Description
What is life? Even as the search for life in the universe evolves, surprisingly, there is no consensus on what life is. We must consider hunting for life not as we know it.
The existence of extremophiles on Earth has broadened the types of environments in which we might look for life elsewhere in our solar system. And recent missions to dwarf planets has shown that our solar system is replete with the geology that might harbor biology.
In this second episode, Shannon Geary talks with astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol, the director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute about her early interest in astrobiology, meeting Carl Sagan, and the evolving definition of life.
Music by Jun Miyake
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How do we know where to look for life on other planets? SETI scientists use analog sites on Earth, not only to study how life has evolved here, but the geological conditions that made it possible. Devon Island in Canada is one such analog. It's been called Mars on Earth.
In this third episode,...
Published 11/21/24
You interact with about two-thirds of the elements of the periodic table every day. Some, like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, make up our bodies and the air we breathe. Yet there is also a class of elements so unstable they can only be made in a lab. These superheavy elements are the purview of a...
Published 11/18/24