33: Why do we look for water when we look for life? With Dr. Cable
Dr Cable returns to the show to talk about why scientists often assume that water is needed to sustain life. She explains why most life, like us, likely is carbon-based, and talks about where she'd lo...
21 Feb 201614min
32: How to build a planet with Dr. Kretke
Dr. Katherine Kretke investigates how planets are formed with computer models. Her new research had a surprising result— that pebbles play a key role in forming terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars...
14 Feb 201614min
31: If we could put Mars in a bottle… with Paulo Younse
Paulo Younse has spent over 5 years studying hermetic seals for tubes. But these aren't just any tubes— there the tubes that will travel to Mars and carry rocks back to Earth. He describes the challen...
7 Feb 201617min
30: Space weathering with Dr. Kaluna
Dr. Heather Kaluna talks about space weathering, which changes the surfaces of the moon, asteroids, and Mercury. She studies space weathering in a laboratory, where she can reproduce hundreds of milli...
31 Jan 201611min
29: Keeping the James Webb Space Telescope cool with Dr. Stone
The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest astronomy project in the world right now. It's an amazingly complex robot, and some of its sensors need to be kept cool. Dr Kris Stone talks about the coo...
24 Jan 201618min
28: Building experiments for the International Space Station with Dr. White
Dr. Lauren White talks about designing and building instruments for the International Space Station (ISS). She shares a secret about designing instruments for the outside of the space station, and als...
17 Jan 201617min
27: Searching Iceland's lava fields for life on Mars with Dr. Cable
Dr Morgan Cable comes back on the podcast to tell us about how she and a team of scientists searched a fresh lava field in Iceland to look for signs of life. They pretended to see the landscape like a...
10 Jan 201619min
26: Old, volatile, and gassy: Why comets would make unpleasant but interesting dinner guests with Dr. Bauer
Dr. James "Gerbs" Bauer talks about comets, the icy dirtballs (or dirty iceballs) that orbit the Sun. We talk about the ancient Egyptian term for comets, why you probably shouldn't eat a comet, and an...
3 Jan 201614min
