Could we have evidence of life on Mars?

BBC Inside Science

News broke this week that rocks picked up by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars may have found chemical signatures left by living organisms.

With the search for life on the red planet capturing our imaginations for decades, Victoria Gill is joined by science journalist Jonathan Amos to look at what we know about the history of life on Mars, and what could be different about this discovery.

As commemorations take place this week for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we hear about the project helping to protect birds in New York from the effects of a giant annual light display in memory of the victims of the tragedy.

Dr Andrew Farnsworth, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, tells us how they’re working with the organisers of the Tribute in Light memorial to help save the lives of a wide range of birds.

Victoria is joined by managing editor of the New Scientist, Penny Sarchet, to look through this week’s most exciting scientific discoveries.

And in our series profiling the six books shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, we speak to neuroscientist and clinical neurologist Professor Masud Husain about his book Our Brains, Our Selves, and what his encounters with patients reveal about how our brains make up who we are.

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Clare Salisbury, Dan Welsh, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd Editor: Martin Smith