From Space Soils to Earth | Regenerative Agriculture | doing a PhD in U.S. & EU

What can Mars and Venus teach us about saving Earth's soil? In this episode, we go from planetary science to regenerative agriculture, biofertilizers, and the reality of PhD life across the US and Europe - plus hackathons, hobbies, and why doing nothing might be the most productive thing you can do. A wide-ranging conversation for anyone curious about space, sustainability, and the path of scientific research. Guest: Jaya Nepal is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Plant Science at Penn State College of Agricultural Science First episode with Jaya about his research in 2024: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/v\_Cypmu2J70?feature=oembed     External sources mentioned in the ep.: \- Why This Robot Kills Weeds With Lasers: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/KmxNtDMAj2A?feature=oembed \- A super El Niño threatens disaster. Trump is handling it recklessly: https://www.theguardian.com/commentis... \- UAE’s ruling royal family benefits from more than €71m in EU farming subsidies: https://www.theguardian.com/world/202... \- The Godfather of AI Warns About Its Perils, Praises Its Promise: https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatur... \- Venus & Greenhouse Effect: https://theclimatehistorian.substack.... \- Why Mars by Carl Sagan: https://www.planetary.org/space-image... \- Universe's First Life Might Have Been Born on Carbon Planets: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/univ... \- Carl Sagan's groundbreaking experiment: 30 years on: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/202... \- 20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics...   Timeline 00:00 Intro 00:36 Why space studies matter 03:45 Why space Soils matter 06:20 Regolith: the key to living off-world 07:32 Inventions born from space research 08:49 Venus's greenhouse effect & Mars's ozone loss: how Earth studies benefited 13:50 What planetary science teaches us about Earth's soil 18:06 What is regenerative agriculture 21:20 Biofertilizers explained 26:27 Our paper finally got published 27:16 Can bio-products replace synthetic fertilizers 33:10 PhD life: US vs. Europe 45:15 PhD qualifying exams: US vs. Europe 52:50 Why flexibility matters when plans fall apart 56:53 Hackathons during a PhD: research to real-world 59:38 Why podcasting (and hobbies) matter in a PhD 1:03:58 The art of doing nothing & cross-pollinating ideas 1:07:50 Climate change and information overload 1:09:32 Favorite science & sci-fi movies