We welcome back Professor Abel Mendez from the University of Puerto Rico to tell us about recent research into data from the Arecibo radio telescope focused on cold hydrogen clouds and a proposed natural explanation for the Big Ear Wow! Signal that we covered in depth in Episode 19 . We recommend you download the draft paper so you can follow along. Links: Arecibo Wow! I: An Astrophysical Explanation for the Wow! Signal Our episode (#19) with Big Ear scientist Bob Dixon A previous appearance by ...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 50
Interview recorded: 11 July 2021 Released: 16 July 2021 Duration: 21 minutes, 33 seconds Beatriz Villarroel discusses her latest VASCO paper in Nature Scientific Reports, "Exploring nine simultaneously occurring transients on April 12th 1950." Links: Villarroel+ , Exploring Nine simultaneously occurring transients on April 12th 1950 . Burst 19: Our Sky Now and Then (August 2016) Episode 41: The Vanishing Sources with Beatriz Villarroel (November 2019) The Vanishing & Appearing Sources during...
Jul 14, 2021•22 min•Ep. 34
Released: 4 February 2021 Duration: 58 minutes 44 seconds Co-hosts Paul Carr and Daniela DePaulis are joined by author Thomas Moynihan . The subject is the idea of human extinction and how it evolved into our present day understand of Existential Risk. Guest Bio: I am a writer and researcher from the UK. In 2019, I completed a PhD at Oriel College on the history of human extinction. Currently, I am a visiting Research Associate in History at St Benet's College, Oxford University, and I am workin...
Feb 04, 2021•59 min•Ep. 49
Released: 28 November 2020 Duration: 70 minutes, 39 seconds Co-hosts Paul Carr and Daniela De Paulis engage philosopher Chelsea Haramia on the ethics of sending signals into space that might be received by intelligent beings in the cosmos. For more information about this episode, include a rich set of links, please see the blog entry for Episode 48 at: https://wowsignalpodcast.com Guest Bio Chelsea Haramia received her PhD in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she speci...
Nov 26, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 48
Released: 7 November 2020 Duration: 57 minutes, 36 seconds Co hosts Paul Carr and Daniela De Paulis welcome space historian David Skogerboe to talk about the pro-space activism of Arthur C. Clarke. Guest Bio: David Skogerboe is a space historian and science communicator. He recently earned his MSc in the History and Philosophy of Science from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he focused his research on the intersection of space science, science fiction, and science communication. Duri...
Nov 07, 2020•58 min•Ep. 47
Released: 6 April 2020 Duration: 53 minutes, 55 seconds Author and podcaster Wade Roush talks about his forthcoming book from MIT Press, Extraterrestrials . The book covers astrobiology, SETI, the Fermi paradox and more for a literate but non-specialist audience. WADE ROUSH, a Boston-based science and technology journalist, is a columnist at Scientific American and the producer and host of Soonish, an independent podcast about the future. He has served as Boston bureau reporter for Science, seni...
Apr 06, 2020•54 min•Ep. 46
Released: 31 March 2020 Duration: 54 minutes, 8 seconds Co-hosts Paul Carr and Daniela DePaulis welcome Dr. Paola Castaño to talk about her research among the science teams working on the International Space Station . For more information, please visit our blog at https://wowsignalpodcast.com Guest Bio Paola Castaño is a sociologist of science. She recently completed a Newton International Fellow funded by The British Academy at Cardiff University and is working on a book about the meanings and ...
Mar 30, 2020•54 min•Ep. 45
Released: 20 March 2020 Duration: 31 minutes, 42 seconds Astronomer David Blank responded to our invitation to comment on the Villarroel+ paper we covered in Episode 41 , which he describes as "very fascinating." Links The VASCO project: I. USNO objects missing in modern sky surveys and follow-up observations of a "missing star" Dorrit Hoffleit and her autobiography: Misfortunes as Blessings in Disguise Bradley Schaefer and the Harvard Plates Josh Grindlay, PI of DASCH The Very Large Array Sky S...
Mar 20, 2020•32 min•Ep. 33
Released: 22 January 2020 Live recording: 20 January 2020 Duration: 66 minutes 45 seconds Thread: Astronomy and Astrophysics Host Paul Carr along with Daniela De Paulis and Ciro Villa welcome astronomer Stella Kafka , director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). We talk about the recent and possibly unprecedented dimming of Betelgeuse, among many other astronomy topics. For complete show notes, please visit https://wowsignalpodcast.com Credits: Host and Producer: Paul...
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 44
Released: Duration: 55 minutes, 36 seconds Adam Dipert is a veteran circus performer and dancer who recently received his PhD in physics from Arizona State University. Her has brought his various interests together by researching human movement in microgravity. We are going to let him tell you all about that. Adam will be presenting about this work at the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces in Providence, Rhode Island, USA at Brown University, March 5-7 2020. Link to conference h...
Dec 22, 2019•56 min•Ep. 43
Released: 11 December 2019 Duration: 48 minutes, 30 seconds Co-hosts Daniela DePaulis and Paul Carr welcome Julia DeMarines (@LifeNSpace) to talk about bouncing radio signals off the moon. Julia is involved in a moon bounce research project for Berkeley SETI , and Daniela has used moonbounce in her art projects, including Cogito. We also get into a discussion of METI, and the importance of message composition to humans. For more information, please visit https://wowisgnalpodcast.com Guest bio: J...
Dec 11, 2019•49 min•Ep. 42
Released: 15 November 2019 Duration: 42 minutes, 24 seconds Our guest on Burst 19 in 2016, Dr. Beatriz Villarroel , returns to give us an update on the vanishing star, following the release of a new paper detailing a much more ambitious project along the same lines that finds a number of new candidate objects. For more information, please visit https://wowsignalpodcast.com Links: Burst 19: Our Sky Now and Then Villarroel+: The Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations pr...
Nov 15, 2019•42 min
Released: 16 October 2019 Duration: 54 minutes, 51 seconds Interstellar Languages is a forthcoming book about the human quest to craft messages that can be understood across interstellar distances. We may want to tell ET about ourselves, or it may be help ET send message to us that we will know how to interpret. Daniel Oberhaus is a staff writer at Wired Magazine, where he covers space and energy. His first book, Extraterrestrial Languages , will be released by MIT Press on October 22, 2019. For...
Oct 16, 2019•55 min
Released: 29 September 2019 Duration: 49 minutes, 52 seconds Download Sofia's paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.02683 A conversation with SETI researcher Sofia Sheikh about how we should evaluate technosignature search strategies. We cover three examples of technosignature searches and their relative advantages. Sofia Sheikh is a third-year graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University working with Dr. Jason Wright. She did her undergraduate work at the University of California, Ber...
Sep 29, 2019•50 min•Ep. 39
Released: 18 February 2019 Duration: 6 minutes, 48 seconds Paul Carr summarizes why we want to know more about this star, and how you can get involved. Links: Please see wowsignalpodcast.com for the most detailed information. The Most Mysterious Star in the Universe (Tabby's TED Talk) Tabby's Star for the Perplexed, Part 1 The Slow and Fast Dimming of Tabby's Star (Brad Schaefer) Ben Montet Makes a Star Weirder The KIC8462852_Analysis subreddit Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: DJ Spo...
Feb 19, 2019•7 min•Ep. 32
Released: 10 February 2019 Duration: 16 Minutes, 51 Seconds Abraham Loeb and Shmuel Bialy kicked up a kerfuffle when they wrote a paper suggesting that one possible explanation for ‘Oumuamua was that it could be an artificial object, in other words, an alien spacecraft—specifically, a lightsail. The two have been praised for their boldness and condemned for their recklessness, but little has been said concerning the possibility of detecting a lightsail as a technosignature in comparison to detec...
Feb 05, 2019•17 min•Ep. 31
A not quite so short announcement from the producer of the Unseen Podcast and the Wow! Signal . This is for those who have not seen the video . Unseen Podcast Episode Planning Sheet
Oct 14, 2018•13 min
Released: 24 April 2018 Duration: 10 minutes, 1 second Paul Carr talks about today's much more accurate distance estimate to Boyajian's Star from Gaia Data Release 2, and what, if anything, this rules out. Links: Clemens+ (2018) - Proper Motion of the Faint Star near KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star) - Not a Binary System Boyajian+ (2015) - Where's the Flux? Interview with Brad Schaefer Ben Montet Makes a Star Weirder Castelaz and Barker (2018) - KIC 8462852: Maria Mitchell Observatory Photographic ...
Apr 26, 2018•10 min•Ep. 30
Released: 23 April 2018 Duration:12 minutes, 21 seconds Paul Carr reviews what has been happening over the Winter and early Spring with respect to Boyajian's Star. We review the Winter observations, the Castelaz and Barker paper , and the two surprise March dips, Caral-Supe and Evangeline. We also talk about the upcoming Gaia Data Release 2 and what it might mean. Links Burst 24 and Burst 25 KIC 8462852: Maria Mitchell Observatory Photographic Photometry 1922 to 1991 Where's The Flux ? Bruce Gar...
Apr 24, 2018•12 min
Released: 6 February 2018 Duration: 24 minutes, 48 seconds A hundred years ago cosmologists were struggling to understand the nature and structure of the universe, and at the heart of this struggle was the island universe hypothesis. Today we find ourselves confronted with a similar question posed at a far greater scale. In order to resolve our cosmic archipelago problem we will have to attempt to reconstruct a history of our universe as a part of a far larger cosmological system, and to do this...
Feb 07, 2018•25 min•Ep. 28
Released: 25 January 2018 Duration: 21 minutes, 51 seconds A hundred years ago cosmologists were struggling to understand the nature and structure of the universe, and at the heart of this struggle was the island universe hypothesis. Today we find ourselves confronted with a similar question posed at a far greater scale. As we confront these great questions of cosmology, whether a hundred years ago or today, we find ourselves faced with as many philosophical questions as scientific questions whe...
Jan 26, 2018•22 min•Ep. 27
Released: 21 January 2018 Duration: 19 minutes A hundred years ago cosmologists were struggling to understand the nature and structure of the universe, and at the heart of this struggle was the island universe hypothesis. Today we find ourselves confronted with a similar question posed at a far greater scale. As we confront these great questions of cosmology, whether a hundred years ago or today, we find ourselves faced with as many philosophical questions as scientific questions when we challen...
Jan 21, 2018•19 min
Released: 3 January 2018 Duration: 15 minutes, 37 seconds Host Paul Carr goes over the new paper by Tabetha Boyajian and 206 coauthors: The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852 . Links: Burst 13 - Tabby's Star for the Perplexed, part 1 Burst 23 - Tabby Boyajian's on Elsie Burst 24 - The Summer of Tabby's Star Where's The Flux The KIC 8462852 subreddit The KIC 8462852 subreddit wiki The Dream of the Open Channel AAVSO Boyajians_R Credits: Host, producer, writer: Paul Carr Music: Jason...
Jan 03, 2018•16 min
Released: 31 December 2017 Duration: 65 minutes, 20 seconds Daniela DePaulis and Nick Nielsen in conversation with Frank White on the Overview Effect. Detailed show notes To Be Supplied. Please see wowsignalpodcast.com for more information.
Dec 17, 2017•1 hr 5 min
Released: 3 December 2017 Duration: 11 minutes 43 seconds Host Paul Carr covers some recent developments with respect to Boyajian's Star, especially the 4 dips of the Summer of 2017. Links: wherestheflux.com Burst 23 - Tabby Boyajian discusses Elsie Where Is the Flux Going? The Long-Term Photometric Variability of Boyajian's Star Extinction and the Dimming of KIC 8462852 Optical Polarimetry of KIC 8462852 in May-August 2017 Modelling the KIC8462852 light curves: compatibility of the dips and sec...
Dec 03, 2017•12 min
Released: 16 November 2017 Duration: 48 minutes, 5 seconds Host Paul Carr talks to Douglas Vakoch of METI.org about a recent transmission using a powerful radar transmitter to the star GJ 273, which has a super-Earth planet circling it in the habitable zone. Links: GJ 273 on SIMBAD The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets XLI. A dozen planets around the M dwarfs GJ 3138, GJ 3323, GJ 273, GJ 628, and GJ 3293 GJ 273 in the Open Exoplanet Catalog Sonar Barcelona EISCAT Tromso Site The Stor...
Nov 16, 2017•48 min•Ep. 37
Released: 14 November 2017 A short note from Paul Carr to please stay tuned for more content. Sorry for the lull, but we are not fading - we wouldn't do that to you. Meanwhile, if you haven't already, check out the Unseen Podcast .
Nov 15, 2017•5 min
Released: 3 September 2017 Duration: 62 minutes, 37 seconds Host Daniela De Paulis along with Paul Carr in conversation with artist Jon Lomborg , designer of Carl Sagan's Voyager Golden Record , on his new crowdfunded project, the One Earth Message . Links: The One Earth Message Kickstarter The New Horizons Mission The Voyager Golden Record Lincos Credits: Host and co-producer: Daniela De Paulis Co-producer: Paul Carr Music: DJ Spooky, Erika Lloyd Announcer: Erin Carr...
Sep 03, 2017•1 hr 3 min
Released: 5 June 2017 Duration: 18 minutes 33 seconds Paul Carr talks with Tabetha Boyajian about the flurry of observations of KIC 8462852 conducted when the star dipped in brightness last month, and what might happen in the near future. Links: /r/KIC8462852 The Subreddit FAQ Credits: Host and Producer: Paul Carr Music: Jason Robinson...
Jun 06, 2017•19 min
Released: 19 May 2017 Duration: 12 minutes 57 seconds Host Paul Carr provides some brief remarks and one or two speculations about the dimming of Tabby's Star that began today. Links: The Reddit Discussion Forum Jason Wright's Video Tabby's Star for the Perplexed Part 1 The Wow! Signal podcast is distributed under the Creative Commons/Attribution Share-Alike license....
May 19, 2017•13 min
