Is there Life on Venus?
With the recent discovery of phosphine gas on Venus, we debate whether Dan Dare has now been vindicated.\n\nThis podcast explores what we can infer from the small amounts of data we receive from space, and whether we have sufficient data to develop meaningful models of what is happening on other planets. We also discuss the way theories and counter-theories develop and - of course - alien life itself and the probability of its existence in different forms.\n\nA few things we mentioned in this podcast:\n- \u2018Phosphine Gas in the Cloud Decks of Venus\u2019 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4 \n- Bill Clinton\u2019s announcement about the Allan Hills meteorite: https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/clinton.html \n- Why Nick Bostrom hopes we don\u2019t find extraterrestrial life: https://www.nickbostrom.com/extraterrestrial.pdf \n- The Drake Equation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation#:~:text=The%20Drake%20equation%20is%20a,in%20the%20Milky%20Way%20galaxy \n- The search for megastructures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere#Search_for_megastructures \n- Life on Venus is bad news in terms of the Great Filter https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankoberlein/2020/09/15/if-there-really-is-life-on-venus-we-could-be-doomed/ \n\nFind more Cognitive Engineering episodes here https://link.chtbl.com/SQeIgc44\nImage: Carl Jones via Flickr