This week, Popcorn Science goes back to 1977 to critique one of Spielberg’s early hits, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” We discuss the cultural phenomena of alien abductions, music as a universal language, and the hopping tourist industry in Wyoming.

End of an era - demolition on the long derelict McLaughlin Planetarium begins here in Toronto

Congrats also to Milena Markovich who successfully defended her MSc thesis this afternoon!! Milena will be continuing with my lab at York for her PhD as we dive deeper into ice deposits on the moon (you’ve got to love her title for the public lecture!)

Congrats to my student Grace Bischof who successfully defended her PhD today at York University!! Next for her will be a postdoc at U of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, a place near and dear to my heart

Inyalowdas! In our longest Popcorn Science to date, we take an “Expansive” look at a genre defining series. We ponder what it would be like to die of radiation exposure, realistic ways of living in zero-g, and why James Holden is so darn boring. www.popcornscience.ca/the-expanse/...

To engage more deeply with the best of Science Fiction, as we do on Popcorn Science, allow me to recommend a WSFS Membership: www.lacon.org/register/ You get a packet with great stories and art + you can nominate and vote your favourites. For our Canadian listeners, next year will be in Montréal!!

Thank-you to everyone who is enjoying Popcorn Science! We've recently passed 250 plays over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. @planetneish.bsky.social and I are looking forward to our next milestone. Next time we'll be talking about an Expansive series that you suggested! Keep those ideas flowing

In this week’s episode of Popcorn Science, John and I are joined by physiologist Dr. Ann Revill to discuss the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Hop on the Mr. DNA ride as we discuss ancient mosquitoes, cloning, and a very sexy Jeff Goldblum. Life, uh, finds a way! @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social

Don't forget that you can also listen to our latest episode over on Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t... and on Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/6ohP... Stick with @planetneish.bsky.social and I and you will come to realize that The Fifth Element is anything but Boron

On this week’s episode of Popcorn Science, we travel back to 1997’s “The Fifth Element”. In this bright and vibrant vision of the future, we discuss what makes a “perfect being”, the vocal range of aliens, and why NYC in the 23rd century looks so much like the 90s.

This week, PVL masters student Isabelle Marincic reflects on their first year in graduate school. You can read about the highs, the lows, the challenges overcome and yet to come here: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2026/04/one-...

Excited about Season 5 of ‘For All Mankind‘? Join us as we discuss the science behind this “space soap opera”. Could humans really live on Mars? What does Russian sound like with a southern accent? Join us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. www.popcornscience.ca/for-all-mank...

Little slow to post, but @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social (John Moores, York University) was in the department last week for some meeting and gave us a seminar about his work. Totally #Plutonic On the slide, the image of #Pluto says: I'm glad you finally found me, I hope we can be friends 🧪🔭 #planetsci

Are you missing the Popcorn Science podcast? Not to worry, @planetneish.bsky.social and I will be back for a 2nd season on March 21st! Our first episode is a deep dive on "For All Mankind." Enjoy it in the lead up to the March 27 season 5 premiere. popcornscience.ca

This week, PhD Student @dchayes.ca sheds some light on how we talk to spacecraft on and around other planets: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2026/02/talk... The situation on the red planet is particularly complex and therefore particularly interesting! Like any infrastructure, maintenance is critical

This week, first year MSc student Izzy Marincic recounts her first big conference at EPSC in Helsinki, Finland last fall: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2026/02/dpse... From an advisor's perspective it is always so great to see these moments of growth in my students. It really takes me back...

A neat new result from the Curiosity mission about the persistence of liquid lakes on the surface of early Mars, protected beneath ice. Press release here: news.rice.edu/news/2026/th... paper here: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

In the final blog post of 2025, @transmartian.bsky.social reflects on their writing journey as a graduate student. york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/12/inse... This is a key skill: it's not science until it has been shared!

You only get one first conference presentation. It can be a stressful experience, but ultimately it's rewarding too: a big step along the pathway to becoming a scientist. This week, MSc Abigail Newton describes her experience at the IPM Workshop last summer york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/11/baby...

With graduate school application season coming up quickly, MSc student Milena Markovich offers some advice to those trying to select a program, lab group and project. Read more over on the PVL Blog: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/10/say-...

New research from PhD student Elisa Dong! Could Dragonfly detect airbursts on Titan? To find out more: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... This is Elisa's 2nd paper published this year - @planetneish.bsky.social and I are very proud advisors!! If you're looking for a postdoc, consider reaching out

We'll be back with a whole new season in 2026! In the meantime, why not respond to this message and tell us which of your favorite films and TV shows we should review next? Until then, you can catch up on Spotify open.spotify.com/show/3TARKhL... and Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...

The booth is set up!

Join me and Jesse at Word on the Street toronto.thewordonthestreet.ca today from 11-6 and tomorrow 10-5 in David Pecaut Square in downtown Toronto! We’ll have copies of Daydreaming, art from the book, stickers and other merch. Come and say hi!

This week on the PVL blog, undergrad Ella talks about her second summer in research: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/09/anot... Kudos to her for a banner term in which she published her first paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... and had her first media interview!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ4k...

Don't forget that you can catch Deep Impact (Ep 11) and all of our other episodes over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify too! In two weeks we will be back with our Season 1 Finale. We wanted to do something special so we reached back to the 1960s for a classic, reviewing it only 24 years too late

This week on Popcorn Science, we go back to the summer of the killer asteroids. In 1998, both “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” hit the big screens. We cover the lesser known (but better) movie as we discuss comets, impacts, and Elijah Wood’s obsession with rings. popcornscience.ca/deep-impact/...

If you're looking for more EJO after listening to us this week on Apple podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p... or Spotify open.spotify.com/show/3TARKhL... , don't fret! Next time on PSP we'll review a film that features Olmos' early career as an origami-enthusiast detective in dystopian 2019 Los Angeles

This week on Popcorn Science, John and I discuss the 2003 Battlestar Galactica Miniseries. Could Cylons really kill everyone with nuclear bombs alone? What kind of crazy solar system do the colonists live in? Grab your gun and bring this podcast in! popcornscience.ca/battlestar-g...

Warnica apologizes to the Canadian Space Agency for having a Mars rover bumper sticker, but I work with plenty of great Canadians on MSL, like @conorwhayes.bsky.social @transmartian.bsky.social @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social who manage the cloud observations @martianclouds.bsky.social.

PhD Student Elisa Dong examined the spatial variability of methane microseepage in the Canadian Arctic and found that you can detect changes as small as 3.5 ppbv over 10 m of travel with a simple laser gas detector (ABB ICOS). This will come in handy on Mars! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Don't forget you can check out this episode (and all the others) over on Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... and on Spotify! open.spotify.com/show/3TARKhL... May the force be with you until next time when @planetneish.bsky.social and I discuss the '03 re-imagining of a '78 TV classic

Popcorn Science is now on Spotify! You can find our first seven installments here: open.spotify.com/show/3TARKhL... There's lots more scientific analysis of your favorite films and TV shows coming your way in the weeks ahead from @planetneish.bsky.social and I.

Take a listen and let us know: did we nail it? Or did our bolt of inspiration go astray on this one? As always, you can find us over on Apple Podcasts as well! podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...

Sometimes a group meeting can be seven grad students, three undergrads, a postdoc, and their advisor all working on Mariner 4 inspired art. (Original image: photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA2...)

This summer marks 60 years since the first detailed image was sent back from another planet (Mariner 4). The scientists on Earth were so keen to see it that they hand coloured the telemetry. In their honour, today @conorwhayes.bsky.social led our group to do the same with a more recent mars pic!

Summer is a time to recharge. Freed of distractions, it can be the perfect opportunity to dive into an exciting scientific problem! But it can be hard to remember to come up for air. This week's blog, MSc student Isabelle Marincic writes about finding balance: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/07/athl...

Ella Ordinaria, a 3rd year biochemistry student working in my lab, just published her first paper over at the Research Notes of the AAS. How many terrestrial microbes are likely to survive Europa Clipper's journey to Jupiter? To find out, read: doi.org/10.3847/2515... via @ioppublishing.bsky.social

This week, John and I take a deep dive into the most pretentious film about exoplanets I have ever seen. But with an advisor like @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social, there’s lots of good science to admire.

Last week, @planetneish.bsky.social and I had some critical words about the science in "The Core" so we thought it only fair to examine 2018's "Clara," a film where I served as the science advisor. Here, I have no one to blame but myself for the science gripes! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

As a prof, it's wonderful when you can help to create moments of inspiration for your students! On this week's PVL Blog, PhD student Grace Bischof talks about deepening her fascination with exoplanets and their atmospheres during a recent internship at Harvard: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/07/swap...

#DaydreamingInTheSolarSystem by @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social and Jesse Rogerson spotted in the wild at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.

In this week’s episode of Popcorn Science, Catherine and John live long and prosper as they discuss their love of Star Trek, and marvel at how both Spock and Jadzia Dax can calculate exponential growth in their heads. 🖖🏻 @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social popcornscience.ca/tribbles/ind...

A Microbial Survival Model for the Permanently Shadowed Regions of the Moon Shows Long-Term Survival of Terrestrial Microbial Contamination astrobiology.com/2025/06/a-mi... #Astrobiology #Moon #Artemis #extremophiles

New research from @transmartian.bsky.social hot off the presses! Using measurements of methane in the Canadian Arctic, Alex showed that variability in methane concentration is a better predictor than absolute concentration of how far away you are from a source: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/06/unra...

This week over on the PVL blog, Elisa reflects on her experience at the AGU meeting last December with over 20,000 of our closest friends and colleagues. Read all about it here: york-pvl.blogspot.com/2025/06/post...

This week on Popcorn Science, @planetneish.bsky.social and I take a look at a beloved classic: Contact. How does this Carl Sagan-advised description of first contact with aliens hold up more than a quarter century later? If you're "ok to go," take a listen over at: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

New episode just dropped! Listen as John and I try to figure out if we need to fear human sized insects, and whether a creator’s personal views should influence how you engage with their media.

How does science translate when adapting a classic SF novel to the silver screen? @planetneish.bsky.social and I recently put our theories to the test with the 2013 film Ender's Game. You can listen to our discussion over on Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... or at popcornscience.ca

I recently started a podcast with my friend @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social. In "Popcorn Science", we take a critical look at the science portrayed in our favourite movies and television shows. Today, I'm excited to announce that we have released our first episode! Check it out: popcornscience.ca