Welcome to the first show of the Perpetual Notion Machine! PNM was the brainchild of Kris Wedding, a graduate student at UW-Madison in medical physics, and a group of other science students. This show, which originally aired on October 3, 1996, was a trial run before PNM became a permanent fixture on the schedule. The guest was William Barker, then a professor and scientist in geology and geophysics. His expertise in geomicrobiology provided insight into a recent finding at that time concerning the possibility of life on Mars. A meteorite was found buried and intact in Antarctica, and chemical analysis discovered possible remnants of microbial remains. And not only that, people on the street were asked if they believe life existed on Mars!
For this show, we’d like to acknowledge Kris Wedding as producer and host, John Fournelle as interviewer, Alex Converse as Science Round-up news reader, and Dan Prince as engineer.
If you are a new listener to PNM or a longtime listener, please enjoy this audio of the show. In the 20+ years since this show aired, PNM has gone through dozens of volunteers and new and different formats. We hope that you still enjoy the science that we put on WORT every week.
