Nothing if not topical, I am delighted to announce the next event in the Second Nature Lecture series will be on Tuesday, given by Dr Jeff Marlow, Imperial College and member of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars project, aimed at sending a probe to Mars.

With the NASA probe having just this week discovered water on Mars, it could hardly be more relevant, and I know Jeff will be delighted to talk about any and all aspects of Martian exploration. Jeff’s specific role in the project is designing the instrument which will look for signs of life on Mars: could water just be the first step?

All the details of the talk are on the website, but I include a short blurb below. Please do join us and tell anyone who might be interested about what I’m sure will be one of our most fascinating events yet. In the meantime, Jeff is one of our Nature Network bloggers, so do have a look at his blog

Title: ExoMars: Europe’s Next Step in the Search for Life on Mars

Speaker: Dr Jeff Marlow, Imperial College

Date: Tuesday 5th August

Time: 10am SLT, PDT, 1pm New York time, 6pm London time.

Place: Second Nature Island

Blurb: Is there Life on Mars? Humanity has sought an answer to this question for thousands of years, but only recently has our technology become equal to the task. Mars has emerged as the most likely extraterrestrial destination to yield results in the near term, but despite multiple missions to the Red Planet, the question remains unanswered. ExoMars could change that: with its sophisticated life-detection payload and subsurface drill, the rover might just be the best hope yet to find life on Mars.

Join us on August 5th to hear Jeff Marlow, Imperial College, talk about his work towards the ExoMars mission and his thoughts on finding life on Mars.