WELCOME! An introduction to DARK: Chats About Space

Andrew Whitehurst is the Oscar Winning Visual Effects expert who has worked on Ex_Machina, Annhiliation and Brian Cox's live tour - we had a conversation at DNEG's offices about working with Brian Cox, the technicalities of creating black holes and his work on Alex Garland's wonderful 2018 film Annihilation.  As always, this podcast is brought to you by my very own book DARK: The A To Z Of Astronomy And The Cosmos - it's part universe explainer, part graphic design coffee table fodder with a bespoke piece of artwork by Andreas Brooks for each and every letter of the astronomical alphabet.  You can pledge for a copy here and help it to get to 100%!  www.unbound.com/books/dark

There's currently about 8,000 tonnes of space debris orbiting planet earth and there are a number of reasons why this is a problem that needs to be dealt with swiftly. I spoke to Richard Duke of the Surrey Space centre who landed in the international news headlines last months with their REMOVE DEBRIS satellite and its space harpoon and net. Richard tells us about the satellite's development with Airbus and how Elon Musk and the ISS astronauts helped get the satellite into orbit for it's groundbreaking first in-orbit test.  This podcast is brought to you by my own book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos - it's part Universe A-Z explainer and part beautiful coffee table fodder. It's with crowdfunding publisher UNBOUND so every single pledge makes a massive difference in seeing this book get made. All pledges get your name in the book itself but there's lots of different pledge levels including bespoke artwork / limited edition art from the book and lots more.  About the book:  www.unbound.com/books/dark  www.twitter.com/JC_Wilkins About this REMOVE DEBRIS:  https://twitter.com/spaceatsurrey?lang=en https://www.surrey.ac.uk/surrey-space-centre/missions/removedebris

First things first - before we get onto this incredibly exciting episode with the visionary visual effects supervisor of Blade Runner 2049 and First Man, this podcast is ‘brought to you’ by my book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos. It’s a science and art book where each chapter deals with a different space-related subject and each of those chapters is accompanied by an original piece of art. Please help it get published and pre-order your copy here: www.unbound.com/books/dark Episode 5 is with the Oscar & BAFTA winning visual effects supervisor of First Man, Paul Lambert. First Man deals with Neil Armstrong’s journey to the moon and stars Ryan Gosling. Paul & his team at DNEG won the Oscar for their work on Blade Runner 2049 and this chat delves into his creative craft, working with Damian Chazelle and the lengths gone to create such breath-taking visual effects. Thanks again to Paul for his time and the guys at DNEG for helping to arrange this conversation. You can find out more about Paul and DNEG here: https://www.dneg.com https://twitter.com/dneg https://www.instagram.com/dneg/ and you really want, you can follow me here: www.twitter.com/jc_wilkins

This is ‘brought to you’ by my book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos. It’s a science and art book where each chapter deals with a different space-related subject and each of those chapters is accompanied by an original piece of art by Andreas Brooks. The book won't get published unless I get enough pre-orders so if you can take a moment to have a look at the link below I'd be extremely grateful: www.unbound.com/books/dark Hello again! Episode 4 is a fascinating conversation with award winning perfumer Marina Barcenilla who has created an experience called AROMATOM. This incredible experience seeks to discover what space smells like. Marina is dedicated to changing how people learn and different ways to get people interacting with science. You can find out more about Marina and AROMATOM here: https://www.aromatom.org https://twitter.com/MRBarcenilla?lang=en-gb https://www.instagram.com/aromatomuk/ and if you're so inclined, you can follow me here: https://twitter.com/JC_Wilkins

This is ‘brought to you’ by my book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos. It’s a science and art book where each chapter deals with a different space-related subject and each of those chapters is accompanied by an original piece of art. Help it get published and pre-order your copy here: www.unbound.com/books/dark Welcome back! Episode 3 is a fantastic chat with Professor Michael Garrett who is the Sir Bernard Lovell chair of Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, the Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) and the vice-chair of the IAAs SETI Permanent Committee. Why SETI needs more investment, what are the challenges in detecting in extra-terrestrial life and are we alone in the Universe are just some of the topics we cover... hope you enjoy!

This is ‘brought to you’ by my book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos. It’s a science and art book where each chapter deals with a different space-related subject and each of those chapters is accompanied by an original piece of art. Help it get published and pre-order your copy here: www.unbound.com/books/dark This is Episode 2 of Dark: Chats About Space with Dr David L Clements who is a reader in astrophysics at Imperial College and specialises in Extra-Galactic astronomy and observational cosmology – which basically means everything outside the Milky Way. We cover a great deal in this hour including the eating habits of Black Holes, particle physics and exactly what Energy might be… not too mention a quick chat on David’s own science fiction writing. Links: https://twitter.com/davecl42 https://davecl.wordpress.com David's wordpress 'Disturbing The Universe'

This podcast is brought to you by my book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos. It’s a science and art book where each chapter deals with a different space-related subject and each of those chapters is accompanied by an original piece of art. Help it get published and pre-order your copy here: www.unbound.com/books/dark This is it! Episode 1 of DARK: Chats About Space – you’ve guessed it, it’s a podcast about space in all its many wonderful guises. Each episode I’ll be talking to different guest about a different space related subject… be it scientific, artistic or otherwise including conversations with astrobiologists, galactic-astronomers, astrophysicists, authors, presenters and artists. My first guest is Professor Lewis Dartnell, Professor of Science Communication at the University of Westminster. Lewis specialises in Astrobiology which deals with the evolution of life in space. Find out more here www.lewisdartnell.com

This is DARK: Chats About Space.... the introduction! In this podcast I'll be tackling all things space with fascinating guests every episode from astro-biologists, extra-galactic astronomers, astrophysicists, authors, presenters and more... If you like the podcast, please subscribe and also take a look at my book DARK: The A to Z Of Astronomy & The Cosmos www.unbound.com/books/dark - it's still in funding, so any help / support would be most appreciated! Hope you enjoy the podcast. Thanks! James