Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

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: 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: 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