Scientists have long been fascinated by the prospect of life on Mars - but how can we begin to look for life on a planet which has a much thinner atmosphere and much lower temperatures than our own?   One method, currently being researched by The Open University's Dr Mario Toubes-Rodrigo, is to grow the micro-organisms of very salty lakes here on Earth and analyse the gases they produce, which are then in turn compared with potential bio-signatures in the Martian atmosphere.   Writer and Science Communicator Dr Natalie Starkey caught up with Mario to find out more about what is becoming a fascinating area of research.

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Is there life on Mars?

On the 14th of June 2017, the fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London claimed the lives of 72 people, making it one of the UK's worst modern disasters. Scrutiny over the events leading up to the fire and how the emergency response itself was conducted, has left many, not least of all the residents of the tower, feeling like justice hasn’t been served. Steve Tombs is Professor of Criminology at The Open University and has long researched and written about the various ways in which state agencies, public organisations and private businesses generate crime and harm, and how these might be mitigated. Since the fire in June 2017, Steve has participated in several documentaries on Grenfell Tower, and spoken at over thirty public meetings across England, Scotland and Wales.

What really happened at Grenfell Tower?

In this episode, we ask whether prisons do the jobs they were originally created to do. Has there been an increasingly enlightened approach to balancing reform, care and punishment? What did this look like in past regimes, and where is our current system succeeding and failing? To answer these questions, we spoke to Dr David Scott from The OU's School of Social Policy & Criminology, who has published more than 15 books on issues around crime, punishment and justice - including his most recent work Against Imprisonment. He is a former coordinator of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, the most established critical criminology forum in the world today.  He’s also a member of the Academic Advisory Board for INQUEST, a charity supporting the bereaved families of those who die in state custody.

Why don't prisons work?

2018 saw an explosion of interest in veganism and plant-based diets. Celebrity ambassadors and wellbeing gurus fell over themselves to extoll the virtues of living ethically, with high-street brands, restaurants and supermarkets diversifying their product ranges to satisfy rising demand. An interesting recent development was a report in August by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - suggesting a reduction in meat consumption and reforms to farming, were both crucial steps in tackling the negative human impacts on the environment. Simon Rea is a lecturer in sports science at The Open University who specialises in nutrition. In the past he has worked with both cricket and international hockey teams as well as individual athletes about nutrition to optimise sports performance. Dr Matthew Cole is a Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University. His research focuses on how we learn to conceptually separate other animals into categories, such as 'friends' or 'food', and how these categories serve the interests of industries which profit from animal exploitation. From these concerns, Matthew also researches the role of veganism as an alternative to animal exploitation.

Why isn't veganism the norm?

With the charity Shelter recently estimating that around 320,000 people across Great Britain were homeless at the start of 2018, addressing the underlying causes is high on the agenda. A climate of social spending cuts, rising rents and insecure work, are all contributing factors which haven’t gone unnoticed. In fact, a recent UN report declared that the UK government had inflicted a ‘great misery’ on its people with ‘punitive, mean spirited and often callous’ austerity policies. We're joined by Dr Victoria Cooper and Dr Daniel McCulloch, both Lecturers in Criminology at the Open University, to share some of the latest thinking around homelessness and the impact of austerity. Share your thoughts on this episode's theme by using #OUInformed.

What's behind the recent spike in homelessness?

In each episode, Open University Academics give us the latest thinking on the topics and issues of our times. Join the discussion on Twitter using #OUInformed

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