Sarah Stewart Johnson’s The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life On Another World Book Talk

An image of Mars taken by the OSIRIS instrument on the ESA Rosetta spacecraft during its February 2007 passing of the planet (Wikimedia).

Georgetown professor Sarah Stewart Johnson discussed her new book, The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life On Another World, during a webinar hosted by Kai Ryssdal on October 29. In her book, Professor Johnson explores recent cosmic discoveries, the future of planetary science, and her work with NASA’s Mars rovers. 

Sarah Johnson is an associate professor of planetary science at Georgetown University and is a member of the Department of Biology and the Science, Technology, and International Affairs program. Professor Johnson also runs the Johnson Biosignatures Lab at Georgetown. After receiving her Ph.D. from MIT, Johnson went on to participate in NASA missions for the rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. Currently, she is still involved with NASA as a visiting scientist for the Planetary Environments Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Sirens of Mars investigates Johnson’s journey as a  scientist and mother who tries to uncover cosmic signs of life. During the webinar, Johnson remarked, “This book is about science and our human relation to the planet.” She also mentioned that she wrote this book to give Mars the limelight it rarely receives in scientific journals. 

When asked why Mars played such a significant role in her research, Johnson affirmed, “There is no place more similar to Earth that we know of.” Johnson gushed about the similarities between Earth and Mars while expressing genuine optimism for the discovery of life on Mars. Johnson claimed, “We are best poised to make a big discovery now because we know the planet so well.”

Johnson illustrated her interest in biophysics by posing a set of questions, “Are we alone? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing?” She firmly believes we are not alone. However, based on our physical limitations, we will never be able to fully understand the worlds around us. Nevertheless, she imagines it would be absurd to think the spark that causes life only happened once throughout the vast expanse of the universe.

(YouTube Video) Professor Johnson discusses the significance of the rover missions for her research.

Johnson also posed the question, “How do you argue the next dollar should be spent on Mars [exploration] and not a COVID vaccine?” She discussed how during a pandemic, we need to invest in the basic sciences, which directly benefit from the exploratory sciences. She explained how finding cosmic life will teach us more about our biological nature. Johnson stressed the need to expand our understanding of the nature of biology. She explained how the discovery of new life would be far more beneficial to biology than any product a pharmaceutical company creates.