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PODCAST

Cool Worlds

Space, astronomy, exoplanets, astroengineering and the search for extraterrestrial life & intelligence.The Cool Worlds Lab (http://coolworldslab.com), based at the Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, is a team of astronomers seeking to discover and understand alien worlds, particularly those where temperatures are cool enough for life, led by Professor David Kipping.Links:Subscribe!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGHZpIpAWJQ-Jy_CeCdXhMA?sub_confirmation=1

science

All Episodes

35:26

Are UFOs Legitimate Science?

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/21

UFOs, UAPs are dominating the media, but what do astronomers really think is going on? Check out our sponsor by using the code coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: https://incogni.com/coolworlds Over the last few years, there has been growing public attention and interest in UFOs/UAPs fuelled by whistleblowers, leaked videos and of course the media. But astronomers have been looking for life in the Universe for decades already, using systematic searches and established

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4:51

Is Time an Illusion? | Prof Sean Carroll

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/20

We caught up with Prof Sean Carroll at a recent astronomy conference and got his thoughts about time. Time may seem like a fundamental property of the Universe, but actually there's nothing in quantum theory which requires this to be so. Prof Carroll explains how time being merely an illusion, an emergent property rather than a fundamental one, is actually compatible with our best understanding of nature. This is one of two videos we shot with Sean so look out for the second video later in the

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31:26

What's Stopping Us From Building a Warp Drive?

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/19

Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off Blinkist Annual Premium by clicking here: https://www.blinkist.com/coolworldslabA faster-than-light (FTL) warp drive would arguably represent the most important invention of all time. In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre gave all of us hope as he found a solution within general relativity that would cause the necessary warping of space. But after nearly 30 years of further study, what does our current understanding of physics say about the feasibility of a warp drive?Written

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5:38

Cool Worlds Research in 2017: A Look Ahead!

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/18

It's time to take a break for a few weeks but before we do, here's a look ahead at what research we'll be getting up to in 2017! Many of us are heading to the American Astronomical Meeting in Grapevine, TX, so be sure to say hello if you'll be there. Thanks to everyone for tuning in and supporting our channel in 2016!::More about this Video::► 229th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society: https://aas.org/meetings/aas229► Proxima b Transit Results video: https://youtu.be/fLPZiCZtr_k► Machines

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23:44

Why Exomoons Are So Important

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/17

Flexispot’s anniversary sale is here! Get up to 60% off with my code COOLWORLDS on orders over $500 at http://bit.ly/coolworlds10!Exoplanets was a transformative discovery for astronomy. Exomoons is the next. I’ve spent most of my career looking for exomoons and today I explain the five reasons why finding them isn’t just fascinating - it’s necessary.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. Edited by Jorge Casas.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch:

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11:31

Could We Detect the Death Star?

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/17

To celebrate the release of Star Wars Rogue One this weekend, let's ask the question - could we detect the Death Star with our current telescopes? Remarkably astronomers have been thinking about the detectability of alien megastructures, such as the Death Star, for many years and we can apply some scientific thinking to get to the answer.::More about this Video::► Companion video on Martin Archer's channel, "Is the Death Star a Star?": https://youtu.be/Q4CKSekJzxk► Kipping & Teachey 2016, "A

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32:26

How Thermodynamics Holds Back Negative Carbon Tech

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/16

Go to our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/coolworlds for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help.Direct Air Capture (DAC) has been getting more and more attention over the last few years. Could we avert climate change by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere? Could we not just stop, but actually *reverse* the damage done? Unfortunately, most don't fully appreciate just quite how much CO2 we've emitted and the outrageous

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5:48

The Great American Eclipse 2017

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/15

Get ready! On August 21st 2017, Americans will be treated to a rare total Solar eclipse. From coast to coast, everyone in the US should be able to see at least a partial eclipse and be within a day's drive of catching the total eclipse. Here's a quick rundown of what to expect, where to go and how to plan your trip.::More about this Video::► The web app you can use to plan your trip (as shown in the video) is available at www.GreatAmericanEclipse.com► NASA's page on the upcoming eclipse:

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21:59

The Ambiguity Problem

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/14

🌏 Get exclusive NordVPN deal here ➵ https://NordVPN.com/coolworlds It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!✌What kind of evidence would be needed to convince the world of alien life? Sagan said that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", but what exactly is "extraordinary"? Today we explore the difficult problem of dealing with potentially ambiguous evidence and how it might affect our search for life.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. Edited by Jorge Casas

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8:39

The First Exoplanet Claim: Captain William S Jacob

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/13

In 1855, Captain William Stephen Jacob authored a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society claiming that a planet likely existed in the binary star system 70 Ophiuchi. Although his claim ended being wrong, it's pretty remarkable that someone was even thinking about doing this with scientific methods at the time! Here we get into Jacob's claim, what went wrong, and what legacy this has left us with.::More about this Video::► Captain William S Jacob, "On Certain Anomalies

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32:37

What the Hell Happened to Venus?

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.Venus resembles our Earth in so many ways, yet in many others it's frightningly different. Was Venus always this way? Could it have once been habitable? And if so, what went wrong? Why did Venus transform to the hellscape we see today? Let's explore the world next door...Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. Edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Prof Stephen Kane for fact checking our

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22:30

The Genius Who Thought Aliens Lived in the Sun

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

► 🌏 Upgrade your online protection with an all-in-one security app! ➵ https://NordVPN.com/coolworlds It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!✌In 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus. He became the most famous astronomer of his day, and a legend in the annals of history. Yet he also had some very strange beliefs about aliens. So strange it begs the question - how?!:Written & presented by David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas→ Support our research:

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22:06

The Star That Shouldn't Exist

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Go to http://DrinkLMNT.com/coolworlds for a free sample pack with any order!One of strangest discoveries in astronomy is one you've probably never heard of - Przybylski’s Star. This is a star that defies natural explanation and has many wondering whether this could be evidence of alien life, a star being deliberately "salted" by some advanced civilization. Join us today to learn more.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Jason Wright for fact checking

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10:47

Listening for Alien Civilizations at a Temporal...

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

We're looking forward to the new sci-fi film "Arrival", which explores the barriers to communicating with aliens even face to face. Astronomers really are trying to listen for alien communications, mostly using radio receivers but increasingly by looking for optical laser transmissions too. One of our wild ideas here at the Cool Worlds Lab is that optical SETI could try focussing these efforts to physically-motivated special moments in time to dramatically increase the survey efficiency. Prof

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13:14

Some Good News

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Off the cuff (again)Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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26:02

Outlasting the Universe

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Now and again we make a video that's a bit different from our usual stuff and here's one of them. A fictional narrative that weaves in scientific ideas of deep time and how intelligence might persist, challenging us to imagine what infinite life might truly be like. Thanks for watching.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store→ Check out our podcast:

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7:12

Does Life's Early Appearance Mean it's Easy?

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Does life's early emergence mean life starts easily? Growing evidence shows that life got started very quickly (within ~100 million years) after conditions became suitable for life on Earth (~3.7 billion years ago). This is often taken as evidence that life starts easily, but is this really true? Prof Kipping explains why things aren't as simple as they seem.::More about this Video::► Nutman et al. 2016, "Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures":

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21:58

How to Destroy a Nuke Anywhere on Earth

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.Nuclear weapons are the most terrifying invention of humanity. Could our genius to create such weapons also end them? Today we explore how neutrinos could be used to do just that, fizzling out nukes anywhere on Earth and with no defense.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Sam Gregson (youtube.com/@BadBoyofScience) for fact checking.→ Support our

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28:18

Why Black Holes Break The Universe

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Thanks to Storyblocks for sponsoring this video! Download unlimited stock media at one set price with Storyblocks: http://storyblocks.com/CoolWorldsToday we explore a problem that has haunted theoretical physicists for decades and remains a topic of active debate - do black holes destroy information? A key precept in quantum theory is that information should be conserved, yet anything that falls into a black hole is seemingly obliterated. How can we reconcile our theories of gravity with that of the

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5:59

Traversable Wormholes

Cool Worlds ·

2026/09/12

Until recently, it was thought that travel through a wormhole, like that seen in the 2014 Christopher Nolan film Interstellar, was forbidden by the laws of physics. Prof Daniel Jafferis and his team have recently had a breakthrough and found a way to make it physically allowed. Prof Jafferis dropped by the Cool Worlds Lab to tell us about this fascinating idea.::More about this Video::► Gao, Jafferis & Wall (2016), "Traversable Wormholes via a Double Trace Deformation":

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