How Mars Could Split Humanity Into Two Species - Prof. Scott Solomon - #69

Scott Solomon is an evolutionary biologist and teaching professor of biosciences at Rice University in Houston. His first book, Future Humans, made the case that humans are still evolving today. For his new book he spent years following the researchers who study what space does to the human body, from NASA's Space Radiation Lab at Brookhaven to astronaut training in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. In this episode he explains why a permanent settlement on Mars could set humans on a separate evolutionary path, and how few generations it might take before Martians and Earthlings are no longer the same. His latest book is Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds, published by MIT Press. Expect to learn how eight months in space weakens muscles and bones, why deep space radiation is more dangerous than what astronauts face on the ISS, what NASA's first bed rest study revealed, whether humans can safely give birth on Mars, why universal C-sections could change the size of the human head, what space experiments on fish and pregnant rats tell us, why species on islands often shrink, how evolution can happen in just a few generations, why Earthlings and Martians may not be able to meet safely, whether Mars settlers will have to go vegan, and why we should answer these questions before anyone is born on another planet. Scott Solomon online: Website: solomon.rice.edu Book: Becoming Martian (MIT Press), available wherever books are sold Audiobook: Becoming Martian, narrated by Scott, out November 3 0:00 Introduction 0:57 Why write Becoming Martian 3:28 Are humans still evolving 5:15 The eight month journey 10:43 Muscle loss without gravity 13:34 NASA's first bed rest study 14:36 Radiation experiments on rats 19:41 Shielding a ship with water 24:34 Reproduction in low gravity 26:49 Pregnancy and bone fractures 31:42 C-sections and bigger heads 34:34 Animal studies in space 38:25 Growing up on Mars 40:43 Mars as an island 41:55 Big heads, small bodies 43:09 How evolution speeds up 47:36 A new human species 52:28 Ten generations to diverge 56:31 Could a Martian visit Earth 1:00:32 The ethics of Martian children 1:01:24 A vegan diet on Mars 1:04:27 Lab grown meat and insects 1:08:27 Genetic modification and eugenics 1:13:33 Why we should wait