#79 Avi Loeb

Space Business Podcast

This episode is with a guest who I wanted to have on for a while. Avi Loeb is a Professor of Science at Harvard and was the chair of its astronomy department from 2011 to 2020. He has written 8 books, including the best-seller “Extraterrestrial”, and hundreds of research papers. Among many other things, he is well-known for his views on the Oumuamua interstellar object, and he now heads the Galileo project, which is looking for further such objects. One of his upcoming projects is an expedition to try to retrieve fragments of another interstellar object from the ocean floor. If all this wasn’t interesting enough, we also talk about academia, the way science is pursued, and how we can ensure our kids maintain scientific curiosity. Enjoy! Avi's book "Extraterrestrial": https://www.amazon.com/Extraterrestrial-First-Intelligent-Beyond-Earth/dp/0358278147 Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:

• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven:
  https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
• Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.

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Timestamps 0:00 Intro 2:14 Avi's farm background and the "Indistinguishable grains of sand" 4:27 What makes humanity unique? 8:49 How academics can suppress innovation 12:01 Fixing the academic "system" 20:07 The Fermi Paradox 25:34 Cosmic archaeology 35:32 Is Earth worth visiting? 39:50 The Galileo Project 40:52 UAPs 44:29 Current status of observation tech 49:13 Planned expedition to the Ocean floor 53:40 Projects that we should be engaging in 57:42 James Webb Space Telescope 01:00:36 Keeping your childlike curiosity