The Quest for Cosmic Life
Talking about how we search for extraterrestrial life
Over the past two and a half years of this podcast we’ve had people from all walks of life to join us. We’ve had Oscar winners and Emmy winners and Pulitzer winners and writers and directors and historians and bridal store owners and everyone in between. But we’ve never had a Nobel Prize winner and we’ve certainly never had anyone how has worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. Until now.
Today we are joined by astrophysicist Dr. Mario Livio and Nobel Laureate and chemist Dr. Jack Szostak to talk about their combined efforts to find life beyond the reaches of our planet. Mario is looking with a range of methods to see what is out there, while Jack is working to understand the physical creation of life itself. Together they joined the pod to talk about their work and what they hope to discover:
About our guests:
Dr. Mario Livio is an internationally known astrophysicist, best-selling author, and popular speaker. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Livio has published more than 500 scientific articles. He has made significant theoretical contributions to topics ranging from cosmology, supernova explosions, and black holes to extrasolar planets and the emergence of life in the universe. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research, including having been selected as the “Carnegie Centenary Professor” by the universities of Scotland in 2003, and as the “Danz Distinguished Lecturer” by the University of Washington in 2006.
Dr. Livio is also the author of eight popular science books, the most recent in collaboration with Nobel laureate Jack Szostak. His bestselling book The Golden Ratio won him the Peano Prize in 2003 and the International Pythagoras Prize in 2004, as the best popular book on mathematics. His book Is God A Mathematician? inspired the NOVA program “The Great Math Mystery,” which was nominated for an EMMY in 2016. His book Brilliant Blunders was selected by The Washington Post as one of the Notable Books of 2013. His book Galileo and the Science Deniers appeared in May 2020, and was one of the finalists for the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.
Dr. Jack Szostak is a biologist, Nobel Prize laureate, university professor at the University of Chicago, former professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Szostak has made significant contributions to the field of genetics. His achievement helped scientists to map the location of genes in mammals and to develop techniques for manipulating genes. His research findings in this area are also instrumental to the Human Genome Project. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres.
Find their book
Find Is Earth Exceptional on Amazon or wherever you get your books.
I really, really enjoyed sitting down with these two guys who I now consider friends. This was a really intellectually engaging pod that I hope you enjoy. Find it below.
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