It will comes as no surprise to my regular readers that I'm a Prof. Brian Cox fan

(Or 'Professor Lovely' as a delightfully snarky friend calls him). 

When I heard that he was hosting a live tour I jumped at the chance to see one of his lectures 'for real', and headed to Sheffield City Hall on Thursday 6th Oct, ready to be educated in all things space, not really knowing what to expect.

When the show opened with a video of singing muppets I was, to say the least, a bit confused, but certainly entertained. Talk about an intro!

As it happened, the show was effectively an extension of Brian Cox and Robin Ince's Radio 4 programme 'The Infinite Monkey Cage', where Brian and Robin take a look at the world through a scientist's eyes, with Brian to provide the science and with Robin bringing humor and taking on the role of the interested and self-educated everyman. While the focus was on the lecture style, at times Robin would also interject to lighten the mood, banter, and join in with Brian as well as encouraging audience participation, such as through tweeting science questions. Robin was funny and charming and the two got along very well. Having never heard of 'The Infinite Monkey Cage' before, I was intrigued to check it out (but more on that later).

The meat of the show though was, of course, Brian's main lecture. It focused around the discovery of the Big Bang and how we can detect the size and composition of our incredibly large universe, and drifted into questions about the possibility of alien life on other planets and the probability of finding anything that resembles us. While fans will have been introduced to these concepts in varying details in his other programmes, it still managed to be fresh and was delivered with his classic mix of gentle passion and wonder, and his ability to make the concepts approachable without compromising on precision.This made the whole talk very engaging. While time flew during the lecture, Robin's interjections managed to keep everything fresh, which helped keep the energy levels going. All in all it was a great night out for anything with a curiosity for sciences, especially fans of Brian's wide range of work.

Can I still See Him?

If you'd like to check out the show the good news is that it has proved so popular that Brian Cox Live has been given a series of arena dates as well for 2017. These will be visiting Derby, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Wembley in May 2017. There are also a whole host of 2016 dates still on the cards, running up to the 2nd of December, if you can score the tickets. So why not give it a try? I certainly enjoyed myself.

The Infinite Monkey Cage

As I said, Robin and Brian's banter was a lot of fun, so when they mentioned (through muppet-song) that the show was a product of the programme Infinite Monkey Cage naturally I had to go searching to find it.

The great news is that all 14 series' are available to download on BBC radio 4's Iplayer account here.

I've listened to a couple so far and they've been delightful, bringing in interesting guests (both comedians and scientists) to weigh in on a whole variety of subjects. I know where my 5GB data limit will be going on my phone on the morning commute....

Today I want to try something a bit different and give you a walk through my non-fiction bookshelf.

I never realised how many non-fiction books I had accumulated over the years until I moved into my new flat and actually attempted to organise them on a bookshelf. So in this Vlog I take you through some of my favourites for learning about social history, psychology & philosophy and science.

This is my first attempt at a vlog and was filmed on my ipad, so apologies for the occasional dip in sound volume. But you do get to actually hear my voice so...bonus?

You can view the video above or click here to go directly to Youtube.

Have a good weekend, and keep curious ;)

Merry December!

'Tis the special season where we stuff ourselves with turkey and chocolate and attempt to relax while being perhaps the busiest that we are all year. Also, the blog will be 2 years old on December 14th!

To celebrate the holiday season I have conscripted in the help of another curious individual - TinyAstronaut - who will be popping up here and on my instagram account over December. 

Yes, TinyAstronaut is both small and plastic, but it's fitting given the tradition for playing with daft action figures this time of year. Plus, I do like to maintain on the blog that anyone  - even tiny inanimate objects - has the right to be curious.

So, what is TinyAstronaut taking a look at this week?

TinyAstronaut certainly enjoys full page
glossy photos of space.

Brian Cox and the Wonders of the Universe

Well, I will admit it, I'm rather a fangirl of Professor Brian Cox. Both the legends of David Attenborough and Patrick Moore have said that they would enthusiastically pass the torch to him as a main figure of the BBC's scientific programming and it's easy to see why. He blends a genuine curiosity and wonder with a detailed knowledge of physics (spawned from his education in high energy particle physics), and when this is supported by a hefty BBC budget that takes him all over the world a whole range of fascinating scientific ideas are able to spring to life. I'm no scientist, but it's framed in a way that is understandable without being too dumbed down. It's intricate but also fundamentally friendly.

If you're looking for christmas gifts for a curious friend or family member then the Wonders series on DVD (covering the solar system, the universe and nature) is a great places to start and will keep you entertained for hours. There was also a tie in book series that I have sitting cheerily on my shelf and is well worth checking out, especially if you're looking for something sophisticated to stick on your coffee table. 

Wonders of the Universe especially is a fascinating read and has plenty of gorgeous pictures to enoy. While of course based on the Tv series it nevertheless stands on its own two feet as a detailed yet approachable journey through the stars and astrophysics. It carried the same spirit of explaining complicated ideas like quantum theory, entropy, thermodynamics and more in enthusiastic and approachable languages, and mixed stunning photography alongside informative scientific graphs. You can't help but feel equal parts inspired and humbled by the sheer vastness of the universe that it describes.

I obviously love it. If you find you do then you can even see Prof. Cox live next year giving talks on all the same scientific goodness.

If you find you're not a fan? Well, you can enjoy this gif of him getting run over by Stephen Hawking.

Some months ago there was a brilliant BBC-original TV series called Wonders of the Solar System, hosted by Brian Cox. 

Snottite Cluster by Kenneth Ingham

The series explored our whole solar system, exploring alien moons and what conditions allow our own planet to thrive, as well as questioning what was needed to find life in our own solar system.

It's one of my favourite documentaries (heck, almost anything with Brian Cox at the helm is brilliant) so I thoroughly encourage you to grab the DVD where Prof.Cox explores this week's topic with a hell of a lot more class (and budget!). You can pick up Wonders of the Solar System along with it's equally excellent sibling Wonders of the Universe here.


With all that said, if you're still here why not pull up a chair and we'll talk about one of the most intriguing creatures on our planet: Snottites.



What are snottites?

Like Slime Moulds, Snottites are not the most appealing of creatures. In fact, they're rather aptly named, but they are a remarkable scientific discovery. Appearing like a long strings of snot, they are in fact large colonies of single-cell bacteria.

Snotties live deep in caves all over the world, including North Wales, but perhaps one of the most interesting habitats for them is in Cueve de Villa Luz in Tabasco in Mexico. Here, the cave that they call their home is full with utterly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.

Snottites are not alone in this environment, which has pools of acidic water housing pink fish and crabs closer to the surface. But deeper down, in the dangerously toxic environment the snottites thrive. Away from the sun, the Snottites are nevertheless above to do something remarkable: they can metabolise the deadly hydrogen sulfide, react it with oxygen and produce the equally deadly sulfuric acid. 

Credit: Daniel S Jones, Penn State

So what?


The sulphuric acid that snottites produce is as strong as battery acid and clearly is dangerous for humans, but it shows the very important fact that life can exist in environments that we once thought could only be barren. If snottites can metabolise in this way, then there is no reason why similar creatures can't do the same on hostile worlds.

Snottites' ability to live has become more important than ever, as recent exploration of Mars showed that it was covered in a network of caves which could be potentially open to exploration. It is now widely believed that Mars itself once held running water over its surface due to numerous canyons, horseshoe 'waterfalls', and other geographical structures that indicate the presence of water in it's past some 3 billion years ago. Furthermore traces of gipson also indicate that water was available on the surface. While the water was gone when Mars' temperature dropped and it's atmosphere was blown away by solar winds, there is the possibility of water in either liquid or ice form under its surface...in these caves.
Naturally the environment would be hostile but if snottites can subsist on hydrogen sulfide could life be supported below the surface, in these caves, where the environment is not quite so harsh as the surface?

Caves on Mars (Wikipedia)

Methane blooms on Mars

Another interesting feature of the Mars explorations was the discovery of large methane plumes which seemed to vary in seasons. These plumes still remain a mystery as, in 2001,the Curiosity rover attempted to measure the methane in the atmosphere and came out empty handed, despite the estimates that even only one plume contained 19,000 tonnes of gas. While scientists are baffled, it seems that Mars is cycling it's methane six hundred times faster than Earth, which means that there have to be major sources and pools of the gas that are creating this seasonal behaviour.

While one possible explanation is geological (see the 'mud volcanoes' that erupt methane from beneath the surface of the earth), many people are excited that this may be evidence of life on the red planet. 90% of all methane in our own atmosphere is created by life and a huge part of this is created by archaea bacteria.

What are archaea bacteria, you ask?

Hydrothermal vents in the sea

Why, our old friends the snottites and their cousins.

 Archaea bacteria have been found in some of the most hostile places on Earth. For example on the ocean floor, at 100 times atmospheric pressure and above, around hydrothermal vents that superheat the water to 300 degrees C and spew out sulphur...you can find the archaea coating the ocean floor.

While the need for water appears to be universal for life, just how much water is needed, and how full of other chemicals the environment is, are flexible. At a microbiological level it seems that life can be very hardy and very creative indeed.



But Mars is not the only place that could support alien life in our solar system

Europa

 Perhaps even more exciting than Mars as a place to support life snottite-like or otherwise, is the beautiful white moon of Europa. This moon of Jupiter is covered in a complete crust of ice that is interspaced with mysterious red lines. Looking on the surface, the ice has visibly cracked and shifted unusual distances before reforming, suggesting that underneath the ice there could be liquid that is potentially 100 kilometres deep or more. The strange red lines could potentially be blooms of colour associated with the activity of microbes.
Studies in Iceland have shown that there are some tiny micro-organisms that can actively live in frozen ice and secrete their own antifreeze proteins to create little pools of liquid water for them to live in.

Whether life takes on the shape of slime-moulds, other archaea bacteria, or the tiny ice-dissolving microbes that wriggle around in ice-caves, it seems clear that there is a huge potential for at least simple life to live and possibly even thrive on other planets.

All it takes is a little time and whole lot of research and maybe, just maybe, we're not as alone as we thought in the universe.


Sources
- The BBC's Wonders of the Solar System
-Why Evolution is True: Snottites
-Snottite in Cambrian Mine
-Extremofiles: at the Living Moon
-Caves of Mars project (Wikipedia)
-Mystery deepens as Martian methane eludes Curiosity (New Scientist)
-The Meaning of Mars' Methane: Signs of Subsurface Life? (The Daily Galaxy)