Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea

Earlier this week many of us will have received alerts and pushes from news media outlets with some pretty stunning headlines regarding the potential presence of microbial life on Venus. Needless to say it’s an exciting time for astronomers across the world. But what exactly is going on in the upper clouds of Venus and why is the discovery of a gas called Phosophine so important? Prof. Lewis Dartnell, Professor of Astrobiology in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Westminster joined Jonathan to discuss. Listen and subscribe to Futureproof with Johnathan McCrea on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.    Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

Sex can be a lot of things. Fun, exciting, scary, a little bit tricky maybe or even downright weird. And that’s just for us humans. So what about the sexual exploits of other animals? More specifically, the creatures that live in the deep blue sea? Turns out they lead full and shall we say, colourful sex lives to say the least. Dr. Marah J. Hardt is Director of Discovery at the nonprofit Future of Fish and author of ‘Sex and the Sea’. She joined Jonathan to discuss. Listen and subscribe to Futureproof with Johnathan McCrea on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.    Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

The main story dominating Irish science news this week was of the harassment that Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin’s by a senior academic in UCD. We decided to look at the experience of women in the Irish science & academic world and ask how prevalent is harassment in our universities and what can be done to eradicate it. Jonathan spoke to Dr Emma Chapman, Physicist at Imperial College London and Director of the 1752 Group and Dr Jessamyn Fairfield of NUI Galway and member of Soapbox Science. If you are affected by this story you can get assistance from The Samaritans by calling 116 123 or by logging onto their website Samaritans.org Photography: Sasko lazarov/Photocall Ireland Listen and subscribe to Futureproof with Johnathan McCrea on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.    Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.  

There are radio waves and signals coming towards us from all corners of the Universe causing a lot of noise in the night sky. But while we may know where the majority of them are coming from there are some that are puzzling some of our astronomers. Jonathan was joined by Dr Vikram Ravi, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Caltech University to discuss. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Listen and subscribe to Futureproof with Johnathan McCrea on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.    Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.  

There are radio waves and signals coming towards us from all corners of the Universe causing a lot of noise in the night sky. While we may know where the majority of them are coming from there are some that are puzzling some of our astronomers. Jonathan McCrea found out more from Dr Vikram Ravi - Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Caltech University. After that Jonathan delved into the sexual exploits of the creatures of the deep blue sea. How do fish have sex? We heard all from Dr. Marah J. Hardt - Director of Discovery at the nonprofit Future of Fish and author of Sex and the Sea.   Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Listen and subscribe to Futureproof with Johnathan McCrea on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.    Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.