Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

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

Response to DSC: "Anomaly" In the second episode of Discovery's fourth season, the crew goes face-to-face with the dangerous anomaly that radiates gravitational waves and leaves only destruction in its wake. Can you ride a gravitational wave? And why could the anomaly have a seemingly chaotic trajectory through space? A helpful Astrobites article about black hole "superkicks": https://astrobites.org/2018/03/08/recoil-detectives-searching-for-black-hole-kicks-using-gravitational-waves/ Follow Mike on Twitter: twitter.com/Miquai