Christopher E. Mason is a professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and specialises in research on the long term effects of space flight on the human body! He is also the author of the thought provoking book, “The next 500 years: engineering life to reach new worlds”. In this episode, Ben and Chris discuss Chris’s role as principal investigator for the NASA Twins Study, the possibility of life on other world’s and whether Chris would be interested in a one way trip to Mars 0:00 Intro to Professor Chris Mason 00:38 Lex Friedman Podcast 01:20 The Mason Laboratory 03:20 Origins of The Twin Study 06:00 Twin Study experiment year plan 08:03 Most surprising results of twin study  and is test still going on? 10:30 What are telomeres? 13:07 Working with private companies/individuals in Space 15:38 Safety of individuals on mission to mars 18:33 Mason Lab contracts 19:22 “The next 500 years - engineering life to reach new worlds” 24:50 Where will humanity be (physically) in that time? 25:50 The even further future (billions/trillions of years)  27:44 Are we alone in the universe? 29:23 Is it inevitable that humans will merge with machines? 30:48 Day in the life of Professor Mason 32:08 Proudest moments 34:07 Advice to young people interested in  ‘humans in Space’ 35:51 Professor Mason in Space 37:26 One Way Trip 39:08 Wrap Up and socials Follow Professor Chris Mason Website: http://masonlab.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mason_lab?lang=en Buy His Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-500-Years-Engineering-Worlds/dp/0262044404 Stay connected with us! Use #Astroben across various social media platforms to engage with us! Website: www.astroben.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astrobenpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gambleonit Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-astro-ben-podcast/ Please subscribe and rate - Ad Astra!