spectrum. But then another colleague of mine, Andrew Howard

800
00:50:54.760 --> 00:50:58.920
<v Speaker 4>who's now at cal Tech, and his advisor at Harvard,

801
00:50:59.079 --> 00:51:03.239
<v Speaker 4>Paul Horowitz, they were some big innovators on optical SETI

802
00:51:03.840 --> 00:51:08.360
<v Speaker 4>if you think about an advanced civilization, well, if you

803
00:51:08.440 --> 00:51:11.599
<v Speaker 4>think about the center of the Milky Way galaxy, I

804
00:51:11.639 --> 00:51:17.599
<v Speaker 4>hope the center of the Milky Way galaxy is like, well, okay,

805
00:51:17.679 --> 00:51:21.199
<v Speaker 4>let's put this in context. We are in the boondocks

806
00:51:21.320 --> 00:51:24.079
<v Speaker 4>of the Milky Way. We're eight and a half killiparsex

807
00:51:24.199 --> 00:51:30.440
<v Speaker 4>outs and suffice to say, that's a long ways out

808
00:51:30.480 --> 00:51:32.559
<v Speaker 4>from the galactic bulge.

809
00:51:32.760 --> 00:51:36.519
<v Speaker 2>That's right, that's right. The densely packed cluster of stars

810
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:39.639
<v Speaker 2>at the center of a spiral galaxy is called a

811
00:51:39.679 --> 00:51:43.760
<v Speaker 2>galactic bulge. Someone please go as one for Halloween. It's March.

812
00:51:44.039 --> 00:51:46.760
<v Speaker 2>It's not too late to get started on a luminous,

813
00:51:47.119 --> 00:51:51.000
<v Speaker 2>starry cod piece and some twinkling spirally arms.

814
00:51:51.440 --> 00:51:54.639
<v Speaker 4>I hope that the center of the galaxy is teeming

815
00:51:54.679 --> 00:51:58.440
<v Speaker 4>with life, and we've got advanced civilizations and they're they're

816
00:51:58.519 --> 00:52:01.360
<v Speaker 4>darting back and forth, and they're there's a galactic internet,

817
00:52:01.440 --> 00:52:04.039
<v Speaker 4>the sort of you know, modern version of what Carl

818
00:52:04.079 --> 00:52:09.039
<v Speaker 4>Sagan used to like to call the Encyclopedia Galactica. We

819
00:52:11.280 --> 00:52:13.280
<v Speaker 4>I hope that is happening right now in the center

820
00:52:13.280 --> 00:52:20.639
<v Speaker 4>of our galaxy. Those civilizations would probably communicate with with

821
00:52:20.639 --> 00:52:25.840
<v Speaker 4>with laser beams, with optical beams directed UH star to star,

822
00:52:25.920 --> 00:52:28.840
<v Speaker 4>planet to planet, uh spacecraft to spacecraft, et cetera. It's

823
00:52:28.880 --> 00:52:33.360
<v Speaker 4>just more efficient to send transmissions that way. And so

824
00:52:33.800 --> 00:52:37.559
<v Speaker 4>one of the ways that uh SETI researchers are now

825
00:52:37.599 --> 00:52:41.320
<v Speaker 4>looking for signals from advanced civilizations is looking for those

826
00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:45.960
<v Speaker 4>nanosecond pulses in the sort of visible part of the

827
00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:50.800
<v Speaker 4>light spectrum, which so far nothing, but there's still so

828
00:52:50.920 --> 00:52:51.599
<v Speaker 4>much to search.

829
00:52:51.840 --> 00:52:56.800
<v Speaker 2>There could be aliens sending laser grams right now, like party, party.

830
00:52:56.519 --> 00:52:58.320
<v Speaker 4>On my moon tonight exactly.

831
00:52:58.960 --> 00:53:00.880
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I'm ann pose a theory.

832
00:53:01.480 --> 00:53:03.000
<v Speaker 2>You can use this in a paper if you want to,

833
00:53:03.039 --> 00:53:05.840
<v Speaker 2>it's fine, just credit me. But what if dark matter,

834
00:53:05.960 --> 00:53:08.360
<v Speaker 2>dark energy is just full of ghost of aliens.

835
00:53:09.960 --> 00:53:13.320
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's that's beyond my pay grade.

836
00:53:13.519 --> 00:53:15.400
<v Speaker 2>We don't know exactly what it is or what it's

837
00:53:15.440 --> 00:53:17.519
<v Speaker 2>to what's allows you with ghosts and aliens?

838
00:53:17.639 --> 00:53:17.800
<v Speaker 1>Right?

839
00:53:18.199 --> 00:53:22.199
<v Speaker 4>Yes, And to that I say, we are the four percents.

840
00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:26.360
<v Speaker 4>Ok Right, Everything that we see, we know in love

841
00:53:26.719 --> 00:53:29.559
<v Speaker 4>is four percent of the known universe. And actually I

842
00:53:29.559 --> 00:53:31.519
<v Speaker 4>think it's it's more. It's closer to one percent when

843
00:53:31.559 --> 00:53:37.679
<v Speaker 4>you actually consider the particles with which we interact. Yeah,

844
00:53:37.719 --> 00:53:38.760
<v Speaker 4>but that's if.

845
00:53:39.360 --> 00:53:40.920
<v Speaker 3>You're going to use it in a TED talk. It's fine.

846
00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:42.920
<v Speaker 2>Just put a slide. This is thank you, Okay. Are

847
00:53:42.920 --> 00:53:44.360
<v Speaker 2>you ready for some Patreon questions?

848
00:53:44.480 --> 00:53:44.800
<v Speaker 1>Sure?

849
00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:47.840
<v Speaker 2>Okay, But before we get to listener questions from Patreon,

850
00:53:47.960 --> 00:53:50.480
<v Speaker 2>a quick word from our sponsors, who have allowed me

851
00:53:50.679 --> 00:53:52.599
<v Speaker 2>to raise the pay of the folks who help me

852
00:53:52.679 --> 00:53:55.840
<v Speaker 2>make ologies, also let me donate to a cause of

853
00:53:55.880 --> 00:53:59.840
<v Speaker 2>the ologists choosing. This week, Doctor Kevin Peter Hand chose

854
00:53:59.880 --> 00:54:02.280
<v Speaker 2>to support the work of Traveling Telescope and this is

855
00:54:02.320 --> 00:54:05.159
<v Speaker 2>a cause started by Susan Marrabona and her husband Chu

856
00:54:05.280 --> 00:54:08.480
<v Speaker 2>and colleagues to share astronomy with school kids and the

857
00:54:08.519 --> 00:54:11.840
<v Speaker 2>general public in Kenya. They say that they regularly visit

858
00:54:11.960 --> 00:54:15.679
<v Speaker 2>both government and private schools, exposed students to a variety

859
00:54:15.719 --> 00:54:20.320
<v Speaker 2>of astronomy tools and concepts. Giving the students practical hands

860
00:54:20.360 --> 00:54:23.440
<v Speaker 2>on experience with astronomy is important if we are to

861
00:54:23.480 --> 00:54:26.400
<v Speaker 2>inspire young people to be the scientists of tomorrow. So

862
00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:29.280
<v Speaker 2>that is Traveling Telescope and there will be a link

863
00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:30.599
<v Speaker 2>in the show notes if you want to know more

864
00:54:30.639 --> 00:54:33.039
<v Speaker 2>about them now. An additional donation this week was made

865
00:54:33.079 --> 00:54:37.320
<v Speaker 2>to Vermont's Manchester Rescue Squad in memory of Peter Hand,

866
00:54:37.639 --> 00:54:40.519
<v Speaker 2>Kevin's father, who passed away last summer, and the Manchester

867
00:54:40.599 --> 00:54:44.039
<v Speaker 2>Rescue Squad provides twenty four hour three sixty five paramedic

868
00:54:44.119 --> 00:54:47.880
<v Speaker 2>level emergency care via paid staff and volunteers. They also

869
00:54:47.920 --> 00:54:51.199
<v Speaker 2>do CPR and first aid classes. So on behalf of

870
00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:54.679
<v Speaker 2>all the oligites. Our heart goes out to the hands. Okay,

871
00:54:54.800 --> 00:54:56.760
<v Speaker 2>now some messages from a few sponsors.

872
00:54:56.960 --> 00:55:01.280
<v Speaker 1>Imagine the place where you can escape for it gets

873
00:55:01.280 --> 00:55:06.360
<v Speaker 1>immersed in a world of rooms, inspiration and expertise, where

874
00:55:06.360 --> 00:55:11.639
<v Speaker 1>you can lay in luxury, accommodation and kids cam fees

875
00:55:11.840 --> 00:55:17.440
<v Speaker 1>from ninety five sets. Tickets are free to everyone and

876
00:55:17.559 --> 00:55:22.719
<v Speaker 1>include all the attractions you've just imagined a day out

877
00:55:22.760 --> 00:55:26.400
<v Speaker 1>at the Gaia, the Kia, the wonderful every day.

878
00:55:29.199 --> 00:55:33.639
<v Speaker 2>All right, your questions, okay, patroon questions, We got a

879
00:55:33.719 --> 00:55:38.800
<v Speaker 2>gozillion I I can okay. It kind of a lightning

880
00:55:38.840 --> 00:55:43.320
<v Speaker 2>round shoot from the hip. I categorize them as best

881
00:55:43.360 --> 00:55:48.440
<v Speaker 2>I could. Okay, So, Jasmine Wells, Vincent Maddie Worker and

882
00:55:48.480 --> 00:55:51.679
<v Speaker 2>Mike Marlowe all kind of want to know, as a

883
00:55:51.719 --> 00:55:55.519
<v Speaker 2>firm believer of other forms of life, what's the most probable.

884
00:55:55.079 --> 00:55:57.159
<v Speaker 3>Planet for alien life to exist on?

885
00:55:57.199 --> 00:56:02.920
<v Speaker 2>Like one of the most likely places.

886
00:56:01.320 --> 00:56:06.400
<v Speaker 4>Mars is fantastic. Mars is still a wonderful place to

887
00:56:06.480 --> 00:56:10.639
<v Speaker 4>look for evidence of past life and potentially life that's

888
00:56:10.719 --> 00:56:12.760
<v Speaker 4>alive today. We'll just have to dig a lot deeper.

889
00:56:13.159 --> 00:56:18.880
<v Speaker 4>So I put Mars, Europa, Enceladus, and Titan. And when

890
00:56:18.920 --> 00:56:21.519
<v Speaker 4>it comes to the search for extant life, I really

891
00:56:21.519 --> 00:56:26.119
<v Speaker 4>prioritize Europa and Thencelladus for extant life similar to life

892
00:56:26.159 --> 00:56:28.719
<v Speaker 4>as we know it. And then if we go one

893
00:56:28.800 --> 00:56:33.559
<v Speaker 4>layer deeper, I prioritize Europa over Enceladus for a couple

894
00:56:33.639 --> 00:56:38.679
<v Speaker 4>of different reasons. Europa, we have good reason to predict,

895
00:56:39.559 --> 00:56:43.159
<v Speaker 4>has had an ocean for the history of the Solar system. Yeah,

896
00:56:43.199 --> 00:56:47.000
<v Speaker 4>so it's an ocean that's been around for a while. Enceladus,

897
00:56:47.039 --> 00:56:50.480
<v Speaker 4>there's still some question marks. The reason Saturn has rings

898
00:56:51.239 --> 00:56:54.480
<v Speaker 4>is because some sort of collision, some sort of impact

899
00:56:54.519 --> 00:56:58.639
<v Speaker 4>event happened in the neighborhood of the moons of Saturn

900
00:56:59.559 --> 00:57:02.880
<v Speaker 4>in the past tens to hundreds of millions of years ago.

901
00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:07.400
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so remember Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. Kevin says

902
00:57:07.519 --> 00:57:10.760
<v Speaker 2>that Saturn had had some drama in the last tens

903
00:57:10.800 --> 00:57:13.039
<v Speaker 2>of billions of years, so didn't sell it.

904
00:57:13.039 --> 00:57:15.239
<v Speaker 4>This form from that is, it's ocean relatively young.

905
00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:18.880
<v Speaker 2>We don't know will those rings glomb together to form

906
00:57:18.960 --> 00:57:21.000
<v Speaker 2>moons eventually, Well.

907
00:57:21.079 --> 00:57:22.639
<v Speaker 4>A bunch of it will go into Saturn, and a

908
00:57:22.719 --> 00:57:24.480
<v Speaker 4>bunch of it will will sort of drift in the

909
00:57:24.480 --> 00:57:30.559
<v Speaker 4>other direction further out, and stuff will continue to glom

910
00:57:30.639 --> 00:57:34.800
<v Speaker 4>onto the existing moons. And so yeah, it's going to

911
00:57:34.840 --> 00:57:37.679
<v Speaker 4>continue to be a bit of a pinball game out

912
00:57:37.679 --> 00:57:39.039
<v Speaker 4>there in the Saturnian system.

913
00:57:39.239 --> 00:57:41.639
<v Speaker 2>So many people had the same question, and I'm going

914
00:57:41.679 --> 00:57:44.320
<v Speaker 2>to say all of their names right now. Elizabeth Gable,

915
00:57:45.039 --> 00:57:50.840
<v Speaker 2>one we Renee Coley, Mad's Clement, Moses Bibbi, Devin Robertson,

916
00:57:51.719 --> 00:57:56.559
<v Speaker 2>Dion Dabolo, Anthony still Own, also Landy Bauer, Nathan Algrim,

917
00:57:56.920 --> 00:58:01.599
<v Speaker 2>Theodore Vissian, Sani Seth, Sarah Clark, Jack, Gavin Jordan, where Me,

918
00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:07.719
<v Speaker 2>Lauren Paul, Erica Kaine, and Tony Rosso all asked what

919
00:58:08.239 --> 00:58:12.639
<v Speaker 2>well is there already non carbon based life on Earth?

920
00:58:12.760 --> 00:58:17.320
<v Speaker 2>What is the possibility of extraterrestrial non carbon based life?

921
00:58:17.440 --> 00:58:20.719
<v Speaker 3>Could it be silicon based? Is that possible? What would

922
00:58:20.760 --> 00:58:21.360
<v Speaker 3>that look like?

923
00:58:21.920 --> 00:58:26.280
<v Speaker 4>It's a great question, one that I definitely ponder, one

924
00:58:26.559 --> 00:58:31.199
<v Speaker 4>that I don't necessarily have a good answer to, because

925
00:58:32.440 --> 00:58:36.880
<v Speaker 4>what we know of life so far is that life

926
00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:43.559
<v Speaker 4>needs a good balance between larger information molecules that can

927
00:58:43.679 --> 00:58:48.199
<v Speaker 4>you know, the store the software for us that's DNA obviously,

928
00:58:49.679 --> 00:58:51.960
<v Speaker 4>and so you need those molecules to be made of

929
00:58:53.199 --> 00:58:57.360
<v Speaker 4>elements that can bond together and are stable. But you

930
00:58:57.400 --> 00:59:00.440
<v Speaker 4>don't want those molecules to be too stable, because you

931
00:59:00.519 --> 00:59:02.880
<v Speaker 4>got to tear them apart and translate them and figure

932
00:59:02.880 --> 00:59:04.880
<v Speaker 4>out what they're saying. And then the you know, the

933
00:59:05.039 --> 00:59:09.000
<v Speaker 4>RNA and the worker bees of life as we know

934
00:59:09.039 --> 00:59:11.280
<v Speaker 4>it have to go off and build the proteins and

935
00:59:13.039 --> 00:59:18.679
<v Speaker 4>make the business of life. So from a feasibility of life,

936
00:59:18.960 --> 00:59:25.079
<v Speaker 4>using other things like silicon, et cetera. Every time I

937
00:59:25.119 --> 00:59:28.599
<v Speaker 4>go down this road, it's like, gosh, darn a. Carbon

938
00:59:28.920 --> 00:59:35.519
<v Speaker 4>is just such a good element for not just bonding

939
00:59:35.559 --> 00:59:40.760
<v Speaker 4>with itself and bonding with other elements and forming long molecules.

940
00:59:40.800 --> 00:59:45.559
<v Speaker 4>It's also really good, albeit at temperatures and pressures that

941
00:59:45.599 --> 00:59:48.719
<v Speaker 4>are found here on Earth and frankly many of the

942
00:59:48.719 --> 00:59:54.480
<v Speaker 4>other planets. It's also really good at forming molecules that

943
00:59:54.639 --> 00:59:59.400
<v Speaker 4>occupy that nice sweet spot of you can be large

944
00:59:59.519 --> 01:00:03.440
<v Speaker 4>and stable, but not so stable that you can't be

945
01:00:03.519 --> 01:00:08.320
<v Speaker 4>broken apart and replicated and or metabolized and stuff. And

946
01:00:08.400 --> 01:00:10.039
<v Speaker 4>all you got to do is look at the rocks

947
01:00:10.039 --> 01:00:16.400
<v Speaker 4>on Earth. The rocks on Earth are made of strings

948
01:00:16.400 --> 01:00:23.159
<v Speaker 4>of silicon, right, the silicates, the silicon linked to four

949
01:00:23.199 --> 01:00:29.400
<v Speaker 4>oxygen atoms and then various metals bounded in there. You know,

950
01:00:29.440 --> 01:00:32.079
<v Speaker 4>if silicon based life could have evolved on Earth, it

951
01:00:32.199 --> 01:00:38.719
<v Speaker 4>had plenty of opportunity. So water and carbon based life. Yeah,

952
01:00:37.800 --> 01:00:43.119
<v Speaker 4>it's it's a pretty darn good solution to that. Use

953
01:00:43.199 --> 01:00:45.840
<v Speaker 4>the word solution appropriately.

954
01:00:45.480 --> 01:00:47.599
<v Speaker 3>Well, rock solid pun there.

955
01:00:48.920 --> 01:00:52.199
<v Speaker 4>But I would love nothing more than to go to

956
01:00:52.239 --> 01:00:55.400
<v Speaker 4>a world like Titan or see some big mothership in

957
01:00:55.400 --> 01:00:57.679
<v Speaker 4>the sky that comes down with silicon based life and

958
01:00:57.760 --> 01:01:00.679
<v Speaker 4>the and keep in mind, of course, that silicon based

959
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:02.519
<v Speaker 4>life could be the future of life as we know it.

960
01:01:02.880 --> 01:01:06.079
<v Speaker 4>When we think about our mushy bags of water and carbon,

961
01:01:07.679 --> 01:01:12.360
<v Speaker 4>silicon based life that we then create an advance could

962
01:01:12.400 --> 01:01:18.559
<v Speaker 4>obviously have a much greater staying power galactically than the

963
01:01:18.599 --> 01:01:23.159
<v Speaker 4>carbon and water based life. So that's like maybe, well,

964
01:01:23.440 --> 01:01:25.679
<v Speaker 4>it's a great question, and I love to think about it.

965
01:01:26.440 --> 01:01:29.960
<v Speaker 4>But every time I go down the rabbit hole of

966
01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:33.719
<v Speaker 4>chemical feasibility, carbon pops it's head up.

967
01:01:34.119 --> 01:01:37.280
<v Speaker 3>Yeah you think you can be Carbon's like, yeah, I

968
01:01:37.280 --> 01:01:38.599
<v Speaker 3>got this exactly.

969
01:01:39.199 --> 01:01:41.719
<v Speaker 4>That's exciting to see that that your audience is interested

970
01:01:41.719 --> 01:01:42.280
<v Speaker 4>in that question.

971
01:01:44.159 --> 01:01:48.119
<v Speaker 2>Other people had questions about the oceans, trying to settle

972
01:01:48.119 --> 01:01:51.719
<v Speaker 2>a debate Oceana Reese as are deep sea creatures aliens?

973
01:01:51.840 --> 01:01:54.000
<v Speaker 2>I think they are? And also are we looking at

974
01:01:54.039 --> 01:01:55.880
<v Speaker 2>the deep sea to provide any clues of what could

975
01:01:55.920 --> 01:01:57.119
<v Speaker 2>exist on other planets?

976
01:01:57.360 --> 01:02:02.440
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, great questions. Answer. The first one is as alien

977
01:02:02.639 --> 01:02:04.440
<v Speaker 4>as they are, and I've gotten to see some of

978
01:02:04.440 --> 01:02:08.800
<v Speaker 4>them up close, and as astonishing and beautiful and bizarre

979
01:02:08.840 --> 01:02:12.960
<v Speaker 4>as they are, they are very well connected into our

980
01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:15.920
<v Speaker 4>tree of life. They are based on DNA and RNA

981
01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:20.039
<v Speaker 4>and the ATP paradigm with proteins, et cetera. So yeah,

982
01:02:20.119 --> 01:02:24.559
<v Speaker 4>they are not different from life as we know it.

983
01:02:24.679 --> 01:02:29.079
<v Speaker 4>So are we looking in our own oceans to see

984
01:02:29.119 --> 01:02:32.519
<v Speaker 4>whether or not or search for life elsewhere it can

985
01:02:32.559 --> 01:02:36.159
<v Speaker 4>be informed by life that works in these deep ocean environments.

986
01:02:36.920 --> 01:02:39.400
<v Speaker 4>The answer is absolutely, And it's something that I'm very

987
01:02:39.400 --> 01:02:42.320
<v Speaker 4>passionate about and I've been fortunate to be able to

988
01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:45.960
<v Speaker 4>take part in some of that exploration and science. The

989
01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:50.280
<v Speaker 4>depths of our trenches or the Mariana Trench, the New

990
01:02:50.280 --> 01:02:53.400
<v Speaker 4>Britain Trench, the Japan Trench, all these places that are

991
01:02:53.440 --> 01:02:57.039
<v Speaker 4>in what we call the hate Old depths deeper than

992
01:02:57.079 --> 01:03:00.920
<v Speaker 4>six kilometers down in our own ocean. Those environments are

993
01:03:01.039 --> 01:03:05.079
<v Speaker 4>incredibly poorly explored. There's so much great work yet to

994
01:03:05.119 --> 01:03:11.599
<v Speaker 4>be done. And from an astrobiology standpoint, they offer a

995
01:03:11.679 --> 01:03:20.199
<v Speaker 4>great bridge for learning about the environmental conditions that could

996
01:03:20.280 --> 01:03:24.840
<v Speaker 4>affect the habitability of these distant worlds. It's entirely plausible

997
01:03:24.840 --> 01:03:26.760
<v Speaker 4>that we could go to a world like Europo or

998
01:03:26.840 --> 01:03:31.719
<v Speaker 4>Enceladus and discover that it has the right liquid water,

999
01:03:31.880 --> 01:03:36.000
<v Speaker 4>chemical conditions, et cetera. It is quote unquote habitable but

1000
01:03:36.199 --> 01:03:39.880
<v Speaker 4>not inhabited, and that could be because the origin of

1001
01:03:39.960 --> 01:03:41.960
<v Speaker 4>life is a bottleneck. The origin of life could be

1002
01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:45.760
<v Speaker 4>quite hard. So going to these deep ocean environments, going

1003
01:03:45.880 --> 01:03:51.599
<v Speaker 4>to places on Earth that serve as analogs for the

1004
01:03:51.599 --> 01:03:56.039
<v Speaker 4>conditions that we might find elsewhere is part of NASA's

1005
01:03:56.039 --> 01:03:57.599
<v Speaker 4>astrobiology program.

1006
01:03:57.679 --> 01:03:59.639
<v Speaker 2>All right, I'm going to keep blazing through these ready,

1007
01:04:00.679 --> 01:04:03.559
<v Speaker 2>Sophia Garbo's great question. Do you think they have been

1008
01:04:03.639 --> 01:04:05.920
<v Speaker 2>here and left? What are the chances have aliens been

1009
01:04:05.920 --> 01:04:06.519
<v Speaker 2>here and bounced?

1010
01:04:08.000 --> 01:04:11.960
<v Speaker 4>I don't know if they came and went. They haven't

1011
01:04:12.039 --> 01:04:16.440
<v Speaker 4>left so much as a paper clip. And as a scientist,

1012
01:04:16.840 --> 01:04:22.119
<v Speaker 4>I need hard evidence, so as much as I have

1013
01:04:22.920 --> 01:04:30.320
<v Speaker 4>read anecdotes and I want to believe to use the

1014
01:04:30.440 --> 01:04:34.719
<v Speaker 4>X files. Uh yeah, it's at the end of the day.

1015
01:04:36.760 --> 01:04:40.199
<v Speaker 4>Give me an alien paper clip or sash. A stack says,

1016
01:04:40.400 --> 01:04:43.280
<v Speaker 4>bring back a fork from from the mothership?

1017
01:04:43.719 --> 01:04:45.800
<v Speaker 1>What is it? It's a dingle?

1018
01:04:47.159 --> 01:04:51.760
<v Speaker 2>Wait that brings me to someone. Two people had the

1019
01:04:51.800 --> 01:04:55.960
<v Speaker 2>same question. Sophie goes to know and Heather Shaver wanted

1020
01:04:56.000 --> 01:04:58.920
<v Speaker 2>to know, are you more of a Molderer Scully? Are

1021
01:04:58.920 --> 01:04:59.920
<v Speaker 2>you in the molder fan cult?

1022
01:05:01.880 --> 01:05:07.559
<v Speaker 4>Interesting? So the uh uh yeah, I'm the hybridized love

1023
01:05:07.639 --> 01:05:11.079
<v Speaker 4>child of two of them. Let's okay, both.

1024
01:05:10.920 --> 01:05:14.320
<v Speaker 2>Of their DNA's combined a new carbon based water bag.

1025
01:05:14.440 --> 01:05:19.559
<v Speaker 2>Not as you justin Griggs and Casey Wright. First time

1026
01:05:19.639 --> 01:05:22.159
<v Speaker 2>questioned askers wanted to know what's the coolest gadget we

1027
01:05:22.239 --> 01:05:25.400
<v Speaker 2>currently have and if you were given unlimited funds, like

1028
01:05:25.639 --> 01:05:30.000
<v Speaker 2>what kind of imaging or radio equipment would you use?

1029
01:05:31.400 --> 01:05:36.159
<v Speaker 4>Well, that's a that's a really interesting question. And layered

1030
01:05:36.159 --> 01:05:40.239
<v Speaker 4>into that question is that when we think about the

1031
01:05:40.239 --> 01:05:43.199
<v Speaker 4>search for life elsewhere and actually doing those experiments, and

1032
01:05:43.199 --> 01:05:45.239
<v Speaker 4>this is what I spend much of my days doing.

1033
01:05:45.360 --> 01:05:50.480
<v Speaker 4>I'm I'm the pre project scientist for the Europa Lander

1034
01:05:50.559 --> 01:05:54.960
<v Speaker 4>mission concept. This is a mission that is far from Greenlitz.

1035
01:05:55.119 --> 01:05:57.760
<v Speaker 4>Our team of scientists and engineers has been working on

1036
01:05:57.760 --> 01:06:04.000
<v Speaker 4>this for many years. NASA currently has a mission going

1037
01:06:04.239 --> 01:06:07.199
<v Speaker 4>to Jupiter to study Europa. That's the Europa Clipper mission,

1038
01:06:08.039 --> 01:06:10.880
<v Speaker 4>and it's a mission that will fly by Europa and

1039
01:06:10.920 --> 01:06:15.199
<v Speaker 4>do remote sensing look as it makes those flybys, to

1040
01:06:15.440 --> 01:06:19.480
<v Speaker 4>take images, do spectroscopy, do ice penetrating radar studies. It's

1041
01:06:19.519 --> 01:06:22.360
<v Speaker 4>an absolutely amazing mission and the data is going to

1042
01:06:22.360 --> 01:06:26.239
<v Speaker 4>be incredible. And I'm a co investigator on that mission,

1043
01:06:28.000 --> 01:06:31.719
<v Speaker 4>and hopefully someday following on that mission, we can put

1044
01:06:31.719 --> 01:06:36.400
<v Speaker 4>a landed vehicle on the surface to dig up some

1045
01:06:36.480 --> 01:06:42.440
<v Speaker 4>material and look directly for signs of life. Use a

1046
01:06:42.480 --> 01:06:47.639
<v Speaker 4>microscope to look for morphologic indicators little cells if they exist.

1047
01:06:49.119 --> 01:06:53.719
<v Speaker 4>Use things like mass spectrometry or infrared or roman spectrometry

1048
01:06:53.800 --> 01:06:57.000
<v Speaker 4>to look for organics and other things. And so to

1049
01:06:57.239 --> 01:07:00.599
<v Speaker 4>your listener's question, in the biotech world, here on Earth,

1050
01:07:00.639 --> 01:07:06.000
<v Speaker 4>we've made tons of progress in sequencing DNA and twenty

1051
01:07:06.039 --> 01:07:09.280
<v Speaker 4>three and meters and all this stuff. But when I

1052
01:07:09.320 --> 01:07:17.119
<v Speaker 4>think about a payload for exploring a world like Europa,

1053
01:07:17.280 --> 01:07:23.480
<v Speaker 4>we can't use DNA based analytical systems because then we

1054
01:07:23.559 --> 01:07:26.719
<v Speaker 4>might miss life. Even if it's carbon and water based,

1055
01:07:28.159 --> 01:07:31.719
<v Speaker 4>it may well not be DNA based. It would be

1056
01:07:31.760 --> 01:07:33.960
<v Speaker 4>really interesting if it was, because that would set the

1057
01:07:33.960 --> 01:07:39.199
<v Speaker 4>stage for some evolutionary debates and convergence versus contingency and

1058
01:07:39.840 --> 01:07:41.519
<v Speaker 4>DNA arising independently.

1059
01:07:42.039 --> 01:07:44.639
<v Speaker 2>More than once, I think what this means is would

1060
01:07:44.840 --> 01:07:51.360
<v Speaker 2>DNA appearing in extraterrestrial organisms be total chance or developed

1061
01:07:51.400 --> 01:07:54.840
<v Speaker 2>because the circumstances kind of steered evolution toward that efficient

1062
01:07:55.199 --> 01:07:58.840
<v Speaker 2>coding formation. Again, who the hell knows people, literally, no

1063
01:07:58.920 --> 01:08:05.159
<v Speaker 2>one at least not on this point. It maybe Kesha knows, but.

1064
01:08:05.159 --> 01:08:09.559
<v Speaker 4>We certainly don't want our instrumentation and our measurements to

1065
01:08:09.719 --> 01:08:12.079
<v Speaker 4>require that life form to be based on DNA.

1066
01:08:12.239 --> 01:08:15.519
<v Speaker 2>Right, It's like taking a VCR somewhere las.

1067
01:08:16.680 --> 01:08:17.600
<v Speaker 3>Hell are you going to do with that?

1068
01:08:17.800 --> 01:08:20.039
<v Speaker 4>Exactly? And that's important to appreciate with a lot of

1069
01:08:20.039 --> 01:08:27.239
<v Speaker 4>the biotech that feeding into those that instrumentation are primers

1070
01:08:27.560 --> 01:08:32.800
<v Speaker 4>that are that latch onto DNA in different ways, And

1071
01:08:32.880 --> 01:08:35.159
<v Speaker 4>so yeah, it's like a VCR.

1072
01:08:36.079 --> 01:08:39.319
<v Speaker 3>You got a thumb drive and in an eight track.

1073
01:08:39.560 --> 01:08:43.039
<v Speaker 4>Hell are you gonna do? Exactly a lot.

1074
01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:48.000
<v Speaker 2>Of people, including Lauren Murray, Sarah Clark, Timothy Diyke's, Joe O'Bannon,

1075
01:08:48.479 --> 01:08:53.000
<v Speaker 2>Jane Joy, Jenny Hoover, Jeffrey Katz all kind of wanted

1076
01:08:53.039 --> 01:08:55.960
<v Speaker 2>to know, in Jeffrey Kat's words, do you think intelligent

1077
01:08:56.000 --> 01:08:59.439
<v Speaker 2>aliens would look somewhat like us? Like as we evolve,

1078
01:08:59.520 --> 01:09:04.279
<v Speaker 2>somethings seemed efficient, like bilateral symmetry for extremities to use

1079
01:09:04.319 --> 01:09:07.560
<v Speaker 2>to manipulate tools. Are they going to look like us?

1080
01:09:08.000 --> 01:09:15.800
<v Speaker 4>So, instead of answering the question will alien life look

1081
01:09:15.920 --> 01:09:20.399
<v Speaker 4>like us? I like to do the experiment of what

1082
01:09:20.439 --> 01:09:28.720
<v Speaker 4>if we re ran the life on Earth again, would

1083
01:09:28.760 --> 01:09:33.279
<v Speaker 4>we end up with Homo sapiens? And you can look

1084
01:09:33.319 --> 01:09:38.279
<v Speaker 4>at different convergent and contingent events and evolutionary history. Obviously,

1085
01:09:38.319 --> 01:09:44.920
<v Speaker 4>one that's great to examine is the impact event that

1086
01:09:46.439 --> 01:09:50.680
<v Speaker 4>extinguished the dinosaurs. What if that didn't happen, would the

1087
01:09:50.760 --> 01:09:57.479
<v Speaker 4>dinosaurs have evolved into intelligent, communicating creatures with useful thumbs

1088
01:09:57.520 --> 01:10:02.640
<v Speaker 4>and all that. And Star Trek's is examined those kinds

1089
01:10:02.640 --> 01:10:05.279
<v Speaker 4>of scenarios, and I think there's a case to be

1090
01:10:05.399 --> 01:10:11.960
<v Speaker 4>made that early on in the evolution of intelligence, if

1091
01:10:12.119 --> 01:10:16.600
<v Speaker 4>you do not figure out how to use tools and

1092
01:10:16.640 --> 01:10:24.159
<v Speaker 4>how to build shelters, and how to propagate information beyond

1093
01:10:24.560 --> 01:10:27.800
<v Speaker 4>the single generational time scale, in other words, the printing

1094
01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:30.439
<v Speaker 4>press and the internet and all these things, if you

1095
01:10:30.439 --> 01:10:34.720
<v Speaker 4>don't develop that relatively quickly, you will become extinct just

1096
01:10:34.720 --> 01:10:37.319
<v Speaker 4>by the nature of the fact that the cosmos is

1097
01:10:37.319 --> 01:10:41.720
<v Speaker 4>full of hazards and eventually a large impact event will

1098
01:10:41.720 --> 01:10:45.920
<v Speaker 4>wipe you out. Caboo, no thing to fast forward to us.

1099
01:10:47.000 --> 01:10:51.800
<v Speaker 4>And now clearly we are at an inflection point. Yes,

1100
01:10:51.920 --> 01:10:54.960
<v Speaker 4>we're messing up the home planet. Yeah, climate change is

1101
01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:58.039
<v Speaker 4>going gangbusters. And planet Earth is saying, hey, we're going

1102
01:10:58.119 --> 01:11:01.800
<v Speaker 4>to shut down this subsystem. So our life support system

1103
01:11:02.000 --> 01:11:04.880
<v Speaker 4>is being challenged by our own existence. Coupled with that,

1104
01:11:05.439 --> 01:11:09.000
<v Speaker 4>we could still have an impact from outer space that

1105
01:11:09.039 --> 01:11:12.560
<v Speaker 4>wipes us out. And so, in my opinion, the clock

1106
01:11:12.640 --> 01:11:16.760
<v Speaker 4>is ticking on us to get some real intelligence and

1107
01:11:17.319 --> 01:11:24.319
<v Speaker 4>learn how to be a longer lived species. So if

1108
01:11:24.319 --> 01:11:26.399
<v Speaker 4>we re ran the clock, would you end up with

1109
01:11:26.399 --> 01:11:30.199
<v Speaker 4>bilotal symmetry? I think yes. Would you end up with eyes?

1110
01:11:30.359 --> 01:11:32.479
<v Speaker 4>I think yes. You can look at the evolution of eyes,

1111
01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:36.079
<v Speaker 4>and it's occurred some fifty or more times in different

1112
01:11:36.159 --> 01:11:40.520
<v Speaker 4>organisms on Earth. Obviously, photosensing makes a lot of sense.

1113
01:11:40.880 --> 01:11:45.199
<v Speaker 4>The senses that we have smell and taste are variations

1114
01:11:45.199 --> 01:11:48.960
<v Speaker 4>on chemical sensors, and that's very useful. I get intrigued

1115
01:11:49.000 --> 01:11:54.520
<v Speaker 4>by some of the sensory modalities that are not as ubiquitous,

1116
01:11:55.760 --> 01:12:02.640
<v Speaker 4>sensing the polarization of light as bees do, sensing magnetic fields,

1117
01:12:04.319 --> 01:12:08.720
<v Speaker 4>echolocation as obviously bats and dolphins and other creatures do.

1118
01:12:10.199 --> 01:12:14.119
<v Speaker 4>Is there a world in which those sensory modalities become

1119
01:12:14.159 --> 01:12:18.680
<v Speaker 4>more prevalent in the primary biological paradigm of a planet.

1120
01:12:18.720 --> 01:12:22.800
<v Speaker 2>Perhaps, who knows what an ultrasound antenna would look like.

1121
01:12:23.079 --> 01:12:25.880
<v Speaker 4>Well, and that in part goes to arrival, right, and

1122
01:12:25.920 --> 01:12:30.359
<v Speaker 4>the way in which those creatures communicated through sound and

1123
01:12:31.319 --> 01:12:35.720
<v Speaker 4>the circular timeless ink blots.

1124
01:12:35.840 --> 01:12:40.439
<v Speaker 2>Okay, from ink blots to the great filter. So several listeners,

1125
01:12:40.520 --> 01:12:45.840
<v Speaker 2>including Dion Dabolo, Tyler Q, Donald McCloud, Christopher Barley, and

1126
01:12:46.039 --> 01:12:49.279
<v Speaker 2>Katie Boyd asked about the great filter, which is the

1127
01:12:49.319 --> 01:12:54.039
<v Speaker 2>notion that the reason we've got radio silence from extraterrestrials

1128
01:12:54.199 --> 01:12:56.840
<v Speaker 2>is that our kind of advanced civilizations are either a

1129
01:12:56.920 --> 01:13:00.840
<v Speaker 2>one off just us, or they die out before they're

1130
01:13:00.880 --> 01:13:04.000
<v Speaker 2>capable of communicating with one another. Kevin says that if

1131
01:13:04.000 --> 01:13:07.880
<v Speaker 2>we make it through our own population growth and carelessness

1132
01:13:08.000 --> 01:13:11.720
<v Speaker 2>with the planet and aren't just randomly boned by a

1133
01:13:11.720 --> 01:13:15.199
<v Speaker 2>space rock, there is the prospect of finding another civilization

1134
01:13:15.399 --> 01:13:17.840
<v Speaker 2>if a signal is out there. But he says, on

1135
01:13:17.840 --> 01:13:19.880
<v Speaker 2>the flip side, I'm.

1136
01:13:19.760 --> 01:13:22.840
<v Speaker 4>Sure many of your listeners have probably read The Three

1137
01:13:22.840 --> 01:13:26.760
<v Speaker 4>Body Problem and that trilogy, which is a fantastic trilogy,

1138
01:13:26.760 --> 01:13:29.800
<v Speaker 4>and the second book called The Dark Forest, which really

1139
01:13:29.800 --> 01:13:34.000
<v Speaker 4>gets into the question of do you actually want to

1140
01:13:34.039 --> 01:13:36.319
<v Speaker 4>reach out and make contact? Yeah? Is that a safe

1141
01:13:36.319 --> 01:13:41.279
<v Speaker 4>thing to do? And I think that's a very important

1142
01:13:41.319 --> 01:13:48.560
<v Speaker 4>question to ponder and from a transmission standpoint, do you

1143
01:13:48.600 --> 01:13:53.680
<v Speaker 4>really want to transmit? I don't think I have a

1144
01:13:53.720 --> 01:13:59.039
<v Speaker 4>clear answer right now. I've got thoughts on both yes

1145
01:13:59.119 --> 01:14:03.680
<v Speaker 4>and no for transmitting. But short of that, we can

1146
01:14:03.720 --> 01:14:06.399
<v Speaker 4>certainly do a heck of a lot more in listening,

1147
01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:10.600
<v Speaker 4>and that is something that I advocate for and hope

1148
01:14:10.600 --> 01:14:11.439
<v Speaker 4>we do more of.

1149
01:14:11.800 --> 01:14:15.359
<v Speaker 2>So it's like reaching out and texting your ext versus

1150
01:14:15.399 --> 01:14:18.920
<v Speaker 2>just lurking on their Twitter late at night. A few

1151
01:14:18.920 --> 01:14:23.199
<v Speaker 2>people asked Christopher Barley, Layel Defkova and first time question

1152
01:14:23.199 --> 01:14:26.479
<v Speaker 2>asker Rebecca Lee Richardson, Does Fermi paradox make you sad?

1153
01:14:28.359 --> 01:14:34.079
<v Speaker 4>The Fermi paradox make me sad? Like where are they

1154
01:14:34.239 --> 01:14:40.039
<v Speaker 4>and why haven't we found them yet? Yes, in some

1155
01:14:40.079 --> 01:14:44.079
<v Speaker 4>ways it does, and to the extent that it makes

1156
01:14:45.039 --> 01:14:54.720
<v Speaker 4>your your listener said, I sympathize. But people like Jill

1157
01:14:54.760 --> 01:14:58.560
<v Speaker 4>Tarter and the folks up at the Seti Institute serve

1158
01:14:58.600 --> 01:15:04.199
<v Speaker 4>as great inspiration and when we talk to them about

1159
01:15:04.199 --> 01:15:07.720
<v Speaker 4>this stuff, I was like, well, we just we really

1160
01:15:07.720 --> 01:15:13.840
<v Speaker 4>have not listened enough. We haven't looked in We know

1161
01:15:14.000 --> 01:15:15.960
<v Speaker 4>where to look, we just have not yet had time

1162
01:15:16.039 --> 01:15:22.880
<v Speaker 4>or the computing power to to really search the haystack

1163
01:15:22.960 --> 01:15:27.720
<v Speaker 4>for the needle. So we're going to keep keep searching.

1164
01:15:27.239 --> 01:15:33.279
<v Speaker 3>Keep working. You're employed forever, yes, okay. One last question

1165
01:15:33.319 --> 01:15:33.920
<v Speaker 3>from listeners.

1166
01:15:34.479 --> 01:15:40.640
<v Speaker 2>Great question asked by Joe Porfito as well as Chris Bauman,

1167
01:15:40.880 --> 01:15:45.319
<v Speaker 2>Danny King, Jenny Cove Sick. In your opinion, did the

1168
01:15:45.399 --> 01:15:49.039
<v Speaker 2>chartar grade come from outer space? What's the deal with

1169
01:15:49.119 --> 01:15:52.079
<v Speaker 2>tartar grades? Should we send them to Mars? Let's talk

1170
01:15:52.119 --> 01:15:53.600
<v Speaker 2>tarties tartar grades.

1171
01:15:53.640 --> 01:15:58.560
<v Speaker 4>Those little water bears. They are curious little creatures, and

1172
01:16:01.159 --> 01:16:04.600
<v Speaker 4>they are again DNA based, RNA based. We can fit

1173
01:16:04.640 --> 01:16:07.159
<v Speaker 4>them into the tree of life on Earth. Okay, very well,

1174
01:16:07.199 --> 01:16:10.319
<v Speaker 4>so they make sense. Okay, that said, they sure are

1175
01:16:10.399 --> 01:16:11.680
<v Speaker 4>curious little creatures, aren't they?

1176
01:16:11.960 --> 01:16:12.640
<v Speaker 3>A tartar grade?

1177
01:16:12.640 --> 01:16:14.760
<v Speaker 2>By the way, is this teeny tiny micro animal. It

1178
01:16:14.800 --> 01:16:18.039
<v Speaker 2>looks kind of like if a futon cushion had eight

1179
01:16:18.119 --> 01:16:21.279
<v Speaker 2>stumpy little legs and then a vacuum for a face.

1180
01:16:21.640 --> 01:16:24.239
<v Speaker 2>And they're five hundred and thirty million years old at least.

1181
01:16:24.359 --> 01:16:28.399
<v Speaker 2>They've been everywhere from the Antarctic to the deep sea

1182
01:16:28.560 --> 01:16:32.159
<v Speaker 2>to volcanoes. They can survive like a decade without any

1183
01:16:32.199 --> 01:16:36.159
<v Speaker 2>water and crazy temperatures in space radiation. If you soak

1184
01:16:36.159 --> 01:16:38.199
<v Speaker 2>a piece of moss in water and then you look

1185
01:16:38.279 --> 01:16:40.479
<v Speaker 2>under like a low power microscope, you might be able

1186
01:16:40.479 --> 01:16:43.359
<v Speaker 2>to spot one. But yeah, Kevin says, sorry, y'all, they're

1187
01:16:43.399 --> 01:16:43.880
<v Speaker 2>earth lengths.

1188
01:16:44.199 --> 01:16:45.079
<v Speaker 3>Okay, last two questions.

1189
01:16:45.119 --> 01:16:48.560
<v Speaker 2>I always ask, what is something that is the shittiest

1190
01:16:48.600 --> 01:16:50.800
<v Speaker 2>part of your job, the thing that you dislike the

1191
01:16:50.800 --> 01:16:53.359
<v Speaker 2>most about what you do, or about alien life, or

1192
01:16:53.359 --> 01:16:56.439
<v Speaker 2>maybe some flim flam that you'd like to debunk some myths.

1193
01:16:56.119 --> 01:16:58.960
<v Speaker 3>That irk you. What is what gets your goat.

1194
01:16:58.680 --> 01:17:02.119
<v Speaker 2>When it comes to astrobiology so annoying?

1195
01:17:04.560 --> 01:17:07.640
<v Speaker 4>Honestly, the thing that comes to mind, of course as

1196
01:17:07.640 --> 01:17:13.199
<v Speaker 4>a scientist, the ubiquitous answers. We hate writing proposals, begging

1197
01:17:13.239 --> 01:17:16.880
<v Speaker 4>for money, getting rejected like yeah, yeah, yeah. That's just

1198
01:17:16.960 --> 01:17:19.039
<v Speaker 4>part of the life cycle of a scientist across the board.

1199
01:17:19.079 --> 01:17:23.319
<v Speaker 4>That's not specific to After a while, dude, I guess

1200
01:17:23.479 --> 01:17:30.640
<v Speaker 4>the sad part is for all of the exciting stuff

1201
01:17:30.680 --> 01:17:36.520
<v Speaker 4>that we discussed here today, why I wish we could

1202
01:17:36.560 --> 01:17:41.479
<v Speaker 4>just get going with it. It is through the generosity

1203
01:17:41.680 --> 01:17:46.279
<v Speaker 4>and dedication and excitement of the taxpayer who make NASA

1204
01:17:46.279 --> 01:17:49.079
<v Speaker 4>and all this stuff possible. So if you want to

1205
01:17:49.079 --> 01:17:51.600
<v Speaker 4>see us move faster. Just keep on being interested in

1206
01:17:51.600 --> 01:17:55.760
<v Speaker 4>the stuff and express it to your various folks who

1207
01:17:55.880 --> 01:17:58.840
<v Speaker 4>helped make the high level decisions that are well beyond my.

1208
01:17:59.039 --> 01:18:01.279
<v Speaker 3>Pig grid about NASA.

1209
01:18:01.840 --> 01:18:03.760
<v Speaker 4>So we got to do on the search for life

1210
01:18:03.800 --> 01:18:04.640
<v Speaker 4>in astrobiology.

1211
01:18:05.359 --> 01:18:08.479
<v Speaker 2>What about your favorite thing about astrobiology or your job

1212
01:18:08.680 --> 01:18:11.119
<v Speaker 2>the best you know.

1213
01:18:11.199 --> 01:18:12.840
<v Speaker 4>I've got a lot of great colleagues and we love

1214
01:18:12.920 --> 01:18:16.640
<v Speaker 4>brainstorming about forcing each other to think out of the box.

1215
01:18:16.680 --> 01:18:20.159
<v Speaker 4>I have a position at Woodshole Oceanographic Institution, an amazing

1216
01:18:20.239 --> 01:18:23.119
<v Speaker 4>institution that is a pioneer in the field of ocean exploration.

1217
01:18:23.680 --> 01:18:26.399
<v Speaker 4>And I go there and I visit colleagues like Chris

1218
01:18:26.479 --> 01:18:29.319
<v Speaker 4>Jerman and Julie Hooper and others, and we just have

1219
01:18:29.359 --> 01:18:31.920
<v Speaker 4>a blast forcing each other to think out of the

1220
01:18:31.960 --> 01:18:34.960
<v Speaker 4>box about how to explore a planet Earth and understand

1221
01:18:34.960 --> 01:18:38.840
<v Speaker 4>life on Earth and how to apply that to worlds

1222
01:18:38.840 --> 01:18:44.880
<v Speaker 4>and wonders beyond Earth. So that kind of intellectual popping

1223
01:18:44.880 --> 01:18:47.920
<v Speaker 4>the popcorn is a lot of fun. And at JPL

1224
01:18:48.239 --> 01:18:52.640
<v Speaker 4>I get to do that with engineers. I'm just a

1225
01:18:52.840 --> 01:18:58.279
<v Speaker 4>silly scientist with crazy ideas. I can't do anything without

1226
01:18:58.680 --> 01:19:01.920
<v Speaker 4>the engineers who figure out how to actually implement the

1227
01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:05.960
<v Speaker 4>ideas of myself and my fellow colleagues. They're the ones

1228
01:19:06.000 --> 01:19:09.600
<v Speaker 4>who are actually getting these missions done and making sure

1229
01:19:09.680 --> 01:19:13.479
<v Speaker 4>that when they fly by or orbit or land on

1230
01:19:13.600 --> 01:19:17.319
<v Speaker 4>a distant world, we get those bits back that can

1231
01:19:17.359 --> 01:19:21.439
<v Speaker 4>revolutionize our understanding of how the universe works.

1232
01:19:21.880 --> 01:19:23.960
<v Speaker 2>If someone wanted to be an astrobiologist, what would you

1233
01:19:23.960 --> 01:19:24.279
<v Speaker 2>tell them?

1234
01:19:24.279 --> 01:19:26.720
<v Speaker 4>Where do they start? Yeah, it's a great question. In

1235
01:19:26.760 --> 01:19:34.880
<v Speaker 4>the field of astrobiology today, there's biologists, chemist, geologists, geochemists, oceanographers.

1236
01:19:35.680 --> 01:19:41.319
<v Speaker 4>My own background physics and astronomy and geological environmental sciences.

1237
01:19:41.720 --> 01:19:45.800
<v Speaker 4>I also did a master's in robotics. It takes all

1238
01:19:45.920 --> 01:19:51.119
<v Speaker 4>kinds to get this sort of Let me use a

1239
01:19:51.119 --> 01:19:57.560
<v Speaker 4>few buzzwords interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary trendsdisciplinary kind of research done. And

1240
01:19:57.760 --> 01:20:03.039
<v Speaker 4>so what I tell students and folks interested within the

1241
01:20:03.079 --> 01:20:11.439
<v Speaker 4>framework of sciences that feed into astrobiology, follow your passion biology, geology, physics, astronomy,

1242
01:20:11.439 --> 01:20:18.520
<v Speaker 4>et cetera, et cetera, chemistry, and enjoy that fundamental research

1243
01:20:19.520 --> 01:20:22.920
<v Speaker 4>and then extend and bridge it into astrobiology.

1244
01:20:23.239 --> 01:20:26.079
<v Speaker 2>Smart It's just the sound of so many people changing

1245
01:20:26.079 --> 01:20:26.960
<v Speaker 2>their majors right now.

1246
01:20:27.119 --> 01:20:28.680
<v Speaker 3>Thank you for studying aliens.

1247
01:20:29.439 --> 01:20:32.960
<v Speaker 4>Thanks for having me a year to talk about aliens.

1248
01:20:33.479 --> 01:20:36.880
<v Speaker 2>So, whether it's about aliens or squirrels, the theme here

1249
01:20:37.359 --> 01:20:42.039
<v Speaker 2>asks smart people stupid questions, because what a shame not

1250
01:20:42.159 --> 01:20:45.560
<v Speaker 2>to know your surroundings. Now you can become a doctor

1251
01:20:45.600 --> 01:20:50.520
<v Speaker 2>Kevin Peter Hand fan by following him at Alien Oceans

1252
01:20:50.600 --> 01:20:54.880
<v Speaker 2>on Twitter on Instagram, He's Kevin Underscore Peter Underscore Hand

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01:20:55.199 --> 01:20:57.479
<v Speaker 2>And once again, the charities we talked about were Traveling

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01:20:57.520 --> 01:21:00.640
<v Speaker 2>Telescope and the Manchester Rescue Squad. Link to the show

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01:21:00.640 --> 01:21:03.359
<v Speaker 2>notes in case you're curious about them, alongside all the

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01:21:03.359 --> 01:21:06.119
<v Speaker 2>sponsors of the show and any codes that you might need.

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01:21:06.399 --> 01:21:08.720
<v Speaker 2>You can find those links up at aliword dot com

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01:21:08.760 --> 01:21:11.680
<v Speaker 2>to find ologies. You can follow along on Twitter at

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01:21:11.720 --> 01:21:16.000
<v Speaker 2>ologies also at ologies on Instagram. I'm ali Word with

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01:21:16.079 --> 01:21:20.520
<v Speaker 2>one L on both and yeah that's alien no n Now,

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01:21:20.560 --> 01:21:23.399
<v Speaker 2>if you're in the LA area, I'm moderating talks at

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01:21:23.479 --> 01:21:26.640
<v Speaker 2>the Natural History Museum for their first Friday series. So

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01:21:26.720 --> 01:21:27.880
<v Speaker 2>that's the first Friday.

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01:21:27.560 --> 01:21:29.640
<v Speaker 3>Of April of May of June.

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01:21:29.960 --> 01:21:32.399
<v Speaker 2>You just come in. I'm doing some talks with ologists

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01:21:32.439 --> 01:21:33.840
<v Speaker 2>SAH and I'm just kind of doing a live Q

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01:21:33.960 --> 01:21:35.920
<v Speaker 2>and A with them, so come say hi. More on

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01:21:35.960 --> 01:21:38.399
<v Speaker 2>that is at NHM dot org. I also have my

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<v Speaker 2>own science show on the CW called did I Mentioned Invention?

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01:21:41.319 --> 01:21:44.680
<v Speaker 2>And I'm a correspondent on Innovation Nation on CBS every Saturday.

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01:21:45.199 --> 01:21:48.079
<v Speaker 2>If you're a Netflix havever, you can check out Brainchild,

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01:21:48.199 --> 01:21:52.920
<v Speaker 2>wherein I am in a beehive explaining science every episode. Also,

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01:21:52.960 --> 01:21:56.039
<v Speaker 2>Happy birthday to my wonderful sister Janelle. I'm very, very

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01:21:56.079 --> 01:22:00.119
<v Speaker 2>proud to share Earthling DNDA with you. For Ologies T

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01:22:00.279 --> 01:22:02.319
<v Speaker 2>shirts with the Ologies logo and mugs and toads and

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01:22:02.359 --> 01:22:04.760
<v Speaker 2>pins and hats, go to ologiesmerch dot com. You can

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01:22:04.760 --> 01:22:07.439
<v Speaker 2>tag your Instagram photos Ologies Merch so I can post

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01:22:07.479 --> 01:22:10.960
<v Speaker 2>them on Mondays. Thank you Shannon Felds and Bonnie Dutch

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01:22:11.039 --> 01:22:13.960
<v Speaker 2>for managing that. Thank you Aaron Talbert and Handah Lippo

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01:22:14.079 --> 01:22:16.880
<v Speaker 2>for admitting the Facebook group. Thank you to interns Harry

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01:22:16.960 --> 01:22:20.760
<v Speaker 2>Kim and CAYLEB Patten. To assistant editor Jarrett Sleeper of

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01:22:20.800 --> 01:22:24.279
<v Speaker 2>mind Jam Media and the new combat podcast Fight Stuff

1283
01:22:24.359 --> 01:22:27.520
<v Speaker 2>in case you're into boxing and MMA, and of course

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01:22:27.720 --> 01:22:31.520
<v Speaker 2>the Mulley. To my scolder Stephen Ray Morris of the

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01:22:31.520 --> 01:22:34.399
<v Speaker 2>per Cast and c Jurassic Right, And to Nick Thorburn

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01:22:34.439 --> 01:22:36.640
<v Speaker 2>who wrote and perform the theme music. Now, if you

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<v Speaker 2>stick around to the end, you know, I tell you

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01:22:38.760 --> 01:22:42.079
<v Speaker 2>a secret this week. When I was younger, my sister

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<v Speaker 2>and I used to love eating spaghettios with meatballs, and

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01:22:46.439 --> 01:22:49.760
<v Speaker 2>we had this tactic where we would eat the spaghettios

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01:22:49.840 --> 01:22:54.159
<v Speaker 2>and then save all the meatballs on a smaller, separate plate,

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01:22:54.399 --> 01:22:56.439
<v Speaker 2>and then at the very end you would just get

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<v Speaker 2>an entire mouth full of meatballs.

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<v Speaker 3>But it now sounds so gross, but it.

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01:23:02.439 --> 01:23:07.720
<v Speaker 2>Was just heaven as a child. So that's it.

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<v Speaker 4>That's all I got.

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01:23:09.600 --> 01:23:13.840
<v Speaker 2>I have a good week everyone forby pacodermatology, hobiology or

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<v Speaker 2>do zoology, Lithology and technology, meteorology and matterhology, nathology, seriology, selenology.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm all that choosy.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry,