The Beer Drinking Scientists

The Beer Drinking Scientists are back! It's been two and a half years since our last episode, but Darren Osborne and Marc West have got back together over a beer in Sydney to chat about the pressing scientific issues of the day - in this case, alien life. We chat about the latest scientific research and discoveries in areas such as astrobiology, SETI and exoplanets. We also chat to others in pub, including one person who swears she has seen not just one UFO, but a UFO release a baby-craft, and another who thinks that Jesus might be an alien... To bring some sanity to the proceedings, Marc chatted to Dr Carol Oliver from the Australian Centre for Astrobiology before the show and clips from this interview are played throughout. For the full podcast interview with Carol, see Astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life. We'd love to hear ideas for future BDS episodes, so feel free to leave comments, or let us know on twitter - @bdscientists. We'll release new shows about every 2 months. Merry Christmas from The Beer Drinking Scientists - may your festive season be full of science and beer, both in moderation of course!

This week, Darren and Marc tackle the issue of cloning. They cover the issues involved with adult and embryonic stem cells, therapeutic cloning, where you draw the line with creating a life-form for harvesting its stem cells, Dolly the sheep, South Korean cloning fraud, Alien-secular religions, business models for scientific investment and environmental triage - and then go and talk to the punters in the pub.

In the first full epsiode of The Beer Drinking Scientists, Marc and Darren talk about climate change. What it is, who's responsible and why we should care.