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🎙 Guest: Claudia Schnugg, Curator of the Universe Pavilion at the Venice Biennale & Art-Science Visionary

The Cosmic Scoop:

What if art could transform how we design habitats beyond Earth—and inspire new ways to live here at home? Claudia Schnugg is making this vision a reality. As curator of the groundbreaking Universe Pavilion at the prestigious 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, she merges indigenous wisdom, aesthetic dialogue, and rigorous science to reshape how we think about shelter, community, and our cosmic future.

In this episode, Claudia guides us from pioneering Austrian yeast experiments in circular life support systems to ancient Aboriginal star maps navigating by dark patches in the Milky Way.

Quotable Insights:

💡 “Experience can reveal what expertise alone can’t. That’s where artists make the invisible visible.”
💡 “To shelter in space isn’t just about engineering—it’s about redefining what it means to be at home.”
💡 “Bringing artists into science labs isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity for asking better questions.”

Cosmic Timestamps:

⏳ [00:01:15] What is the Universe Pavilion? Art in the heart of the Venice Biennale
⏳ [00:03:00] Challenging the nation-state model in architecture through cosmic discourse
⏳ [00:06:00] A new renaissance? Why space and AI demand new aesthetic reflection
⏳ [00:09:15] STEAM over STEM: Claudia makes the case for creative collaboration
⏳ [00:16:10] Artists asking naive questions—and pushing science to unexpected breakthroughs
⏳ [00:24:00] Yeast, sourdough & space: An artistic experiment leads to biotech insights
⏳ [00:29:30] Life support systems as metaphor and method
⏳ [00:43:50] Indigenous sky knowledge and sheltering beyond architecture
⏳ [00:50:30] Symbiosis vs. exploitation: What culture are we exporting to space?
⏳ [01:00:40] The Venus Conversation: A 10-year art-science journey across missions
⏳ [01:03:10] Claudia’s music pick: “Dressed for Space” by Trouble Andrew
⏳ [01:04:32] Espresso for the Mind: Ted Chiang’s “The Great Silence”

To Explore:

1. 🔗 Claudia Schnugg's Research & Projects
2. 🔗 Dressed for Space – Trouble Andrew (Spotify)
3. 🔗 Venice Biennale – Architecture 2025
4. 🔗 ESA Arts Initiatives
5. 🔗 Claudia Schnugg's Research & Projects
6. 🔗 Ted Chiang – “The Great Silence”
7. 🔗 Dressed for Space – Trouble Andrew (Spotify)

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🎙 Guest: Guadalupe Cañas Herrera, Theoretical Cosmologist and Euclid Consortium Member

The Cosmic Scoop:

What’s driving the universe’s wild expansion? Dark energy and dark matter make up 95% of the cosmos—but we barely understand them. Enter Euclid, launched in July 2023 to map a 3D universe and crack these mysteries. Guadalupe Cañas Herrera, a key player in the mission, takes us 10 billion light-years into the past, challenging Einstein’s gravity and rethinking the “dark” labels we’ve slapped on the unknown. Bonus: she also brings Zumba energy to cosmology.

Quotable Insights:

💡 "We completely messed up in terms of assigning 'dark' to dark energy and dark matter—like, it was a fraud in terms of marketing."

💡 "I prefer to believe that mathematically we’re still not there yet—so we must revisit Einstein’s equations rather than assume some hidden fuel."

💡 "Statistically, it’s so unlikely that we’re alone—we’re on an average planet, in an average galaxy, in an average universe."

Cosmic Timestamps:

⏳ [00:01:45] The dream for Euclid: challenging the standard model
⏳ [00:03:15] Modified gravity vs. dark energy
⏳ [00:05:00] Why “dark” was a branding blunder
⏳ [00:08:45] How dark energy pushes the universe apart
⏳ [00:12:20] Teaching relativity with a Nobel-worthy twist
⏳ [00:15:09] Euclid’s place in cosmology’s big picture
⏳ [00:19:28] Mapping 1.5 billion galaxies from Lagrange Point 2
⏳ [00:23:57] Measuring distance with redshift and spectra
⏳ [01:08:17] Is the universe homogeneous?
⏳ [01:12:17] Are we alone? Guadalupe says, “Definitely not!”
⏳ [01:18:38] Zumba vibes: her cosmic playlist pick
⏳ [01:20:56] Inspiration tip: Write down wild ideas—you’ll come back to them

To Explore:

🔗 Euclid Mission
🔗 First Images from Euclid
🔗 ESA on Dark Energy
🔗 Send us a voice message
🔗 Zumba Track – "Zumba - Merengue Mix"

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We love to hear from you. Send us your thought, comments, suggestions, love letters

🎙 Guest: Arttu Luukanen, Head of Space & Defense at Solar Foods

The Cosmic Scoop:

How do we feed ourselves in space? The settlers of the past brought livestock, but in deep space, resupply isn’t an option, and every gram counts. Could microbes be the answer? Enter Solar Foods, a Finnish company producing food from just water, electricity, and bacteria—a breakthrough that won NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge. It’s no longer just a prototype; it’s ready to scale.

From feeding astronauts on Mars to reshaping food production on Earth, this innovation challenges everything we thought we knew about sustainability.At SXSW in Austin, Texas, Arttu Luukanen reveals why traditional food systems won’t work in space—and how Solein, their microbial protein, could transform the way we eat.

Quotable Insights:

💡 "Microbes don’t have brains, don’t have free will, and all they want to do is multiply. That’s what makes them the perfect food source for deep space."

💡 "With our method, we can turn CO₂ and hydrogen into protein—it's 100 times more efficient than animal farming."

💡 "We could place food factories in the desert, powered by solar energy, and produce protein without farmland or livestock."

Cosmic Timestamps:

⏳ [00:00:00] Introduction – How do we feed ourselves in deep space?
⏳ [00:03:05] Arttu’s background: From space research to revolutionizing food
⏳ [00:07:55] Why growing food on Mars is a massive challenge
⏳ [00:12:30] The NASA Deep Space Food Challenge and how Solar Foods won
⏳ [00:19:18] The science behind Solein – food made from air, water, and microbes
⏳ [00:27:42] Why livestock and even plants are inefficient in space
⏳ [00:34:15] Could microbial protein replace farming on Earth?
⏳ [00:40:50] The biggest challenge: Scaling production to industrial levels
⏳ [00:48:12] Will AI and automation make self-replicating food factories possible?
⏳ [00:53:25] Space exploration and the next step for food sustainability

To Explore:

🔗 Solar Foods – https://solarfoods.com
🔗 NASA Deep Space Food Challenge – https://www.nasa.gov/feature/deep-space-food-challenge
🔗 More on microbial protein (ESA feature) – https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Food_from_air_for_space_and_Earth

🎵 Arttu Luukanen's choice: Rush – Countdown 🎶

Spread the Cosmic Love!

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📩 Subscribe to our Substack: Space Café Podcast – https://spacecafepodcast.substack.com
🔗 Find Markus on LinkedIn: Markus Mooslechner – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marku

You can find us on Spotify and Apple Podcast!

Please visit us at SpaceWatch.Global, subscribe to our newsletters. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!