Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

On this short solo episode, Mike reflects on the 2022 Astrobiology Science Conference, his first in-person science conference in nearly 3 years. Galactic Journey: http://galacticjourney.org/ Register for Mike's virtual "Science of Star Trek" Carnegie Neighborhood Lecture (June 16): carnegiescience.edu/events/lectures…ience-star-trek Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/miquai

Guest: Dr. Anastasia Klimchynskaya Science fiction—like all forms of literature, art, and media—fossilizes a slice of the way that people made sense of the world at the time in which it was created. Dr. Anastasia Klimchynskaya joins Mike to explain the technoscientific paradox behind science fiction’s emergence as a brand-new genre in the 19th century and how Star Trek continues to reflect its themes to this day. Register for Mike's virtual "Science of Star Trek" Carnegie Neighborhood Lecture (June 16): https://carnegiescience.edu/events/lectures/science-star-trek Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Anastasia: https://twitter.com/anaklimchy

Guest: Adriana Gómez-Buckley On the final episode of the Europa Watch mini-series, Mike speaks to University of Washington astrobiologist Adriana Gómez-Buckley about her new scientific paper on simulating bacterial and viral ecosystems in Europa's subsurface ocean. "Modeling Virus and Bacteria Populations in Europa’s Subsurface Ocean" by Adriana Gómez-Buckley et al.: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/12/5/620 Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Adriana: https://twitter.com/astro_agb

Guests: Dr. Erin Macdonald & Prof. Mohamed Noor The official Star Trek science consultants, Dr. Erin Macdonald and Prof. Mohamed Noor, beam aboard to discuss the science behind Star Trek: Discovery's fourth season. We cover the Dark Matter Anomaly, gravitational waves, on-screen physics equations, gas giant aliens, epigenetic clocks, communicating with hydrocarbon pheromones, and more! Erin's Spacetime Productions: https://www.spacetimeproductions.net/ Mohamed's YouTube channel "BioTrekkie Explains!": https://www.youtube.com/c/BioTrekkieExplains Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai Erin: https://twitter.com/drerinmac Mohamed: https://twitter.com/mafnoor

Inspired by the events of PIC: "Two of One," Mike interviews random Trekkies at Star Trek: Mission Chicago to see if they would want to board a mission to Europa. Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Guest: Dr. James T. Keane On the third episode of #EuropaWatch, we talk about Io (surprise!) and life on Io (even bigger surprise!) with Io evangelist Dr. James T. Keane (best surprise!) based on the revelations from PIC: "Fly Me to the Moon." Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai James: https://twitter.com/jtuttlekeane

Mike's second spontaneous Europa-themed episode takes an in-depth look at the LA Times article in Q's hands from the Star Trek: Picard episode "Watcher." Follow Mike on Twitter: twitter.com/Miquai

Guest: Thomas Marrone Designing Star Trek ships is both a science and an art. Thomas Marrone, Star Trek Online's Associate Art Director, joins Mike to talk about the process of creating starships and how his STO designs found their way into Star Trek: Picard's second season. Thomas' ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/thomasmarrone "My Life at Warp Speed," a short documentary about Thomas' work: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11510833-star-trek-online%3A-my-life-at-warp-speed Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai Thomas: https://twitter.com/thomasthecat

Let's try something completely new! Every time there is an appearance or a mention of "The Europa Mission" in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, Mike will do a spontaneous episode about some cool Europa science. Here's the first episode of #EuropaWatch, based on PIC: "Assimilation." Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Response to DSC: "Species Ten-C" On the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, the crew makes first contact with Species 10-C, and Captain Burnham decides to relay the concept of "us" using the chemical composition of air. Mike reflects on this utterly brilliant choice. Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Guest: Dr. Anjali Piette Astronomer and exoplanetary scientist Dr. Anjali Piette joins Mike to respond to DSC: "Rosetta"—in particular, how gassy planets can transform into rocky ones, just like the 10-C's homeworld did. Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Guests: Katie Nickolaou & Dr. Simon Clark Meteorologist and storm chaser Katie Nickolaou as well as science communicator and atmospheric physicist Dr. Simon Clark join us to discuss their favorite instances of weather and climate in Star Trek. Together, they take us on a journey to the beaches of Risa, the cauldron of Caldos, a Borgified Earth, and more! "Star Trek Fandom Forecast" by Katie Nickolaou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N24mG3ZU6y4&ab_channel=SoManyRandomFandoms "Which planets from Star Trek TNG could really exist?" by Dr. Simon Clark and Dr. Hannah Wakeford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykkmlwdgdys&ab_channel=SimonClark Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai Katie: https://twitter.com/weather_katie Simon: https://twitter.com/simonoxfphys

Guest: Dr. Stuart Bartlett Caltech astrobiologist and complexity scientist Dr. Stuart Bartlett joins us to discuss the relationship between complex systems and life, a novel way to assess planetary complexity, and how this technique may one day help us look for new life and new civilizations. Stuart's paper, "Assessing planetary complexity and potential agnostic biosignatures using epsilon machines": https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01559-x "Bleeding edge tech could help us find unusual alien life" by Charles Q. Choi for Inverse: https://www.inverse.com/science/epsilon-machines-alien-life Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Response to DSC: "All In" We take a closer look at how Michael Burnham inspects Haz Mazaro's isolynium to verify its authenticity on the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Guest: David Mack Star Trek novelist David Mack—one of the architects of the Star Trek: Coda trilogy and the author of its final installment, "Oblivion's Gate"— joins Mike to explore the scientific themes in Coda, the symbiosis between science and science fiction, and the power of living in the moment. More about "Oblivion's Gate" on David Mack's website: https://davidmack.pro/writing/oblivions-gate/ Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai David: https://twitter.com/DavidAlanMack

Guest: Dr. Peter Gao Planetary scientist Dr. Peter Gao beams aboard to discuss: the first half of Star Trek: Discovery's fourth season; the latest Star Trek: Prodigy episode, "Kobayashi"; and the successful launch and deployment of JWST, humanity's most powerful space telescope ever built. "The Five Big Ways the James Webb Telescope Will Help Astronomers Understand the Universe" by Shi En Kim: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-big-ways-james-webb-telescope-will-help-astronomers-understand-universe-180978303/ Articles discussing why JWST should be renamed: 1. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-needs-to-rename-the-james-webb-space-telescope/ 2. https://www.dailyuw.com/news/discoveries/article_7122ec66-353c-11ec-9731-b72c140e93b2.html 3. https://astrobites.org/2021/12/19/jwst_renaming/ Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai Peter: https://twitter.com/PlanetaryGao

Guest: Jon Wong Thanks to the development of COVID-19 vaccines, many people around the world could once again feel safe gathering with loved ones over the holidays. In this episode, we celebrate the science of vaccines by talking to medical student Jon Wong about the Deep Space Nine episode "The Quickening," where Dr. Julian Bashir develops a vaccine that saves an entire planet from a horrendous viral blight. Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Response to DSC: "The Examples" On the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Tarka deduces that the DMA has the power of a hypergiant star. Can we use that info to estimate some key stats of the USS Discovery? Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Response to DSC: "All Is Possible" On the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Lt. Sylvia Tilly leads a cadet training exercise to survey a planetary body. Along the way, she makes a profound personal discovery. Mike shares his reaction to Tilly's mission and her revelation. Interdisciplinary organizations that Mike mentions: The Virtual Planetary Laboratory: https://depts.washington.edu/naivpl/content/welcome-virtual-planetary-laboratory The AEThER Project: https://planets.carnegiescience.edu/aether The Keck Institute for Space Studies: https://kiss.caltech.edu/ Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Response to DSC: "Choose to Live" In an attempt to unravel the mystery of the Dark Matter Anomaly, President T'Rina mind melds with Book to reexamine his memories of Kwejian's destruction. Can personal memories of traumatic events be trusted? Memory distortion references: Strange & Takarangi's paper "Memory distortion for traumatic events: the role of mental imagery": https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00027/full An interview with neuroscientist Donna Bridge: https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2012/09/your-memory-is-like-the-telephone-game The accuracy of 9/11 memories: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/911-memory-accuracy/ "Boldly Go!" a Star Trek parody musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdtBArmWHdY&ab_channel=BoldlyGo%21 Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai