As the exciting news of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus turns into a point of contention in the astronomy world, we caught up with the study’s lead scientist Professor Jane Greaves for the inside track. In this interview we discuss: Getting time on a range of professional telescopes time for a risky hypothesis How life could survive in the extreme environment of Venus’ highly acidic atmosphere Floating graphite balloons in Venus’ atmosphere Scientific challenges to this discovery being helpful rather than unwanted Blinding NASA pilots in the name of science