Guest: Elise Cutts 

Science journalist Elise Cutts returns to reflect on Caltech's 2016 Star Trek musical, "Boldly Go!", and dissect the 2023 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode, "Subspace Rhapsody."

Watch "Boldly Go! A Star Trek Parody Musical": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdtBArmWHdY&ab_channel=BoldlyGo%21

"The Simple Geometry That Predicts Molecular Mosaics" by Elise Cutts: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-simple-geometry-that-predicts-molecular-mosaics-20230621/

"The Mysterious Case of Ireland’s Missing Earthquakes" by Elise Cutts: https://eos.org/articles/the-mysterious-case-of-irelands-missing-earthquakes

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Elise: https://twitter.com/elisecutts

Episode 166: Subspace Rhapsody

Guest: Kayla Smith 

Getting accepted to grad school isn't something that happens every day. Episode 167 of Strange New Worlds is dedicated to celebrating Kayla Smith, an undergraduate who works with Mike, and her recent acceptances to PhD programs in planetary science. Kayla talks about watching her first Star Trek episode, her journey in academia, her research on Mars, her aspirations to look for life on exoplanets, and why studying planets is both a science and an art.

Mike's Carnegie Postdoc Spotlight: https://epl.carnegiescience.edu/michael-l-wong-explores-strange-new-worlds

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Episode 167: Of Hope, Optimism, and Tomorrows

Guest: Jaime Green 

Author Jaime Green beams aboard to talk about how we imagine alien life in science and in science fiction. Her new book is "The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos."

"The Possibility of Life" by Jaime Green: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-possibility-of-life-jaime-green?variant=40643758391330

"Uncertain Contact" by Jaime Green: https://aeon.co/essays/alien-life-might-not-be-something-science-can-ever-discover

"An Existential Problem in the Search for Alien Life" by Jaime Green:https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/12/defining-life-existentialism-scientific-theory/676238/

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Episode 168: The Possibility of Life

Guest: Prof. Paul Rimmer 

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale, Q and Picard time travel to the origin of life on Earth. How does that scene compare to our modern scientific understanding of life's emergence? Prof. Paul Rimmer walks us through what Star Trek gets right and wrong—and what we still don't know—about our humble beginnings.

"Could Dune really exist? What scientists think of our favorite sci-fi worlds" featuring Mike & Prof. Mohamed Noor: https://www.npr.org/2024/03/01/1198909447/dune-part-two-arrakis-habitable-planets-star-trek-wars

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Episode 169: The Abiogenesis Zone

Guest: Dr. Stuart Bartlett 

Complexity scientist, astrobiologist, and artificial life researcher Dr. Stuart Bartlett joins us to discuss how information processing has been a key feature of life, from its emergence 4 billion years ago to artificial intelligence today.

Stuart's paper "Provenance of life: Chemical autonomous agents surviving through associative learning": https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.106.034401

Mike & Stuart's paper "Searching for Life, Mindful of Lyfe’s Possibilities": https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/12/6/783

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Episode 170: Learning & Life

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim 

Science journalist Dr. Shi En Kim joins Mike to talk about DSC: "Red Directive," from sand avalanches to the big revelation at the end of the episode.

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DSC 501: Sturzstrom

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim

Mike and Kim examine the themes in DSC: "Under the Twin Moons." What does it take to get a double solar eclipse? And what do they make of Captain Rayner's advice?

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Kim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim

DSC 502: Double Solar Eclipse

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim 

Mike and Kim take a closer look at DSC: "Jinaal." What do they make of the Trill's test? And why was Stamets so bubbly about isotope half-lives?

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DSC 503: Half-Life

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim 

Mike and Kim unpack DSC: "Face the Strange" and "Mirrors." Can you use relativity to defeat a temporal shield? What do they make of Moll and L'ak's backstory?

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DSC 504 & 505: Temporal Bug

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim 

Mike and Kim chat about themes in DSC: "Whistlespeak" and "Erigah." Is cloud seeding a real thing, how do you create ultra-distilled water, and what are some contaminants that plague our waterways here on Earth?

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DSC 506 & 507: Distilled

Hosted by planetary scientist and astrobiologist Dr. Michael L. Wong, Strange New Worlds examines science, technology, and culture through the lens of Star Trek!

DSC 506 & 507: Distilled

miquai

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