Bullaki Science Podcast

Dr Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist, a Fellow and Director of Studies at Girton College at the University of Cambridge, working on animal communication and the information content in highly social and cooperative species, such as wolves and dolphins.

In his book “The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens and Ourselves” https://amzn.to/3qJcake, he lays down the foundation for a new field, Exozoology, or zoology beyond planet Earth. Arik is confident that properties and characteristics of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution will apply throughout the universe, where life is present, and could help us understand what alien life could be like: how these creatures will move, socialize, and communicate. For example, by observing fish, whose electrical pulses indicate social status, we can see that other planets might allow for communication by electricity. As there was evolutionary pressure to wriggle along a sea floor, Earthling animals tend to have left/right symmetry; on planets where creatures evolved in midair or in soupy tar, they might be lacking any symmetry at all.

Might there be an alien planet with supersonic animals? A moon where creatures have a language composed of smells? Will aliens scream with fear, act honestly, or have technology? The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space.

In this Bullaki Science Podcast, Arik talks about some of the topics discussed in his book, with particular focus on animal intelligence and communication, including the experimental and analytical tools used by zoologists to decode animal “language”. These insights might be helpful to the current efforts by the SETI program to intercept signals from advanced alien civilizations and decode xenolanguages (alien languages).

Full video here: https://vimeo.com/bullaki/arik 

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Recorded: 21/03/2022
Published: 29/03/2022 

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Dr Emily Mitchell is a palaeontologist, a NERC research fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge working on understanding the origins and early evolution of animals on Earth. 

In this Bullaki Science Podcast, Emily gives an overview of the first animal communities dating back to the Ediacaran time period (580 million years ago), which lived in the deep-sea. She also talks about her field work at Mistaken Point (Canada) involving the characterisation and preservation of Ediacaran fossils, as well as modelling methods for understanding the Ediacara biota dynamics and interactions. Her background spans a variety of fields including physics, mathematics, ecology, Earth Sciences and, more recently, astrobiology. She’s confident that the upcoming findings in exoplanet atmospheric characterisation and the potential discovery of biosignatures will help evolutionary biologist and palaeontologist in drafting a series of time snapshots describing the different stages of how life might have evolved throughout Earth’s history.

Full video here: https://vimeo.com/bullaki/mitchell 

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Recorded: 09/03/2022

Published: 24/03/2022 

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Revd Dr Andrew Davison is the Starbridge Associate Professor in Theology and Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Dean of Chapel at Corpus Christi College. His work spans Christian doctrine, biology and philosophy. His research interests include biological mutualism, life in the universe, evolutionary synthesis, and artificial intelligence approaches using suggestions from the medieval “thinking by analogy”.

Andrew was among a group of 23 theologians in a NASA-sponsored program at the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton (New Jersey) from 2016 to 2017, which investigated how humans may react to the discovery of life outside Earth. 

In this Bullaki Science Podcast, Andrew explores the intersections between astrobiology and theology (exotheology), key points from his new book “Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine” (including mentions of alien life in ancient texts, reactions of the faithful to the discovery of alien life, interactions between science and religion, interactions between humans and intelligent aliens), and theological implications of the Simulation Hypothesis (“Are we living in a simulation?”).

The video is available here: https://vimeo.com/bullaki/davison 

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Recorded: 28/02/2022

Published: 04/03/2022 

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Nicholas Tosca is a Professor the Mineralogy & Petrology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His research interest include understanding the co-evolution of life and environments through Earth’s early history. He’s also science team member of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission, currently exploring the ancient surface of Mars and seeking signs of ancient life.

In this Bullaki Science Podcast Prof. Tosca talks about the PIXL instrument on the Perseverance Rover and how knowledge on Mars geology can advance our understanding on the origin of life on Earth and elsewhere. 

The video is available here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/680589336

Recorded: 17/02/2022
Published: 22/02/2022 

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Dr. Peter J Christopher is a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge working on embedded 3D holographic displays and additive manufacturing, and Chief Scientist at at Exobotics.

In this Bullaki Science Podcast we discuss the future of moon exploration by new mini rovers that could be deployed as a swarm and holographic 3D printing.

The video is available here: https://vimeo.com/manage/peterchristopher

Recorded: 03/02/2022
Published: 08/02/2022 

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As the director of the Strategic Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA), Dr Mark Rosker leads the office in development of develop high-performance intelligent microsystems and next-generation components to ensure U.S. dominance in the areas of Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Electronic Warfare (EW), and Directed Energy (DE). The effectiveness, survivability, and lethality of these systems depend critically on the microsystems contained inside. Mark was a program manager in the office from 2003 to 2011, where he developed a portfolio of technical programs in gallium nitride and other compound semiconductor radio-frequency devices, heterogeneous circuit integration, terahertz electronics and quantum cascade lasers.

Here he talks about innovations led by the DARPA’s MTO office, the Electronic Resurgence Initiative and how DARPA is supporting the 4th wave of electronic development, advances beyond the von Neumann Architecture, hardware security, new types of devices that can work at extreme temperatures, and electronics resilience towards EMP attacks.

Quote: “I think you're bounded by your imagination. Of course the rules of physics have something to do with some of these things. But one of the fun things we were talking about being a Program Manager […] is to try and think bigger than you've ever had an opportunity to think before. That GPS […] sounded like science fiction at that time. And then the next generation beyond that, that said, I'm going to reduce that entire rack of equipment, to something that I can put on in my pocket. That also sounded like science fiction. So I don't want to tell you all my good ideas. They all sound like science fiction.”

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#bullaki#science#podcast#electronics #darpa #mto

As the vice president of Advanced Concepts & Technology for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, Bradford Tousley leads an innovative technology incubator inside Raytheon Technologies, which focusses on high-reward/high-risk disruptive technologies for the defense industry. In this interview he discusses the history of Raytheon Technologies and some of the advancements, including quantum computing, ARAKNID, DyNAMO, directed energy weapons, digital engineering, and synthetic biology, which will enable US forces and allies to maintain full-spectrum dominance in the battlespace in the near future.

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Scientific Video Protocols is the first full open-access peer-reviewed video journal publishing in 4k cinematic quality. Contact us for submissions: https://scivpro.com/submit/​
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As the director of the Strategic Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA), Timothy leads the office in development of breakthrough technologies to enable war fighters to field, operate, and adapt distributed, joint, multi-domain combat capabilities at continuous speed. He is also founder and president of Fortitude Mission Research LLC and spent several years as a senior intelligence officer with the CIA. Here he illustrates the concept of Mosaic Warfare, in which individual warfighting platforms, just like ceramic tiles in a mosaic, are placed together to make a larger picture. This philosophy can be applied to tackle a variety of human challenges including natural disasters, disruption of supply chains, climate change, pandemics, etc. He also discusses why super AI won’t represent an existential threat in the foreseeable future, but rather an opportunity for an effective division of labour between humans and machines (or human-machine symbiosis).

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Check the video here: https://youtu.be/_5MkXD_m6Qc

Download article from the Scientific Video Protocols website: https://scivpro.com/manuscript/10_32386_scivpro_000024

Scientific Video Protocols is the first full open-access peer-reviewed video journal publishing in 4k cinematic quality. Contact us for submissions: https://scivpro.com/submit/​
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#bullaki #science #podcast #jadc2 #mosaic #warfare

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Featured in Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2021/01/29/an-insiders-view-of-darpa-the-worlds-most-advanced-research-agency/?sh=3583332512bb 

In this Bullaki Science Podcast we cover some of the aspects illustrated by Professor Lord Martin Rees in his latest book “On the Future”, where he talks about existential risks including nuclear warfare, climate change, biotech, and artificial intelligence.

Prof. Martin Rees is a leading cosmologist and astrophysicist. He has conducted influential work on galaxy formation, cosmic jets, black holes, gamma ray bursts, and speculative aspects of cosmology. Prof. Rees is the Astronomer Royal and a Past President of the Royal Society. He is a prominent scientific spokesperson and author of popular science books. In 2012 he co-founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, which is a research Centre at the University of Cambridge intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present and future technology.

Future, existential threats, bullaki science podcast, Martin Rees, Lord Martin Rees, Sir Martin Rees, Professor Martin Rees, Prof Martin Rees, Existential Risks, future threats. 

The video podcast is available here: 

The future of warfare is heading towards a battle between software engineers rather than soldiers and pilots. World superpowers are pursuing an arms race to develop super swarm drones, which some have identified as weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In this podcast technical consultant, journalist, and author David Hambling talks about the state of the art of military drones and distributed approaches in warfare.

The video podcast is available here: https://youtu.be/HHKvzVvt0nc

David’s book “SWARM TROOPERS, How small drones will conquer the world” is available here https://www.swarm-troopers.com/.

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Some extracts from the podcast:

David Hambling (DH). At the moment the drones are beginning to have quite significant impact on warfare. At the moment, the chief users are the US Air Force and the CIA who've been using them for what are called counterinsurgency operations. [...] That's well short of an actual hot war. But we've also seen very recently in Nagorno Karabakh, where there've been drones making a significant impact on the battlefield on a full scale war. And that's kind of likely to happen more in the future. Now, the big drones, like the Reapers that the US Air Force us go for $20-30 million apiece, whereas small drones, like the consumer drones made by DJI, the sort that you can buy over the internet, those are only a few hundred dollars. [...]

DH. [with mosaic warfare and distributed approaches] The idea is that you can have your warfighting capability. […]. So that's the ability to see what's happening, cameras and radar and other sensors, and your communications and then your weapon systems. Rather than having it all in one big box, like, say, a single aircraft flying overhead, you can have lots of different devices at different levels. [...] Like a mosaic, you can build it up to match whatever the particular mission requirement is. 

DH. If you're a soldier, one of the things you always want to know is what's happening on the other side of the hill, because the last thing you want to do is actually stick your head up and go over and get shot out, while trying to look. Whereas drones give you the perfect way of seeing everything that's going on around you. [...]

DH. Yes, I mean, that's [nuclear batteries] ultimately that's one of the best ways of powering aircraft. You've to remember, back at the time they were also looking at nuclear powered bombers, and various other things. Given that the military already have nuclear powered submarines and nuclear powered aircraft carriers. It didn't seem quite so outlandish. The nuclear powered drone would be a slightly different prospect though, because there's a much greater chance of it crashing and problems. However, there is actually a company that's working on a similar concept at the moment, who believe that by using betavoltaics, which is a sort of power system driven by radioactive decay, they can get enough power to have a compact power system to drive a drone.

DH. A swarm is simply a large number of relatively simple units that are able to carry out complicated coordinated actions just by following a few rules. Swarming technology is a lot of it draws from nature. So this is from the way that flocks of birds fly or that shoals of fish swim, so they can all move together without crashing into each other. And the whole thing can change directions smoothly and seamlessly. So it's that sort of approach. The advantage of a swarm is that you can have 100 or 1000, or even more small drones, all carrying out a task and they don't require hundreds or thousands of operators, you just need one operator to say go over there and the entire swarm can then have a commands. [...]

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