Can James Webb Space Telescope find alien life? | David Kipping and Lex Fridman

Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: • David Kipping: Alien C...
Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
- SimpliSafe: simplisafe.com/lex
- Shopify: shopify.com/lex to get free trial
- ExpressVPN: expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free
GUEST BIO:
David Kipping is an astronomer at Columbia University, director of the Cool Worlds Lab, and host of the Cool Worlds KZbin channel.
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: • Lex Fridman Podcast
Clips playlist: • Lex Fridman Podcast Clips
SOCIAL:
- Twitter: / lexfridman
- LinkedIn: / lexfridman
- Facebook: / lexfridman
- Instagram: / lexfridman
- Medium: / lexfridman
- Reddit: / lexfridman
- Support on Patreon: / lexfridman

[@LexClips]

Full podcast episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4uxZqugpLhpirc Lex Fridman podcast channel: kzbin.info Guest bio: David Kipping is an astronomer at Columbia University, director of the Cool Worlds Lab, and host of the Cool Worlds KZbin channel.

[@dantheories7276]

Leave it up to 2 guys like Lex and David Kipping to have maybe the nerdiest conversation of all time: discussing the science behind research scheduling.

[@IMTHEBIGGESTCUNT]

Interesting that I’ve had the exact same conversation with myself?

[@peterclarke3020]

Well, it’s good to be aware of these things.. Clearly we could do with many more space telescopes..

[@shanezanath2092]

🤣 This deserves an award for nerdiest conversation of all time. And I say this as a mega nerd.

[@gmeast]

Lex Fridman is the most intelligent interviewer ever. He's so well prepared and knowledgeable that the interviews seem comfortably informal ... his speech pattern and delivery add to that.

[@robt4976]

Kipping is a legend. Probably my fave science orator at present

[@gnomuka]

Being able to understand the talk just from knowledge of understanding quantum physics is a definite surplus! Knowing the equations and paradoxes is absolutely crucial part of being enlightened and part of so much more…..❤❤❤❤

[@ajstruhar2048]

I thoroughly enjoy David's channel and, of course, yours and would love to see Anton invited on at some point.

[@blueshattrick]

6:41 "That's no moon.... it's a space station"

[@cbailey3728]

The question of whether our situation of having a large moon, formed from a large collision event, is central to the formation and development of life, is for me the most important question in relation to the Drake Equation and Fermi Paradox. I fear that we are a super rare freak accident of an event that happened in the right place, in the right way, and that the odds of it happening are so low that we may be the first time this has happened in our galaxy. Add into the mix that we have a few gas giants protecting us from incoming collisions that allowed us to evolve, and if this is necessary then the odds shorten further. Though, I acknowledge that this is looking for copies of us and our upbringing out there, and that life could look very different and have had very different requirements and pathways to emerge.

[@Boz196]

Even with the incredibly low probability of all these things happening that enable Earth to sustain life; relatively stable sun with not too many solar flairs, cool rocky planet with a specific atmosphere and plate tectonics that isn’t tidally locked and lies within the habitable zone, a moon which is large enough and close enough to generate substantial tides and gas giants in the solar system which shield the Earth from debris, I still think that the probably of there being NO other planets like this in the universe is basically impossible when you consider that there are potentially 10^25 planets which could each have habitable moons as well. There might not be any of these planets in out galaxy or even in our cluster so we might never even be able to detect them but I just think that with such a large sample size of planets at least some them have to have life.

[@Native_love]

I love it when Lex gets geeky! Who gets excited about scheduling? Love you man! Lol!

[@gracerodgers8952]

Thank you God for Lex Fridman, such an interesting man.❤️🤗❤️

[@MR.SKANDAL0121]

This is my go to channel now

[@geekspeak1066]

Great so we just need at least 20 JWT telescopes. Let’s get on it.

[@caryd67]

It fascinates me how we’ve found a bunch of moons, and have given them all names, but we just call our moon “the moon”. I feel like our moon deserves a name too. I propose we call it “Petricus”, after the word “petrichor” (which is the term for the smell of dust after rain) because of its loose dusty regolith.

[@eviltwiiin]

Love that!

[@kombosto88]

Our moons name is Luna !

[@kombosto88]

@@caryd67 I'm kind like Luna, it's laconic and cute for our small 🌔.

[@gracerodgers8952]

No.

[@randydominguez666]

@@kombosto88 Luna is literally just moon in spanish 😐

[@benleeper332]

Damn, that last 5 minutes was especially interesting.

[@CJ-111]

What would life be like that evolved on a moon? How long would day/night cycles be? Temperature differences from equator to pole etc..

[@julesarindam7195]

Im looking forward to growing old and watching Lex get older too..

[@Hazbazz]

Loving the hair Lex

[@MichaelAS007]

Username checks out

[@gracerodgers8952]

Hair,schmair...love the mind.

[@parrmik]

how many videos do we need ,that tell us, there are no aliens out there.

[@dragnoc]

I wonder what it would look like to query an A.I. chat-gpt style function to see if it would be able to optimize the productivity of JWST. Perhaps there are windows during reorientation or other sub optional times where some of the other requests could still gather data?

[@paulheydarian1281]

What if scientists are using the wrong type of tools for project SETI? If 96% of this version of the universe is composed of dark energy and dark matter, then looking at habitable exoplanets might be a waste of time and effort, considering the age and expanse of this universe. Best to focus on dark energy and dark matter. That's the real jackpot.

[@seansezz]

You can't say something is rare if there are no others. It's unique.

[@gracerodgers8952]

Know how you catch a unique bunny? Unique up on it.🤣🤣

[@creemoon9546]

awesome

[@michaelallen2971]

This means we can never use James Webb to find alien life because of how long the target exo planet has to be viewed, the ranking system for verifying and announcing the discovery, and the scheduling being so overwhelmed. If you have to have a certain rank of evidence for something to be released then they should at least tell us about suspected candidates. One of the best functions of the JWST is being able to get spectra data from exo planets and even though most telescope time is dedicated to looking for atmospheric data there just isn't enough telescope time to go around to complete an analysis worth or allowed to be released to the public.

[@oommdtube]

Hell ya !!!!

[@FraserRS]

Lex could you please do a podcast with some influential bankers?

[@ubermctuber9484]

Lex keep fighting brother I can see it 🤖✈️🥅🔥

[@SomeRandom6uy]

my question to David Kipping is, can JWST find voyager1 and 2 ?

[@Jason-vn5xj]

I wish we would just call it “Webb”. We call the Hubble Space Telescope “Hubble”, not HST. “Jaydoubleyooesstee” is a clumsy six-syllable mouthful. “Webb” is one.

[@shadfletcher6815]

what I don't get is why the JWST isn't studying the proxima system,the closest stars to our sun

[@blinktwice8683]

Whenever I think of aliens I think of tardi grades for some reason 🤷

[@HBD2U78]

Eventually we are going to see so far that we will be looking back at ourselves…

[@paulheydarian1281]

Be careful Lex, if you go around telling 'normal folks' that you ❤ studying scheduling, then they're more likely to believe you're a *gentle robot.* 😱🤖😉

[@insomniamania1]

Lex is like Elliot from mr robot

[@witz1330]

Fiji’s not getting free sponsorship

[@leathergoose6966]

I fucking love this guy

[@MrSimonw58]

Would have been treated like Turing 70 years ago

[@markphan9920]

Perhaps Lex can invite Elena Danaan.

[@GODSREAL]

Alien life is here hiding right in your face.

[@healthiswealth1452]

How do u know

[@whirlwind8825]

Can James Webb Space Telescope be weaponized and used to block infrared technology on Earth?

[@lachezarkrastev7123]

NOOOO ... !!!

[@steveforks9698]

I find it strange that the expert comments on being on lex podcast but never reply to the fans in the comments,same with lex?? Other KZbinrs are certainly more interested in their fan base....just an observation

[@mitchdavis6001]

I wonder if lex and Robert Pattinson have a distant relative

[@Gozne]

How something that does not exist find something that does not exist?

[@user-yx3by4we1w]

U can tell this guy is pushing the tac about those moons😂😂

[@tyjenkins3387]

How much tang do you think Lex gets. Lol

[@Andre-river]

U couldn't find the Mach 3, Gillette ,shaving tool. It's the best to be scientist ,u can telling anything and nobody can tell you are wrong .

[@gracerodgers8952]

Hey, doesn't David look like the one singer from King and Country? Christian music.

[@jacqueshowell6874]

Lex ...you look like you got roughed up or just woke up

[@romeoiruegas8819]

Very interesting but their tone of voice is making me sleepy.

[@muthusala6143]

God will not allow an Evil world no ware near a planet that is not Evil its in a norther dimension.

[@ballisticcranberrypeat7777]

Nope!

[@jacobwestfield3164]

Lex looks a little dis shoveled

[@sandplasma]

I'm afraid guests may think you're not giving 100% of yourself to the interview with hair like that Lex.

[@niksterfer6sir]

It’s kinda ridiculous that they have found all these planets that could support life but no clues of life at all. If they have they wouldn’t tell regular people

[@byBlazing]

You really think they would tell you the truth with all this woke agenda going on in the world? Their agendas are very straight forward and will not bring in any other outside forces to stray off the path

[@canonaler]

I'm pretty sure they know a lot more than the public for sure...

[@sabbathguy1]

There is no "they". Academic research groups all around the world who have booked time on JWST have only 12 months embargo on data collected before it's opened up to everyone - that includes you and me. Not everything is a conspiracy. The general public will know about any potentially habitable planets no later than 12 months after observation (plus any further time taken in publication process - which isn't very long).

[@ddontyy]

​@@sabbathguy1 Yeh those groups ''book'' time slots, but what makes you think the ones controlling the telescope don't hide the information that they don't want to leak from those research groups? Those groups don't own the satellite, they can ONLY request and work off the data that they are given back. 5:40 even explains it in the video...

[@sabbathguy1]

@@ddontyy For that to be true, you'd have to explain how researchers would not notice missing or altered data - it's not easy to scrub raw data like that. It also pre-supposes an almost real-time ability to have some software that removes interesting data - which would presume a level of sophistication that frankly could not exist. This is one of those cases where a conspiracy of the kind you describe would be so hard to implement that it becomes non plausible.

[@Geojr815]

As far as imaging goes, the JWST has been s huge disappointment. Hasn’t shown us anything we haven’t seen a hundred times before (nedulas, dwarf stars, galaxies, etc.). It doesn’t even image in visible light. Detecting the composition of atmospheres on exoplanets is the only thing that really is special about the JWST