Evolution: Animals, Aliens, and Ourselves

The search for and conjecture about alien life has evolved, from science fiction to just plain science. On this episode, host Lauren Richardson talks to Arik Kershenbaum, Ph.D, author of the new book “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens — and Ourselves”, about what we can conjecture about alien life, based on the laws that govern life on Earth, and the universe at large. The conversation covers big questions like: Does biology have universal properties like physics does? Will the process of evolution be distinct on different planets? Are limbs, sex, and intelligence Earth-specific features of evolution? And importantly, what does the study of alien life teach us about our place on here on earth.

Arik Kershenbaum, Ph.D, zoologist, and fellow at the University of Cambridge is the author of the new book “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens — and Ourselves”.  To learn more, check out https://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/directory/dr-arik-kershenbaum or follow him on twitter at @arikkershenbaum