On a May evening in 1959, C.P. Snow, a popular novelist and former research scientist, gave a lecture before a gathering of dons and students at the University of Cambridge, his alma mater. He called his talk "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution." Snow declared that a gulf of mutual incomprehension divided literary intellectuals and scientists. "The non-scientists have a rooted impression that the scientists are shallowly optimistic, unaware of man's condition," Snow said. "On the other hand, the scientists believe that the literary intellectuals are totally lacking in foresight, peculiarly unconcerned with their brother men, in a deep sense anti-intellectual, anxious to restrict both art and thought to the existential moment." Snow didn't expect much of his talk.

Artificial intelligence will help scientists search for signs of ancient life on Mars and other planets thanks to work by NASA scientists in training the system. The European Space Agency (ESA) Rosalind Franklin'ExoMars' rover will be the first to have the new AI system when it leaves for the Red Planet in 2022/2023. Allowing these intelligent systems to choose both what to analyse and what to tell us back on Earth will overcome severe limits on how information is transmitted over huge distances in the search for life from distant planets. The system is being tested on Mars but has been designed to be used in future missions to the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn where distance is more of an issue. The European Space Agency (ESA) Rosalind Franklin'ExoMars' rover will be the first to have the new AI system when it leaves for the Red Planet in 2022/2023 Presenting the work at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry conference, lead researcher Victoria Da Poian from NASA said this was a'visionary step in space exploration'.

The European Space Agency will name its new Exomars rover Rosalind Franklin, after the DNA pioneer, it has announced. The lander will arrive on the red planet in 2021, as part of a pioneering mission to explore the surface. "The prominent scientist behind the discovery of the structure of DNA will leave her symbolic footprint on Mars in 2021," the team behind the mission said in its announcement. When it arrives, the ExoMars rover will hunt for evidence of past life on Mars. It will drill into the surface and examine the soil in hope of finding traces that could have been left by alien life that might once have been there.

The UK-assembled rover that will be sent to Mars in 2020 will bear the name of DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin. The honour follows a public call for suggestions that drew nearly 36,000 responses from right across Europe. Astronaut Tim Peake unveiled the name at the Airbus factory in Stevenage where the robot is being put together. The six-wheeled vehicle will be equipped with instruments and a drill to search for evidence of past or present life on the Red Planet. Giving the rover a name associated with a molecule fundamental to biology seems therefore to be wholly appropriate.