full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sarah Rugheimer: The search for microscopic aliens

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I try to utsnardend a planet's geology and its star's radiation so that we can better identify a true life saginl. And this is what makes the preliminary detection on Venus of phosphine, a potential biosignature gas, so compelling but also so confusing. vneus is not where we expected to find life. It is a hellish world, with a surface teprutmaere of nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Could life be floating in the more temperate upper atmosphere? But then how would such life eat and rpreoduce? This discovery will have to be vteted over the coming decade.

Open Cloze

I try to __________ a planet's geology and its star's radiation so that we can better identify a true life ______. And this is what makes the preliminary detection on Venus of phosphine, a potential biosignature gas, so compelling but also so confusing. _____ is not where we expected to find life. It is a hellish world, with a surface ___________ of nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Could life be floating in the more temperate upper atmosphere? But then how would such life eat and _________? This discovery will have to be ______ over the coming decade.

Solution

  1. signal
  2. vetted
  3. temperature
  4. reproduce
  5. understand
  6. venus

Original Text

I try to understand a planet's geology and its star's radiation so that we can better identify a true life signal. And this is what makes the preliminary detection on Venus of phosphine, a potential biosignature gas, so compelling but also so confusing. Venus is not where we expected to find life. It is a hellish world, with a surface temperature of nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Could life be floating in the more temperate upper atmosphere? But then how would such life eat and reproduce? This discovery will have to be vetted over the coming decade.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
detecting signs 2
microbial life 2
light years 2
planets orbiting 2
alien life 2

Important Words

  1. atmosphere
  2. biosignature
  3. coming
  4. compelling
  5. confusing
  6. decade
  7. degrees
  8. detection
  9. discovery
  10. eat
  11. expected
  12. fahrenheit
  13. find
  14. floating
  15. gas
  16. geology
  17. hellish
  18. identify
  19. life
  20. phosphine
  21. potential
  22. preliminary
  23. radiation
  24. reproduce
  25. signal
  26. surface
  27. temperate
  28. temperature
  29. true
  30. understand
  31. upper
  32. venus
  33. vetted
  34. world