Cloning for conservation, and divining dynamos on super-Earths

On this week’s show: How cloning can introduce diversity into an endangered species, and ramping up the pressure on iron to see how it might behave in the cores of rocky exoplanets

First up this week, News Intern Rachel Fritts talks with host Sarah Crespi about cloning a frozen ferret to save an endangered species.

Also this week, Rick Kraus, a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, talks about how his group used a powerful laser to compress iron to pressures similar to those found in the cores of some rocky exoplanets. If these super-Earths’ cores are like our Earth’s, they may have a protective magnetosphere that increases their chances of hosting life.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Kimberly Fraser/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: three baby black-footed ferrets being held by gloved hands]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Rachel Fritts

Episode page:  https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.acz9974

About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast

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