Aliens Now

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We are closer than ever to finding aliens according to astrophysicist Adam Frank. He isn’t alone in his optimism. Over the last two decades, the tools used to search for extraterrestrials have been advancing mightily. Where we were once only monitoring with radio telescopes, we are now actively looking for bio and technosignatures on exoplanets. Find out why scientists think new technology may be a game changer in the hunt for life off Earth. Guest: Adam Frank – Astrophysicist and author of a new book “The Little Book of Aliens” Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Not long ago, the idea of alien life was relegated to science fiction.
0:19.0	If you were a scientist who wanted to hunt for extraterrestrial life, well you were just out of luck.
0:25.0	There was no fields to go into. If you were interested in that question, there was maybe people doing
0:29.2	origin of life, study, you know, in chemistry labs.
0:32.4	Well that's changed.
0:34.0	Progress in both science and technology has given us the tools to possibly find the aliens.
0:39.0	For the first time, really, in human history, we have the technological capacity and the
0:45.7	knowledge that that technological capacity has given us that we know exactly where to look. We know exactly how to look and we have the
0:57.2	technologies to do the looking. Why we may be closer than ever to finding alien life. I'm Seth Shostak and this is
1:05.7	big picture science from the SETI Institute. I'm Molly Bentley. In this
1:09.7	episode it may not have been promising to search for aliens then, but this is aliens now. I have long been long bet listeners a cup of coffee that we will find alien life by
1:30.9	2035 and that is in large part because of the acceleration
1:35.0	of technological progress. NASA's James Webb's space telescope for example has
1:40.4	already returned striking images of the Cosmos, but it will also be used to tell us something
1:45.7	about the atmospheres of other planets, atmospheres that might contain the telltale molecules
1:51.5	of an inhabited world.
1:53.6	We are undeniably in one of the most exciting times in the search for alien life.
1:59.4	A scientist who mirrors my optimism about the search for extraterrestrial life is astrophysicist and author Adam
2:06.7	Frank. In his latest book, The Little Book of Aliens, he offers big ideas about this progress, and he doesn't restrain his enthusiasm
2:16.7	in his discussion with Molly Bentley.
2:20.3	Adam, you frame your book in terms of alien optimists and pessimists, and I wonder if you could clarify what you mean by those terms and why they create a helpful framing device.
2:32.0	Yes, so alien optimists and alien pessimists speak to this 2,500 year old argument that we've been having with each other
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Big Picture Science, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Big Picture Science and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.