SETI, Aliens and the Origins of Life
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How do we look for life beyond Earth? And how did it first get started down here? To help us take on these big questions, we explore the science of SETI and the chemistry of creating life. Plus, science gets cinematic as we meet the scientific adviser for Prometheus, and find out how his work could help us understand alien atmospheres. In the news, how to sequence a baby using just the mother's blood, and the simple intervention that could prevent millions of malaria cases. In Question of the Week, can we create life in the lab from just elements and heat?
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We've been scanning the skies for evidence of intelligence for over 50 years, to find out how, we're joined by Jill Tarter, outgoing director of the SETI institute.
We explore some cinematic science when we meet the scientific adviser on Ridley Scott's blockbuster Prometheus...
Using blood from a mother midway through her pregnancy, researchers have successfully sequenced the complete genome of the woman's unborn child.
Never mind wearing unusual clothes or talking in incomprehensible slang, the feeling that your own child may be 'foreign' starts much younger than their teenage years, starting right back in the womb...
An overlooked cell lurking in the walls of arteries could be the cause of the vascular disease that leads to heart attacks and strokes, new research has revealed.
We discuss how rainfall can be used to map regions affected by seasonal Malaria to improve drug treatment programmes...
A protein in milk to keep obesity at bay, 'smart' water pumps to improve water availability, a digital solution to dyslexia and the colourful personality of Gouldian Finches...
As if carbon dioxide and methane aren’t enough to worry about, it now seems that we’re managing to make a whole load of new greenhouse gases too...
One of the most fundamental questions about how life began in the first place must be answered here on Earth. We explore the updated accounts of some classic experiments on the chemistry of creating life...
What is intelligent life?
We know that the amino acids we use on Earth are all left handed. How about the molecules found in Stanley Miller’s experiments? Were they of an even distribution of right and left handed forms or was there a bias?
What potential technologies for communication are out there that we are NOT using. Obviously there are optical and radio telescopes. Is there anything else we could try?
Have hydrothermal systems been found on celestial bodies other than Earth?
How does SETI get around the problem of radio noise? How do you make sure that your signals aren’t contaminated by all the stuff we’re splurging out here on Earth?
Hi Chris and other scientists. I listen to your podcast weekly. Love them.
Has there been any progress in creating a living organism from basic elements (CHONPS) and some heat? Seems like with so many advances in human biology, science should be able to produce a simple organism...
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