Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

Guest: Prof. Rica French Mike speaks to Rica French, Professor of Astronomy at MiraCosta College and the Associate Director of the Center for Astronomy Education, about how she engages Trekkies at Star Trek conventions and students at MiraCosta about the wonders of the universe. Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Rica: https://twitter.com/ricadink

Guest: Prof. Mohamed Noor Dr. Mohamed Noor—Professor of Biology and Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences at Duke University—returns to Strange New Worlds to talk about how being a science consultant for the Star Trek universe inspired his latest paper, "Thinking outside Earth’s box—how might heredity and evolution differ on other worlds?" Mohamed's paper, "Thinking outside Earth’s box—how might heredity and evolution differ on other worlds?": https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12052-022-00172-4 Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Mohamed: https://twitter.com/mafnoor

Guest: Lucas Fifer We've given Europa a lot of attention this year, but Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, is also one of the most intriguing places to seek out new life in our solar system. On this episode of Strange New Worlds, we learn all about Enceladus's subsurface ocean, as revealed by NASA's Cassini orbiter and a new computer model developed by planetary scientist and astrobiologist Lucas Fifer. Is Enceladus's ocean habitable? What's the best strategy for looking for biosignatures? And what would it mean to find life out there? Lucas's paper, "Chemical Fractionation Modeling of Plumes Indicates a Gas-rich, Moderately Alkaline Enceladus Ocean": https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ac7a9f Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/miquai Mike: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Lucas: https://twitter.com/fifebeyondearth

Guest: Dr. Jason von Stietz In Part 2 of our most recent conversation with clinical psychologist Dr. Jason von Stietz, we tackle psychological themes from Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, from Spock unleashing his rage to Pike managing the trauma of experiencing his own, gruesome future. Jason's new podcast, Movie House Sport Psychology: https://anchor.fm/moviehousesportpsychology Follow us on Twitter! Mike: twitter.com/miquai Jason: twitter.com/CBTSportPsych Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek

Guest: Dr. Jason von Stietz Clinical psychologist Dr. Jason von Stietz returns to discuss some of the psychological themes in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks, from Mariner's therapy in "Crisis Point" to Boimler's perfectionism in "I, Excretus." Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Jason: https://twitter.com/CBTSportPsych Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek

Guest: Prof. Sheri Wells-Jensen In Part 2 of a conversation with Professor Sheri Wells-Jensen, we learn about Dr. Wells-Jensen's academic work on disability and inclusion in space exploration: why there should be blind astronauts, how disability can be a model for first contact, and portrayals of disability in Star Trek. "The Case for Disabled Astronauts" by Sheri Wells-Jensen: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-case-for-disabled-astronauts/ "Models of Disability as Models of First Contact" by Wells-Jensen & Zuber (2020): https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11120676 "An alternate vision for colonization" by Wells-Jensen et al. (2019): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.02.012 Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek

Guest: Prof. Sheri Wells-Jensen In Part 1 of a conversation with Professor Sheri Wells-Jensen, we chat about Dr. Wells-Jensen's involvement in creating Species 10-C's language for Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery, how deciphering alien languages might work in reality, and the connections between language and thought, mind and body. Follow us on Twitter! Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek

Guest: Dr. Bob Pappalardo On the grand finale of our #EuropaWatch mini-series based on Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, the Project Scientist for NASA's Europa Clipper mission, Dr. Bob Pappalardo, joins us to tell us about the real-life spacecraft launching for Europa in 2024. Find out more about the Europa Clipper mission here: https://europa.nasa.gov/ Carnegie Earth & Planets Laboratory's Neighborhood Lecture on The Science of Star Trek, featuring Mike Wong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRUnpAtJ3A&ab_channel=CarnegieEarth%26PlanetsLaboratory Follow us on Twitter: Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Bob: https://twitter.com/RPappalardo Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek

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