#195 – Clara Sousa-Silva: Searching for Signs of Life on Venus and Other Planets

Lex Fridman Podcast - A podcast by Lex Fridman

Clara Sousa-Silva is a quantum astrochemist at Harvard. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off - Grammarly: https://grammarly.com/lex to get 20% off premium - Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium - Indeed: https://indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit EPISODE LINKS: Clara's Twitter: https://twitter.com/drphosphine Clara's Website: https://clarasousasilva.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (07:57) - Discovery of phosphine on Venus (20:34) - Phosphine gas (30:47) - Searching for molecular fingerprints (41:44) - What does a quantum astrochemist do? (56:48) - Spectroscopic networks (1:01:13) - Biosignature gases (1:04:06) - UFOs and aliens (1:17:24) - Alien civilizations (1:34:59) - Programming (1:42:15) - Why science is beautiful (1:46:07) - How to be productive (1:56:27) - Books (1:57:59) - Meaning of life