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Episode 128: George Danos: Cyprus in Space

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George Danos. President of CSEO

Cyprus is a small country with a small economy with big ambitions in space. George Danos is the president of the Cyprus Space Exploration  Organisation and is considered by some as Cyprus’s Carl Sagan. He has been championing the case for space in Cyprus for years.

In this episode, recorded during Cospar 2025 in Nicosia, he describes the rise of Cyprus’s space activities in communication services, small satellites, collaboration with ESA and more.

  • As President of the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSO), George Danos has been pivotal in advancing Cyprus’s space programme, particularly regarding international partnerships, infrastructure development, and commercialisation.
  • CSO created spin-off companies, such as Space System Solutions, to promote technology transfer.
  • Cyprus recently achieved Associate Membership status within the European Space Agency (ESA).
  • George Danos spearheaded CSO’s major role in achieving the ESA PECs (Plan for European Cooperating States since around 2016.
  • Establishing the International Space Innovation Centre (CSpark) in Cyprus
  • The first fully integrated Cypriot CubeSat is targeted for readiness by 2026.
  • CSO signed an MOU with Japan’s IHI for new-generation secure maritime communication and India’s Pixxel space, focusing on hyperspectral Earth observation sensors.

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Episode 126: Graphene: From scientific discovery to commercial application

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Professor James Baker

Professor James Baker, CEO of Graphene@Manchester, describes Manchester’s journey to commercialise the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of Graphene.

In this conversation, recorded at the University of Manchester Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre, Professor Baker explains the steps Manchester (the City and the University, with support from central government and foreign investors) is taking to nurture startups, SMEs and established industries in developing a commercial ecosystem centred on the applications of Graphene. He describes the unique role of the UoM, the National Graphene Institute and the GEIC.

Some of the discussion points include

The following summary repeats the emphasis points you requested, condensing each into approximately a 10-word sentence, supported by comprehensive citations from the source material:

  • Graphene was isolated in Manchester in 2004, and its discovery won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • Manchester continues its history of innovation, fulfilling the “discovered in Britain” vision.
  • Extraordinary properties (e.g., 200 times stronger than steel) drive an industry “pull” philosophy.
  • Commercial applications include batteries, sensors, coatings, composites, and sustainable construction materials.
  • The National Graphene Institute (NGI) focuses on accelerating fundamental 2D material science with low Technology Readiness Level (TRL).
  • The GEIC is “industry-led but academic-fed,” accelerating high TRL commercialisation with know-how.
  • The Manchester Model (NGI/GEIC) helps companies navigate and accelerate through the “valley of death”.
  • The GEIC has fostered over 70 startups, many of which are now scaling up and opening factories.

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Episode 125: Britian’s Greatest Pilot Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown

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Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown. January 2011

You may have seen the BBC documentary Britain’s Greatest Pilot. Yes, he was an outstanding pilot, but there was much more to him than just that. I published extracts from an interview with Captain Eric Brown in April 2011. This extended version (over an hour) has not been published before .. until now.

In 2011 I visited Captain Eric Winkle Brown to record an interview on his one-to-one meeting with Yuri Gagarin on 13th July 1961 at the Admiralty in London. This was the day after Gagarin visited Manchester. After that discussion, the interview continued. Captain Brown spoke of his fond memories of a German WW1 pilot, Ernst Udet, who encouraged him to fly. During the war, he excelled as a test pilot and went on to become the chief test pilot at Farnborough.

After WW2, using his fluent German language skills, he interrogated Hermann Goering, Hanna Reitsch and Wernher von Braun. He spoke of a mission to Germany immediately after the war to acquire German aviation technology. Following a secret UK/USA deal, Britain passed its research on supersonic aviation to the USA and cancelled the Miles M.52 program. Had this deal not gone ahead, Eric Brown would have been the first to break the sound barrier in 1946; instead, Chuck Yeager claimed that record in 1947. He recalls that and many other stories in the interview recorded in his home in January 2011.

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Episode 122. Are we alone and the Breakthrough Initiatives

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Dr Pete Worden

For almost 70 years, astronomers have been listening to radio signals from beyond the Solar System, searching for “techno-signatures.” Data collected has increased many folds. Innovative technologies of digital signal processing and artificial intelligence analyse the data in ways never done before. Still, no clear, unambiguous techno or biosignatures have been detected.

You may have heard the announcement about an exoplanet (K2-18b) capable of supporting life, 124 light-years away. The data appears promising, but it is far from definitive.

A two-day Breakthrough Discuss conference held on 23rd and 24th April 2025 in Oxford England, took stock of the latest developments through three main sessions: “Forms of Non-Terrestrial Life”, “The Nature of Consciousness and Intelligence”, and “Detecting Life As We Do Not Know It”.

Breakthough Discuss was overseen by the Chairman of the Breakthrough Foundation, in this interview Dr Pete Worden. A former Brigadier. General, astrophysicist, professor and director of NASA Ames Research Centre talks about

– How and when he became involved with the Breakthrough Initiatives and current status of each
– His reflections on this year’s Breakthrough Discuss
– His interest in astronomy as a child
– What happened to his astronaut application to NASA
– His distant familial connection with his namesake – Al Worden Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot
– His assessment on where we are with the the search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence

Recordings of Breakthrough Discuss presentations are available on the YouTube channel

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