SoT 260: The Planetary Protection Office
Channel: Science on Top
Date: 26/04/2017

SoT 260: The Planetary Protection Office
http://scienceontop.com/260

For the first time, an atmosphere has been detected around a nearly Earth-sized exoplanet.
Results of a large study suggest that a cap that generates electric fields might successfully fight brain cancer. But there are still many doubts about this "sci-fi treatment".
There's a radiation-resistant bacterial spore found only in spacecraft cleanrooms. To know if they might potentially contaminate other worlds, NASA needed to see if they can survive in space. So, they sent some into space!
What if identifying and monitoring the 3,000 different species of mosquitoes was a simple matter of using an app on your phone? A pair of engineers at Stanford University are working on creating "Shazam for mosquitoes"!

This episode contains traces of Dara O'Briain talking about the War on Bacteria.

http://scienceontop.com/260

Chapters:
00:02:34 Astronomers find an atmosphere around a nearby Earth-sized exoplanet! But what's it made of? http://www.blastr.com/2017-4-11/astronomers-find-atmosphere-around-nearby-earth-sized-exoplanet-whats-it-made
00:08:45 A "sci-fi" cancer therapy fights brain tumors, study finds https://www.statnews.com/2017/04/02/cancer-therapy-brain-tumors/?s_campaign=stat:rss
00:27:06 The Quest to Kill the Superbug That Can Survive in Outer Space https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/bacteria-in-space/520908/
00:35:31 Shazam for Mosquitoes https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/shazam-mosquitoes-cellphone-citizen-science/521505/
00:43:01 Science on Top http://scienceontop.com/260