What does it mean to be a human in a world that's dominated by science and technology—and in a universe in which we might not be alone? With the advancement of observational technology—for instance, the new James Webb telescope situated nearly a million miles from Earth—the detection of extraterrestrial life increasingly becomes a possibility. And while scientists have long had a love-hate relationship with speculative fictions, they are in constant engagement with them as they search for extraterrestrial life. In this episode of the Harvard Horizons podcast, PhD student Karina Mathew Mathew talks about engaging our imaginations to move beyond the restrictions of technology and human expectations.

At a conference in 1932, the Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist, Enrico Fermi, became the first scientist to use the term “neutrino” publicly. Since then, scientists have experimentally confirmed Fermi's theories and directly observed neutrinos, but the subatomic particles are still not fully understood. In this episode of the Harvard Horizons podcast, PhD student Nicolò Foppiani asks whether the "sterile neutrino" exists and whether it could explain one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics: the source of dark matter.

“When all else about an individual dies or is devoured,” writes Harvard PhD student Vanessa Braganza, “ciphered documents [those written in code] can preserve their identity beneath the calcified surface of history.” In this episode of the Harvard Horizons project, Braganza explains how the secret letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, written in code, upend our notions of the doomed royal as a woman with no agency, swept under by a powerful leader and the currents of history.