BlueSciCon Episode 46: Involve me and I learn: Is the future of space exploration crowdfunded?
Guest: Wojciech Gładysz
Topic: Will the future of space exploration be crowd funded?
podcast
Podcast: Genomes, the Fossil Record and More
Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for September features a conversation with Dr. Betul Kacar titled “Genomes, the fossil record and more: Accessing the artifacts of Earth’s earliest evolutionary history“. Living organisms today can help us understand the fossil record, as the genetic sequences of life today provides a direct link to the past. Experimental evolutionary biologists like Dr. Kacar are able to study microorganisms through hundreds and thousands of generations to understand how evolutionary selection pressures are directly expressed in these populations. […]
Read moreBlueSciCon Episode 43: Stars without wars – Institutionalization of space research and its role in the international security environment
Guest: Haritina Mogosanu
Questions to consider:
What factors allow an institution like NASA to enable both space research and international security?
What is meant by the institutionalization of space research?
What historical factors from the space race are still lingering today?
How should nations balance the sharing of space resources with security concerns?
BlueSciCon Episode 42: Temperature oscillations near natural nuclear reactor cores and the potential for prebiotic oligomer synthesis
Dr. Zach Adam Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: What are natural nuclear reactors? What planetary conditions allow natural nuclear reactors to occur? What is so special about natural nuclear reactors with respect to the origins of life? There are already lots of theories about geological/atmospheric settings for origins of life, why do we need another one and how is it different? How is the energy of a reactor different from the energy of, say, lightning bolts or UV radiation? […]
Read moreBlueSciCon Episode 41: Genomes, the fossil record and more: Accessing the artifacts of Earth’s earliest evolutionary history
Dr. Betul Kacar Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: What is experimental evolution? How do living microorganisms help us to better understand the fossil record? What is involved in “reconstructing” a genome? How do we understand the connection between protein functions and organism behavior? [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BlueSciCon_41_SEP2015.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]
Read morePodcast: Astrobiology with Cosmic Rays
Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for July features a conversation with Dr. Dimitra Atri titled “Astrobiology with Cosmic Rays“. The sun provides the primary energy source for life on Earth, and biologists have also speculated that geothermal heat near oceanic vents may have also provided energy for early forms of life. But could life survive on other forms of energy? Galactic cosmic rays are charged particles with origins from outside our solar system, and Dr. Atri suggests that these cosmic rays could […]
Read moreBlueSciCon Episode 40: Astrobiology with Cosmic Rays
Dr. Dimitra Atri Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: What organisms on Earth can survive solely on non-solar sources of energy? What sources of high-energy radiation could provide habitable conditions to subsurface environments? Could galactic cosmic rays power life beneath thick sheets of ice or deep oceans? What regions in the Solar System are the most likely to have increased habitability from galactic cosmic rays? How would this additional habitability mechanism direct the remote search for life in the universe? […]
Read morePodcast: Sustained Solar System Exploration
Live from the 2015 Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago, our BlueSciCon podcast for June features a lively discussion of our collective ideas for the “Sustained Exploration of the Inner Solar System.” We are currently promoting our essay contest for undergraduate students with the same theme, and we hope that our discussion will help to stimulate ideas in many of our essay contest participants. We purposefully excluded Mars from the conversation (only because Mars gets a lot of attention…), and so […]
Read moreBlueSciCon Episode 39: Sustained Exploration of the Inner Solar System
Live from AbSciCon 2015 Beverages: Various Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: How can human civilization develop a successful strategy for the sustained exploration of the inner solar system for the next 200 years? What planets and astronomical bodies should we target? Can space exploration be profitable? Is space colonization desirable? [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BlueSciCon_39_JUN2015.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]
Read morePodcast: Complementary Currency
Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for May features a conversation with our 2014 essay contest winner Kamir Hiam titled “Redesigning Human Motivation and Aiming for the Stars“. Space exploration requires costly investment, and the lack of an immediate return on this capital provides little economic incentive for a long-term exploratory program. Likewise, optimal solutions to environmental challenges sometimes compete against marketplace forces, which can create difficulties in motivating new behaviors. In his winning essay, Kamir Haim proposes that “complementary currency” could provide […]
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