The Tartan Tardigrade Podcast Episodes #2-11
The UK Centre for Astrobiology (UKCA) produces podcast called the Tartan Tardigrade, talking to guests from around the world about their research in astrobiology, their careers, and the prospects for life in the universe.
The podcast has been running since 2019, and the full list of podcasts can be accessed from Mediahopper Create. https://media.ed.ac.uk/channel/The+Tartan+Tardigrade/109471592
Each podcast has been licensed CC BY Attribution.
The first episode is featured in this post below.
Episode 2 – Magnus Ivarrson
This episode features Magnus Ivarrson from the Natural History Museum of Stockholm. Magnus told us about his work on the deep biosphere, how he ended up working in palaeontology, and how that led him to Mars…
Episode 3 – Axel Hagermann
This episode features Axel Hagermann from the University of Stirling, who investigates ices on other worlds in the solar system and works on a number of space missions.
Episode 4 – Rosaly Lopes
Episode 5 – Kathryn Harriss
In this episode we talk to Kathryn Harriss from the University of Kent, who studies impacts in the solar system, and tells us about their effects on life.
Episode 6 – Mark Van Zuilen
This episode features Mark Van Zuilen from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, who told us about their work on determining whether biosignatures we observe in the environment are truly produced by biology.
Episode 7 – Mohit Melwani Daswani
This episode features Mohit Melwani from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who told us about the possibility for life and geochemical limits of habitability on Icy Moons (and a little bit of Mars).
Episode 8 – Ernesto di Mauro
In this episode we talk to Ernesto di Mauro from Sapienza University of Rome, who discussed how biological molecules can be formed from different pre-biotic chemistry, and the definitions of life that play such a big part of astrobiology.
Episode 9 – Roberto Orosei
In this episode we talk to Roberto Orosei from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who told us about his recent discovery of a subsurface lake on Mars and his research of radar applications on other planets.
Episode 10 – Peter Vickers
In this episode we talk to Peter Vickers from Durham University, a philosopher who approaches astrobiology from a fresh perspective. We discuss how astrobiology fits in with the philosophy of science, and easy questions such as the nature of truth.
Episode 10 – Caprice Phillips
This episode University of Edinburgh MScR student Mia Frothingham speaks to PhD candidate Caprice Phillips from The Ohio State University. We talk about her exciting research on gas dwarf planets and the fact that scientists are people, too!
These podcasts were created by UK Centre for Astrobiology at The University of Edinburgh, and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
