Science in Philosophy, Philosophy in Science – Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra

By Kurt Ger Jacob Haqq-Misra is a research scientist at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. His areas of focus include planetary habitability, atmospheric dynamics, environmental ethics, extraterrestrial life, and space settlement (he has an upcoming book on the subject with the University Press of Kansas). He completed his Ph.D. in meteorology and astrobiology (2010) and his M.S. in meteorology (2007) from Penn State University. He also holds degrees in astrophysics and computer science from the University of Minnesota (2005). […]

September 10, 2020

All-Seeing Eye: Dr. Anamaria Berea

By Kurt Ger As I opened up Zoom to get to my interview with Dr. Berea, I felt nervous. The brief hour I’d spent looking her up beforehand to get an idea of what I could ask had returned entirely too many answers. A PhD in economics, another in computational social sciences, winning a Keck Futures Initiative grant as a postdoc, her research published in six places and supported by institutions across the United States, data scientist and AI mentor […]

July 20, 2020

Patience is a Virtue

By Kurt Ger Almost every major technological advance throughout history originated from basic research that was conducted as its own goal, and seemingly offered no short-term benefit. For example, studies about the atom have led to computers as we use them today, and much of modern anatomy and medicine stems from dissections on dead bodies performed centuries ago. Humanity’s relationship with space is much more than just building rockets and sending them somewhere. As expanding our reach into the far […]