The Sirens of Mars – Searching for Life on Another World

Since the beginning of time, mankind has dreamed of distant lands and yearned for a connection to far-away worlds. For HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, the search for life on other planets was no more than heady imaginative fiction – but that quest is no longer a fantasy. Right now, spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over the dunes of Elysium, Terra Sabaea and Mare Sirenum – on the brink, perhaps, of a discovery that would inspire humankind.

Sarah Stewart Johnson is dedicated to understanding the presence and preservation of traces of life in plantary environments – and has helped develop life detection techniques on some of Earth’s most hostile environments, as well as on three NASA rovers.

She joins us to explore the evocative history of our explorations of Mars, interlacing her personal journey as a scientist with tales of others who have searched the planet for signs of life.

Ultimately, she will show how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: it is a mirror, a tell-tale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings to find – if we’re lucky – that we’re not alone.