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On Episode 236 of This Week In Space, Tariq Malik and Rod Pyle are joined by Mikhail Tikhonov to talk about how life can take more unusual forms, ones we might not even recognize.
When we think of extraterrestrials, our minds generally go from the latex-suited bipedal aliens seen in Star Trek and Star Wars to more exotic critters in sci-fi movies. Scientists think in terms of carbon-based microbial life and other lower life forms.
But some researchers, such as Tikhonov from Washington University, suggest that life can take more unusual forms, ones we might not even recognize. He further suggests a new definition of life: something that takes in and transforms energy and replicates. His ideas radically expand our notions of alien life and how it might be recognized.
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Space news of the week
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About This Week In Space
Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Space.com as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.
Rod Pyle is an author, journalist, television producer and Editor-in-Chief of Ad Astra magazine. He has written 18 books on space history, exploration, and development, including Space 2.0, Innovation the NASA Way, Interplanetary Robots, Blueprint for a Battlestar, Amazing Stories of the Space Age, First On the Moon, and Destination Mars
In a previous life, Rod produced numerous documentaries and short films for The History Channel, Discovery Communications, and Disney. He also worked in visual effects on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, as well as various sci-fi TV pilots. His most recent TV credit was with the NatGeo documentary on Tom Wolfe’s iconic book The Right Stuff.
Responsible for Space.com’s editorial vision, Tariq Malik has been the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com since 2019 and has covered space news and science for 18 years. He joined the Space.com team in 2001, first as an intern and soon after as a full-time spaceflight reporter covering human spaceflight, exploration, astronomy and the night sky. He became Space.com’s managing editor in 2009. As on-air talent has presented space stories on CNN, Fox News, NPR and others.
Tariq is an Eagle Scout (yes, he earned the Space Exploration merit badge), a Space Camp veteran (4 times as a kid, once as an adult), and has taken the ultimate “vomit comet” ride while reporting on zero-gravity fires. Before joining Space.com, he served as a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering city and education beats. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University.
