Christopher E. Mason is a professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and specialises in research on the long term effects of space flight on the human body! He is also the author of the thought provoking book, “The next 500 years: engineering life to reach new worlds”. In this episode, Ben and Chris discuss Chris’s role as principal investigator for the NASA Twins Study, the possibility of life on other world’s and whether Chris would be interested in a one way trip to Mars

0:00 Intro to Professor Chris Mason

00:38 Lex Friedman Podcast

01:20 The Mason Laboratory

03:20 Origins of The Twin Study

06:00 Twin Study experiment year plan

08:03 Most surprising results of twin study  and is test still going on?

10:30 What are telomeres?

13:07 Working with private companies/individuals in Space

15:38 Safety of individuals on mission to mars

18:33 Mason Lab contracts

19:22 “The next 500 years - engineering life to reach new worlds”

24:50 Where will humanity be (physically) in that time?

25:50 The even further future (billions/trillions of years) 

27:44 Are we alone in the universe?

29:23 Is it inevitable that humans will merge with machines?

30:48 Day in the life of Professor Mason

32:08 Proudest moments

34:07 Advice to young people interested in  ‘humans in Space’

35:51 Professor Mason in Space

37:26 One Way Trip

39:08 Wrap Up and socials

Follow Professor Chris Mason

Website: http://masonlab.net/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mason_lab?lang=en

Buy His Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-500-Years-Engineering-Worlds/dp/0262044404

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