Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast

Guest: Dr. Bob Hazen

Mike is joined by his Carnegie Science colleague Dr. Bob Hazen. Together, they have written a new popular science book titled "Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature," which launches on February 10, 2026. This book describes how the marvelously complex constituents of our universe came to be. Evolution, they boldly propose, is a universal phenomenon—not only in biology, but in the entire atomic, chemical, mineral, and physical universe. Showing how a natural process of selection for increasing function has shaped the universe since its inception, they explore how a new law of nature could possibly help us identify life on other planets and—perhaps—even understand the purpose and meaning of life on Earth in a new way.

"Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature" by Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324105480

Bob & Mike's scientific papers that "Time's Second Arrow" is based on:
1. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2310223120
2. https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae248/7698354
3. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsfs/article/15/6/20250009/366157/Selective-funnelling-and-state-space-expansion-a

Guest: Dr. Caleb Scharf

Becoming a spacefaring civilization is a major transition in the story of life on Earth. Senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA Ames Dr. Caleb Scharf beams aboard to discuss the themes in his latest book, "The Giant Leap: Why Space Is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life," and what it all means for achieving a Star Trek future.

"The Giant Leap: Why Space Is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life" by Caleb Scharf: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/caleb-scharf/the-giant-leap/9781541604186/?lens=basic-books

"Teaching A.I. to Detect Life: Carnegie Scientist Co-Leads NASA-Funded Effort": https://carnegiescience.edu/news/teaching-ai-detect-life-carnegie-scientist-co-leads-nasa-funded-effort

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Guest: Dr. Kristina Šekrst

Philosopher, linguist, and AI researcher Kristina Šekrst beams aboard to discuss the TNG episode "Darmok," where Picard and crew encounter the Tamarians, a species who only speak in metaphor. Why do we use metaphors? How would you lie in Tamarian? And can the universal translator ever exist?

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Guest: Dr. Anirudh Prabhu

Mike brings aboard Dr. Anirudh Prabhu to discuss an exciting new study of theirs that uses machine learning trained on organic chemical data to detect the "whispers" of life—including photosynthetic life—in ancient rocks. This exciting technique could one day be used to seek out new life on strange new worlds.

Mike & Anirudh's paper, "Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean rocks identified by pyrolysis–GC–MS and supervised machine learning": https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2514534122

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Mike beams aboard Sean Carroll's Mindscape Podcast to talk about astrobiology, the origins of life, complexity, and the proposal for a "law of increasing functional information."

Pre-order your copy of "Time's Second Arrow: Evolution, Order, and a New Law of Nature" by Robert M. Hazen & Michael L. Wong: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324105480

Mike's 2023 paper "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems": https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2310223120

Learn more about Mindscape: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/

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