mRNA vaccines, asteroid missions and collaborative robots: what to watch in science in 2022 – podcast

Experts give us a science preview for 2022, plus what lies in store for global inequality. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation • conversation
Jan. 6, 2022 • ~7 min

Asteroids, the Moon and Mars: space missions to look forward to in 2022

Nasa plans to test its new rocket system for the Moon, and a new rover is due to begin its journey to Mars.

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University • conversation
Jan. 6, 2022 • ~5 min

Material from asteroid Ryugu starts to give up secrets of early Solar System

We may be on the brink of discovering whether water and organic material, which enabled life on Earth, came from asteroids.

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University • conversation
Dec. 21, 2021 • ~8 min

Nasa: imminent asteroid missions could reveal our origins – and help save Earth from deadly strike

The Lucy mission could revolutionise our knowledge of the Solar System’s history, while the DART mission could help redirect hazardous asteroids in the future.

Gareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham • conversation
Oct. 15, 2021 • ~8 min

A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city and everyone in it – possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom

New research suggests that fire from the sky in the form of a small asteroid annihilated a city near the Dead Sea 3,600 years ago.

Christopher R. Moore, Archaeologist and Special Projects Director at the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program and South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina • conversation
Sept. 20, 2021 • ~10 min

How asteroid dust helped us prove life's raw ingredients can evolve in outer space

A minuscule particle of asteroid dust has helped reveal how celestial rocks like Earth might have sprouted life.

Queenie Hoi Shan Chan, Lecturer in Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway • conversation
March 9, 2021 • ~7 min

Has Earth been visited by an alien spaceship? Harvard professor Avi Loeb vs everybody else

There's a good reason why so many scientists disagree with claims that Earth has been visited by aliens.

Simon Goodwin, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Sheffield • conversation
Feb. 18, 2021 • ~7 min

Meteorites from Mars contain clues about the red planet's geology

Martian meteorites allow scientists here on Earth to decode that planet's geology, more than a decade before the first missions are scheduled to bring rocks back home from Mars.

Arya Udry, Assistant Professor of Igneous Petrology, Planetary Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • conversation
June 16, 2020 • ~6 min

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