A chimpanzee ‘civil war,’ and NASA plans for nuclear propulsion

About this episode

The episode discusses NASA's plans for a nuclear-powered Mars mission and a chimpanzee civil war reported by researchers.

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Hannah Richter joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss NASA’s plans to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars in less than 3 years. Having not launched a fission reactor to space in more than 60 years, the organization faces many technical and bureaucratic hurdles to make that deadline. Next on the show, Aaron Sandel, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and co-director of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, reports this week in Science on what looks like a chimpanzee civil war. The unprecedented violent split occurred in a large chimp colony that has been tracked by researchers for decades. Now, scientists are asking: What can the lethal division of a chimp community teach us about human conflict? This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Sarah Crespi

Guests: Hannah Richter, Aaron Sandel

Topics covered

• nuclear propulsion
• chimpanzee behavior
• human conflict
• Mars mission
• scientific research

Keywords

• nuclear spacecraft
• Mars
• chimpanzee civil war
• human conflict
• scientific research

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASA, University of Texas at Austin, Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, Science

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