Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
We are off the air in Washington County at 89.1. While we investigate the issue, please listen at 90.9, online, or on the UPR app.

UnDisciplined: How bugs may help us get to Mars

pixabay.com

If we are going to go to Mars, we’re going to need to bring a lot of things that we need to live that the red planet, so far as we can tell, just doesn’t have, and that includes bugs.

Emmanuel Mendoza recently presented on the laboratory results of using soldier fly larva to treat simulated Martian soil at the Entomological Society of America Conference, and he’s joining us to talk about what’s next.

Stay Connected
Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling <i>Lifespan</i> with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning <i>Longevity Plan</i> with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, <i>Superlative</i>, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.<br/>