麻豆社

Professor Chris Thomas is a biologist at the University of York who believes that alien species of plants and animals can make a positive impact on native communities. While a great deal of money has been spent in the UK trying to get rid of invasive plants which had originated in other habitats, Chris argues this fear is irrational, and that Britain appears virtually immune to extinctions from non-native species. He also believes the country could become an ideal destination for endangered species from elsewhere in Europe.

Nnedi Okorafor is an award winning Nigerian-American science fiction writer, and a Professor of Creative Writing at the University at Buffalo, New York. She discusses her latest book "Lagoon", a science fiction novel about an alien invasion, set in the Nigerian city of Lagos. In her portrayal of aliens, Nnedi says she wanted to challenge our arrogant belief that we would recognise and understand aliens if we were to encounter them, by showing they could be quite different from anything we can predict.

Professor Richard McNally is from the Psychology Department at Harvard Medical School. He tells us about his extensive studies on non-psychotic people who sincerely believe they've been abducted by aliens. He argues that this is very likely linked to a simple sleep disorder, which can nevertheless be very traumatic for the person involved, and is connected to false memory syndrome.