Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Mike and science journalist Shi En Kim discuss the first half of Star Trek: Lower Decks' fifth season. Is solar sailing a real thing? When is it advantageous to play dead? Follow us on Bluesky! Mike: https://bsky.app/profile/miquai.bsky.social Kim: https://bsky.app/profile/goesbykim.bsky.social

Guest: Prof. Amitai Shenhav On this episode, Mike is joined by his fellow TEDxNewEngland speaker Amitai Shenhav, a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley who is known for his work on decision making. How does Prof. Shenhav use Star Trek (or attempt to, at least) in his psychology classes? And what does his research reveal about how to make tough decisions? Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Amitai: twitter.com/amitaishenhav

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? Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Kim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim

Response to DSC: "Forget Me Not" On the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery, "Forget Me Not," the crew travels to the Trill homeworld to retrieve the memories of the Tal symbiont, which currently resides inside of Adira. Most of us may not be Trill, but we all have endosymbionts in our bodies nonetheless. These microorganisms help us digest our food, synthesize vitamins, and even affect our central nervous system. On this episode of Strange New Worlds, Mike discusses the human gut microbiome, as well as the microbiomes of a few other remarkable animals, before drawing a parallel to the symbiosis between the Sphere Data and the U.S.S. Discovery. "I Contain Multitudes" by Ed Yong: https://edyong.me/i-contain-multitudes Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/miquai

Response to DSC: "People of Earth" On the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, we learn that a research base on Titan has suffered a catastrophic accident. Mike hypothesizes how this might have occurred and makes an argument, based on energy availability, for why a dilithium-starved human outpost on Titan might resort to desperate measures. "Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan" by Amanda R. Hendrix & Yuk L. Yung: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.00365.pdf Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/miquai

Guest: Dr. Ingrid Ockert Dr. Ingrid Ockert, a historian of science, joins Mike to respond to DSC: "Far From Home." While the first episode of Season 3 was reminiscent of 1970s sci-fi, Ingrid explains why this week's episode was more of a 1950s mold. They also discuss the journeys of Saru and Tilly, and Mike closes with remarks on parasitic ice. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/Miquai Ingrid: https://twitter.com/ingrid_rocket

Let's try something new! This is the start of a series of short, weekly reactions to Discovery's third season—from a scientific perspective, of course! This week, DSC 301: "That Hope Is You, Part 1." Learn how your host Mike Wong looked for biosignatures in Iceland's Hverfjall crater in 2016, the same crater that served as the setting for Michael Burnham's crash landing and subsequent biosignature scan in 3188! Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

Guest: Professor David Kipping Star Trek depicts a galaxy teeming with life, including many variations of intelligent life. Is that the nature of our universe? Or could it be that life is exceedingly rare? Or that intelligence takes an absurdly long time to evolve? Might we be the lucky, lonely ones? Although we don't yet know the answer, we can use our knowledge of the emergence and evolution of life on Earth to create betting odds for how quickly life and intelligence emerge. That's exactly what Professor David Kipping of Columbia University did in a paper published earlier this year. David's scientific paper: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/22/11995.short David's Cool Worlds channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGHZpIpAWJQ-Jy_CeCdXhMA Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai David: @david_kipping

Guest: Prof. Darsa Donelan "They know what they're getting themselves into when they sign up for my class," says Professor Darsa Donelan, who is well known for melding her love for cosplaying with her love for physics. On this episode of Strange New Worlds, Professor Donelan shares how they cosplay to enhance the learning experience, motivate physics problems with clips from Star Trek, built a Borg costume out of recycled materials, and are working with NASA to revamp space science curricula. Resistance is futile! Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Darsa: @DarsaDonelan Darsa's alter ego: @BanalBorg

On Episode 102, Mike introduces the concept of lyfe, which he and Dr. Stuart Bartlett coined in a paper earlier this year, through the lens of Star Trek. Lyfe is defined as any system that performs the following four pillars: dissipation, autocatalysis, homeostasis, and learning. Life is therefore a subset of lyfe—it's the specific instance of lyfe that we are aware of on Earth. The concept of lyfe allows us to understand life in the context of other phenomena in the universe, more clearly define "life as we don't know it," and frame astrobiological research questions in new ways. "Defining Lyfe in the Universe: From Three Privileged Functions to Four Pillars," Mike and Stuart's paper in the journal Life: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/10/4/42 "Thinking About Life (or Lyfe) Through The Prism of Star Trek," Mike's blog post for Many Worlds: https://manyworlds.space/2020/06/17/thinking-about-life-or-lyfe-through-the-prism-of-star-trek/ Lyfe as The Guardian's word of the week: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/06/lyfe-a-new-word-for-aliens-that-takes-a-leaf-out-of-life Lyfe in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/30/is-there-lyfe-on-mars-new-concept-broadens-search-for-alien-organisms Lyfe in Chemistry World: https://www.chemistryworld.com/its-lyfe-jym/4012266.article Lyfe in the Danish broadsheet newspaper Weekendavisen: https://www.weekendavisen.dk/2020-26/ideer/livet-som-vi-ikke-kender-det Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

Which Star Trek character does Mike identify with most? What aspect of the Star Trek future does he wish were a part of the present? What if Star Trek had been created in another country? Mike answers these audience submitted questions and more on Episode 101 of Strange New Worlds! Virtual Trek Con: https://www.virtualtrekcon.com/ Virtual Trek Con "Star Trek Science Q&A Panel": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvEwpmXA9rU Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

Guests: Elise Cutts & Dr. Peter Gao For Episode 100, Mike reunites with his crew from the very first episode of Strange New Worlds, geobiologist Elise Cutts and planetary scientist Peter Gao, to look forward to three upcoming Star Trek series: Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy. What planets should Pike et al. explore? How can comedy mesh with Star Trek's storytelling? And what do we hope to give the next generation of young Trekkies? Strange New Worlds announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD6kUZwMOjQ Lower Decks trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3RkBKedKWw Prodigy name reveal: https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-prodigy-has-arrived Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Peter: @PlanetaryGao

Guest: Ray Wong In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lt. Worf practices and teaches a form of Klingon martial arts called the Mok'bara, which is strikingly similar to the Chinese martial art tai chi. Mike sits down with his dad, Ray Wong, who has studied tai chi and other forms of kung fu for nearly 40 years, to examine the parallels between the Klingon and Earthly traditions. Ray Wong's tai chi and kung fu YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmF0FwnRI9E90MaJVeLjq1g Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

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. Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Kim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim

As the Black Lives Matter movement sweeps across the United States and the world in the wake of George Floyd's tragic death at the hands of the police, Mike takes a moment to reflect on racial injustice and social inequity in America, academia, and Star Trek. "Race and racism in the geosciences" by Kaheli Dutt, 2020: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0519-z "Double jeopardy in astronomy and planetary science: Women of color face greater risks of gendered and racial harassment" by Kathryn B. H. Clancy et al., 2017: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017JE005256 "Making Black Women Scientists under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics" by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, 2020: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/704991 Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

Guest: Dr. Andy Howell In the 2009 Star Trek movie, Romulus is destroyed by a supernova that exploded 500 lightyears away, a cataclysm that is said to threaten the entire galaxy. But on Star Trek: Picard, the star that goes supernova is Romulus' own star, and there's no mention of galactic destruction. Why the change? There's no one better to ask than Dr. Andy Howell, an astronomer who leads the Global Supernova Project and also produces and hosts a YouTube series called Science vs. Cinema. Science vs. Cinema's Star Trek: Picard episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmvRvFqqTCw Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Andy: @d_a_howell Science vs. Cinema: @ScienceVsCinema

Guest: Desun Oka History is not just a list of facts, but a process of memory making; we get to decide how and why certain events from the past are remembered today. On this episode of Strange New Worlds, Mike is joined by historian Desun Oka to discuss the memory-inducing alien memorial from the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Memorial" and how real-life memorials—from the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. to the recently built comfort women memorials in California—transmit their meanings. Finally, how should the Coronavirus pandemic be remembered? Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Miquai

Guests: Aditi Narayanan & Dr. Stuart Bartlett How do viruses shape life on Earth? Well, the Coronavirus pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg. Using the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Macrocosm" as our launchpad, Caltech scientists Aditi Narayanan & Stuart Bartlett join me to discuss how the tiniest biological entities leave huge and truly unexpected imprints on life at the levels of individual cells, entire ecosystems, and the biosphere as a whole. Check out Aditi's podcast, Biosphere: https://caltechletters.org/podcasts/biosphere/

Guests: Dr. Peter Gao & Dr. James T. Keane Which TNG characters appeared in Picard? Who dies in the show? Were there any facepalms? Dr. James T. Keane and Dr. Peter Gao join Mike to recap Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard through their "Picard Bingo" game and chat about the science tidbits that stuck out to them. Be warned: spoilers aplenty! More information on the octonary star system: Ethan Siegel, Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/03/19/is-star-trek-picards-hypothesized-octuple-star-system-really-possible/ Phil Plait, Syfy Wire: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/octonary-stars-and-broken-pieces-can-the-eight-star-system-from-star-trek-picard-actually Rhett Allain, Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/that-8-star-system-really-could-exist/ Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai James: @jtuttlekeane Peter: @PlanetaryGao

Guest: Jon Wong Aspiring medical doctor Jon Wong returns to Strange New Worlds to discuss the intertwining ethical predicaments in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Ethics" as well as medical ethics dilemmas that real-life doctors are facing during the Coronavirus pandemic. Some additional Coronavirus readings: "Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19" in The New England Journal of Medicine: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2005114 "Search for Coronavirus Vaccine Becomes a Global Competition" in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/coronavirus-vaccine-competition.html "How some cities ‘flattened the curve’ during the 1918 flu pandemic" in National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/03/how-cities-flattened-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/ Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

We are living in a strange new world. The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19) has disrupted every aspect of daily life. On this episode of Strange New Worlds, Mike explains why doctors, scientists, and public officials are instructing us to stay at home and the math behind the concept of social distancing. As a special treat, Elise Cutts, Prof. Alex Evans, Dr. James T. Keane, Dr. Peter Gao, Alex Rodriquez, Dr. Sharon Newman, and Desun Oka give their recommendations for Star Trek episodes to binge-watch in self-isolation. For more detailed simulations of the effect of social distancing, check out this article in The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/ For an elegant scientific illustration of how the SARS-CoV-2 works, check out this article from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/11/science/how-coronavirus-hijacks-your-cells.html Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

Guest: Amy Nelson "This is the power of math, people!" —Ensign Silvia Tilly Mike is joined by math teacher Amy Nelson, who, like Tilly, is passionate about both doing math and sharing its power with others. Amy describes how she incorporates Star Trek into her classroom at every opportunity. Then, she recounts her adventures on the Star Trek Cruise that sailed earlier this year. Amy is also a podcast host on the TrekFM and United Federation of Podcasts networks. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Amy: @MissAmyNelson

Hear Mike talk about one of his favorite planets in Star Trek: The Next Generation (and the science behind it, of course!) as a guest on TrekFM's Earl Grey podcast, hosted by Justin Oser, Joe Keegan, and Amy Nelson. Listen to the entire episode of Earl Grey 316, titled "Andorians on Enceladus," here: http://www.trek.fm/earl-grey/316 Earl Grey is a TrekFM podcast: http://www.trek.fm/

Guest: Seth Jacob Mike speaks to writer Seth Jacob, the author of a brand-new comic book called "Astrobiology." They discuss Star Trek's influence on Seth and the first issue of "Astrobiology," how Seth chose the scientific and humanistic themes of his story, and various issues in astrobiological research and space exploration. Enjoy! Follow us on Twitter: Mike: @Miquai Seth: @SethJacob

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 Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai

Guest: Shi En Kim Aside from Shakespeare, archaeology, and Earl Grey, Jean-Luc Picard's greatest love in the universe is fencing. As a captain, he was famous for sharing this sport with his shipmates onboard the Enterprise-D, and as an admiral, he taught it to a young Romulan refugee named Elnor on the planet Vashti. In this episode of Strange New Worlds, former Caltech women's saber team captain Shi En Kim joins us to examine instances of fencing in Star Trek, including the Star Trek: Picard episode "Absolute Candor." Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Kim: @goes_by_kim

Guest: Kara Brugman Unless we invent warp drive pronto, our generation will never set foot on an exoplanet, much less sample its constituents. So, instead of trying to leap across the chasm of space herself, experimental petrologist Kara Brugman is bringing exoplanets down to Earth. In her lab at Arizona State University, she creates the diverse kinds of magmas and lavas that could be building exoplanetary surfaces many lightyears away. She walks us through what she's learned from her experiments so far and also tells us about the Star Trek: Picard premiere event that she co-hosted at ASU. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Kara: @karabrug

Guest: Emily Lakdawalla Mars appears both beautifully and accurately in Star Trek: Picard—that is, until it gets fried to a crisp. Emily Lakdawalla, a world-renowned science communicator at The Planetary Society, shares her experience watching Mars's destruction on the big screen at the LA premiere of Star Trek: Picard, her eagle-eyed observations of its appearance, and her interview with visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman about creating a realistic Mars for Star Trek. Emily's Planetary Society blog post "Star Trek: Picard Gets the Martian Landscape Right": https://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/star-trek-picard-mars.html Follow us on Twitter: Mike: @Miquai Emily: @elakdawalla

Mike unleashes a random smattering of pre–Star Trek: Picard thoughts and feelings on this BONUS episode of Strange New Worlds! Engage!

Guest: Dr. Jim Davenport The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) seems to be running out of steam, but Dr. Jim Davenport has an idea that could awaken this sleeping giant of astronomical research. Together, we examine the history of SETI, its perception in the public and among scientists, and it's portrayal in the Star Trek: Voyager two-part episode "Future's End." Then, we talk about Jim's new way of performing SETI, creatively utilizing facilities and data that we already have. Jim's SETI paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 Jim's AstroVlog: https://www.youtube.com/james-davenport The AstroVlog version of this podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRbCY7ZzE8&feature=youtu.be Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Jim: @jradavenport

Guest: Dr. Morgan Cable In the various renditions of Star Trek, the Klingons travel in Birds-of-Prey, the Romulans fly Warbirds, Spock pilots the Jellyfish vessel, and a squid-like future probe attacks Captain Pike's shuttlecraft. This connection between spacecraft and animals is not just science-fiction fantasy. NASA is developing real-life mission concepts that take after biological creatures in name and function, and Dr. Morgan Cable, a scientist and technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is here to tell us about two of those projects! Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Morgan: @starsarecalling

Guest: Dr. Andrew Rader Mike speaks to aerospace engineer, SpaceX mission manager, history geek, Trekkie, and author Dr. Andrew Rader about his new book, "Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take Us to the Stars." This book is basically the Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits sequence spread out over 352 pages and jam-packed with extraordinary facts. Its fourth and final section is called "Becoming Star Trek" and takes an in-depth look at the technologies and incentives that could launch our civilization to the stars. Purchase your copy of "Beyond the Known": https://smile.amazon.com/Beyond-Known-Exploration-Created-Modern/dp/1982123532 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Andrew: @marsrader

Guest: Dr. Andrew Rushby Terrestrial exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars are among the most promising targets in our search for extraterrestrial life. But are these planets likely to be habitable? Mike sits down with Dr. Andrew Rushby, a postdoc at UC Irvine who studies the possible climates of these strange new worlds—especially the way that ice interacts differently with red dwarf starlight than it does with starlight from our Sun. Also, they speak about Andrew's impressions from his ongoing binge of Star Trek: The Next Generation. TrekFM's Earl Grey Episode 237, featuring Mike Wong and Elise Cutts on panspermia: http://www.trek.fm/earl-grey/237 "Habitability: A Review": https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2015.1295 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Andrew: @andrewrushby Exocast: @exo_cast

Guest: Haukur Guðmundsson While in Iceland for the Extreme Solar Systems IV conference, Mike received an odd hailing frequency via Twitter from someone named Haukur Guðmundsson. Investigating further, Mike discovered that Haukur was a devout Trekkie, Strange New Worlds listener, and a Reykjavík-based physical therapist, teacher, and researcher. After making first contact, they decided to record an impromptu podcast episode, discussing Haukur's field of exercise oncology, depictions of training and healthy lifestyles in Star Trek, what it's like to be a Star Trek fan in Iceland, and more! Enjoy! Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Haukur: @toreadoris

Guest: Dr. James Kirk Nicknamed "Tiberius" and "Captain" by his friends, Dr. James Kirk, the astronomer, spends his days exploring real-life strange new worlds! Mike met Dr. Kirk at the Extreme Solar Systems conference in Reykjavík, Iceland, where they chatted about growing up with that famous name, loving another science-fiction franchise, and two of the most intriguing planets that James has recently revealed. Follow Mike on Twitter: @Miquai

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 Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai

Guest: Elise Cutts Former Strange New Worlds co-host Elise Cutts returns to the show to discuss Dr. Una McCormack's Star Trek: Discovery novel "The Way to the Stars." We compare and contrast Elise's experiences as a young, early career scientist with those of Sylvia Tilly, exploring the themes of discovering one's scientific passion, making personal sacrifices, finding mentors in unexpected places, the nature of transformative experiences, and more. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Una McCormack: @unamccormack

Guests: Rekha Sharma & Dr. Erin Macdonald Mike brings you two interviews with incredible people at the 2019 Star Trek Las Vegas convention: (1) actress Rekha Sharma on portraying two versions of Commander Ellen Landry in Star Trek: Discovery's first season; (2) Dr. Erin Macdonald on science of gravitational waves and LIGO—and how that relates to the fictional Star Trek technologies of warp drive and cloaking devices. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Rekha: @TheRekhaSharma Erin: @drerinmac

Guest: Lori Dajose Caltech science writer Lori Dajose takes a turn in the captain's chair as she interviews your host, Mike Wong, on Strange New Worlds. Together they explore the various scales of astrobiological questions, from the electron transport that powers our cells to planetary phenomena, and from Mike's personal scientific journey to the societal impact of the search for extraterrestrial life.

Guests: Aida Behmard & Shreyas Vissapragada At the 2019 Sagan Workshop, Caltech graduate students Aida Behmard & Shreyas Vissapragada give Mike peeks at three of their recent research projects—the first being laboratory work, the second astronomical observation, and the final one utilizing machine learning (a subset of artificial intelligence)—demonstrating that there is no single way to be a planetary scientist. At the end of the episode, Mike presents a clip from his StoryCorps interview at the 2018 AGU Fall Meeting. Aida's "binding energies of hydrocarbons" paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.09720 Shreyas' "infrared observations of exoplanets" paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.04445 Aida's "machine learning/stars" paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.00094 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Aida: @abehmard Shreyas: @astroshrey

Guest: Dr. Peter Gao Unable to travel to distant objects of interest, astronomers use powerful telescopes to examine celestial phenomena from afar. However, telescope time is extraordinarily limited, so scientists must write convincing proposals to win the time they need to make their observations. On this episode, Dr. Peter Gao tells Mike about the process of writing a successful proposal to make the Hubble Space Telescope stare at a strange new world that he is passionate about studying. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Peter: @PlanetaryGao

Guest: Dr. Baptiste Journaux Besides captaining the Enterprise, the thing that Jean-Luc Picard is most famous for is his affection for wine. Coming from a long line of winemakers in La Barre, France, we see Jean-Luc returning to Chateau Picard in the TNG episode "Family" and once again to retire from Starfleet in the 2019 Star Trek: Picard trailers. But what does it take to make wine? Are there scientific principles that govern its taste and color? And what can we infer about the state of the world in the 24th century from the wine bottles in the Picard trailer? Mike welcomes Dr. Baptiste Journuax to Strange New Worlds for a deep dive into the science of wine. Cheers! PBS Nova article about savagnin blanc's unchanging genetics: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/savagnin-blanc-genetics Get your own Chateau Picard wine: https://startrekwines.com/ Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Baptiste: @B_jour

Guests: Dr. Kim Bott & Rudy Garcia On this bonus episode of Strange New Worlds, Dr. Kim Bott and Rudy Garcia describe the science behind the popular video game series Mass Effect. Kim's Astronomy on Tap Seattle talk on the "Astrobiology of Video Games": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nz5ghccwzA Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Kim: @HumanBott

Guest: Anthony Rapp Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets on Star Trek: Discovery) was the keynote speaker at the 2019 Astrobiology Science Conference, where he talked about what it's like to travel the mycelial network, the symbiosis between science and Star Trek, and his excitement for astrobiology. In this exclusive interview from AbSciCon, Mike sits down with Anthony to chat about the scientific themes of Star Trek: Discovery, Anthony's portrayal of astromycologist Paul Stamets, and his experience interacting with scientists at the meeting. Mike's #AbSciCon2019 slide featuring the Discovery, Stamets, and Spock: https://twitter.com/Miquai/status/1143761835377565696 Third Pod From the Sun's interview with Anthony Rapp: https://thirdpodfromthesun.com/2019/06/28/third-pod-live-anthony-rapp/ Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Anthony: @albinokid

Guests: Elise Cutts & Dr. Peter Gao Former Strange New Worlds co-host Elise Cutts is back on the show to describe her Fulbright Scholar project, which will take her to the University of Southern Denmark to study how ancient microbes built the atmosphere that we breathe today. Then, Mike and Elise are joined by Dr. Peter Gao to recap their visit to the Paley Center for Media's Star Trek: Discovery exhibit. Caltech's feature on Elise's Fulbright: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/geobiology-student-selected-fulbright The Paley Center's Star Trek: Discovery "Fight for the Future" exhibit (until July 7, 2019): https://www.paleycenter.org/2019-star-trek-discovery-exhibit-la/ Mike & Peter's winning Star Trek Beyond video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7jsQEr_2Ts The Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 poster featuring real planetary images: https://twitter.com/Miquai/status/1145371724461903872 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Peter: @PlanetaryGao

Guest: Ellen Leask In the Star Trek: Discovery episode "The Red Angel," the crew travels to an inhospitable planet called Essof IV, which Spock reports has a carbon monoxide atmosphere "laced with perchlorate dust." To find out more about perchlorates, Mike interviews planetary geologist Ellen Leask, who studies perchlorates on Mars. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai

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/ Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Jaime: https://twitter.com/jaimealyse

Guest: Prof. Mohamed Noor Dr. Mohamed Noor is a professor of biology at Duke University and the author of "Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds." In this episode of Strange New Worlds, Mike opens a subspace channel to Durham, North Carolina, to ask Prof. Noor about the process of writing his book and to discuss specific examples of evolutionary principles depicted in Star Trek. Prof. Noor also uses Star Trek to teach evolutionary biology in a class at Duke called "Genetics, Evolution, Star Trek." In that course, the final project is to write a Star Trek script using real biological concepts, and Mike pitches his final project idea to Prof. Noor for real-time grading! "Meet the College Professor Teaching 'Trek' to Millennials": https://www.startrek.com/news/meet-college-professor-teaching-trek-millennials Purchase "Live Long and Evolve": https://smile.amazon.com/Live-Long-Evolve-Evolution-Genetics/dp/0691177414/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=live+long+and+evolve&qid=1560185917&s=gateway&sr=8-1 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Mohamed: @mafnoor

Guests: Meredith Durbin & Tyler Gordon Mike is joined by astronomers Meredith Durbin & Tyler Gordon to review "What We Left Behind," the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary. What surprised us about the documentary? How does DS9 compare to the other Star Trek series? And what scientific themes would we want to see in Ira Stephen Behr's hypothetical Season 8? Pre-order the DS9 Doc: https://smile.amazon.com/What-We-Left-Behind-Looking/dp/B07RSLJSG5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1KXP3NKKS9P3E&keywords=what+we+left+behind+deep+space+9&qid=1559494913&s=gateway&sprefix=what+we+left+behind%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-1 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai Meredith: @bispectral Tyler: @tagordone

Guests: Dr. Peter Gao & Dr. James T. Keane Mike recaps Discovery's second season with help from Dr. Peter Gao & Dr. James T. Keane. What were our favorite sciencey moments? Who won Disco Bingo? And what did we make of the season finale, "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2"? James's bingo sheet: https://twitter.com/jtuttlekeane/status/1119064987488538624 Peter's bingo sheet: https://twitter.com/PlanetaryGao/status/1120024551268556801 Mike's bingo sheet: https://twitter.com/Miquai/status/1125137613017321472 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: @Miquai James: @jtuttlekeane Peter: @PlanetaryGao