Guests: Dr. Erin Macdonald & Prof. Mohamed Noor

The Star Trek science consultants themselves join us to discuss the science of Discovery's third season. Learn how the concept of the Burn was developed and why all sorts of other scientific plot points—from a deadly prion disease to a coronal mass ejection—were included.

Erin & Mohamed's StarTrek.com article on the science of the Burn: https://www.startrek.com/news/the-science-behind-discoverys-burn

Mohamed's YouTube channel "BioTrekkie Explains": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zvlD5RnkzhIegG0gnSeSw

Erin's Audible Original "The Science of Sci-Fi": https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Science-of-Sci-Fi-Audiobook/B07ZP9BGVX

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Erin: https://twitter.com/drerinmac

Mohamed: https://twitter.com/mafnoor

Response to DSC: "That Hope Is You, Part 2"

Dr. Culber suspects that Su'Kal is a polyploid, which could help explain the Kelpien's role in causing the Burn. But what is a polyploid? And could Su'Kal's polyploidal nature be related to the radiation environment in the Verubin nebula?

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Guest: Desun Oka

Response to DSC: "There Is A Tide..."

On the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Osyraa and Admiral Vance attempt to negotiate an armistice. But, in true Star Trek style, beneath this 32nd-century dialogue is a commentary on modern society. According to historian Desun Oka, in this scene, Osyraa clearly symbolizes capitalism and Vance symbolizes the critiques of capitalism in present-day political economics.

Diasperse: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/diasperse/id1533908402

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Guest: Shi En Kim

On the final episode of 2020, Mike is joined by freelance science writer Shi En Kim to discuss what space can teach us about aging and how advances in artificial intelligence have produced a rapping robot—and, of course, how this research brings us closer to a Star Trek future.

"To study aging, scientists are looking to outer space" by Shi En Kim, published in National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/to-study-aging-scientists-are-looking-to-outer-space-iss/

"This Robot Can Rap—Really" by Shi En Kim, published in Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-robot-can-rap-really/

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Kim: https://twitter.com/goes_by_kim

Response to DSC: "Su'Kal"

Expectation vs. reality: scientific commentary on what Mike thought was going to be in the Verubin nebula and what the U.S.S. Discovery actually found.

Paul Stamets' TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world?language=en

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Response to DSC: "Terra Firma, Part 2"

This week on Strange New Worlds, reflections (pun fully intended) on our latest visit to the Mirror Universe.

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Guest: Rebecca Pierce

Writer, filmmaker, and activist Rebecca Pierce joins Mike to discuss the intersection of racial justice, protest movements, #BlackLivesMatter, and Star Trek using the poignant Deep Space Nine episodes "Far Beyond the Stars" and "Past Tense" as launch points.

Rebecca Pierce: https://www.rebeccapiercefilms.com/

Diasperse: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/diasperse/id1533908402

Infinite Diversity: A Star Trek Universe Podcast: https://www.ufp.earth/infinite-diversity/

"Is Anybody Out There?" on Flash Forward: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2020/12/08/is-anybody-out-there/

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Rebecca: https://twitter.com/aptly_engineerd

Diasperse: https://twitter.com/Diasperse

Response to DSC: "The Sanctuary"

Planet Kwejian's orbital parameters, as seen on Lt. Bryce's computer, are exactly identical to that of Venus. So why is Kwejian habitable? Mike discusses a few possibilities.

Photo of Kwejian's planetary parameters: http://discovery.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/promo-photos/season3/308/308-bridge-bryce.jpg

Way & Del Genio's 2020 paper on Venus's climate history: doi.org/10.1029/2019JE006276

Infinite Diversity podcast: www.ufp.earth/infinite-diversity/

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Response to DSC: "Unification III"

Mike reflects on the T'Kal-in-ket. This ancient Vulcan tradition was billed as a search for new scientific truths via the crucible of logic and peer review, kind of like doctoral thesis defense. But in Michael Burnham's case, it quickly pivoted to a search for a different kind of truth.

Link to register for Mike's "Science of Star Trek" talk at 7 pm on December 2, 2020: https://kcls.bibliocommons.com/events/5f99e67f9aadc72f00582f3a

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Response to DSC: "Scavengers"

On the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Commander Burnham explains how she plans on using the black boxes of starships destroyed during the Burn to triangulate the disaster's point of origin. Mike remarks on how this is similar to how real-life gravitational wave observatories around the world work together to locate cataclysmic astronomical events in space and time.

Interactive skymap of gravitational wave detections: https://www.virgo-gw.eu/skymap.html

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