A Physics Medley: Panspermia, Weather Forecasting, and General Chaos, with Daniel Brener

Not Another Science Podcast

A self-described "cloud guy", Daniel Brener has been fascinated by weather forecasting for years. But he is also an all-around physics nerd (a compliment we do not bestow lightly). As part of Prof. Arjun Berera's group at the University of Edinburgh, Daniel has been working out whether panspermia — the idea that particles from Earth could be knocked out of the upper atmosphere and seed life on other planets — is theoretically possible. We delve into these two topics, stopping to examine the difficulties of bridging the gap between theory and observation, the competitive nature of physics research, and how to communicate ambiguity.

Daniel is on Twitter @daniel_brener. To find out more about him, make sure to check out his website: https://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~s1704203/

Not Another Science Podcast is co-created by Helena Cornu (@helenacornu) and Tom Edwick (@edwicktom), brought to you by Edinburgh University Science Magazine (EUSci). Our podcast manager is Alix Bailie (@alixbailie). The logo was designed by Apple Chew (@_applechew), and the cover art was designed by Heather Jones (@heatherfrancs).

You can visit our website at www.eusci.org.uk to check out the latest issue of the magazine, a ton of other cool science content by our student journalists, and to see how to get involved. You can also follow EUSci on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All podcast episodes and transcripts can be found at www.eusci.org.uk/podcasts/.

Music by Kevin Macleod: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkorama; https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/