I give a brief history of finding planets around other stars, including discovery by gravitational wobbling, dimming as the planet crosses in front of its star, and even seeing an actual planetary image by blocking the star's glare. I discuss what sort of spectroscopic signals might be present for life in a planet's atmosphere. Finally I offer some planets already detected whose temperatures appear to be in the range of terrestrial life, and what's in their atmospheres. Support the show Supp...
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I give a brief history of finding planets around other stars, including discovery by gravitational wobbling, dimming as the planet crosses in front of its star, and even seeing an actual planetary image by blocking the star's glare. I discuss what sort of spectroscopic signals might be present for life in a planet's atmosphere. Finally I offer some planets already detected whose temperatures appear to be in the range of terrestrial life, and what's in their atmospheres. Support the show Supp...
In which we talk about how chirality, or handedness, has diffused through chemistry since its discovery in the 19th century, starting with Louis Pasteur. We look at work by Arnaldo Piutti and Emile Fischer. We discuss not only organic compounds, but amino acids, proteins, DNA, and inorganic chiral compounds. Ultimately we have to bring up the question of the biochemical handedness of life. Patreon supporters may download a supplemental sheet of some of the molecular structures mentioned in th...
The History of Chemistry
I give a brief history of finding planets around other stars, including discovery by gravitational wobbling, dimming as the planet crosses in front of its star, and even seeing an actual planetary image by blocking the star's glare. I discuss what sort of spectroscopic signals might be present for life in a planet's atmosphere. Finally I offer some planets already detected whose temperatures appear to be in the range of terrestrial life, and what's in their atmospheres. Support the show Supp...