Dr. Paul Dear was born in Surrey, England - his mother's American, and his father (now deceased) was English; he grew up in Hampshire (southern England). He did Natural Sciences (basically a mix of biology, chemistry and math) at Cambridge University, then did a PhD. in molecular biology at Oxford. He now works at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, which is a part of the UK Medical Research Council (a government-funded research organization, roughly equivalent to the NIH in the 'States). The LMB is the lab where Crick and Watson discovered the DNA double helix, and the lab has about a dozen Nobel prizewinners. He currently leads a research team in genomics (DNA-based research) working on things ranging from cancer to ancient DNA (mammoths). He says “I've always been drawn towards physics and engineering, though I don't have a degree in either. My attitude in general is that complex problems can be solved by a combination of naive optimism and ingenuity, rather than by money and big resources alone. The N-Prize started out as an idea of mine on the Halfbakery (www.halfbakery.com), a website where people bounce around crazy ideas. I posted the N-Prize there, initially as a hypothetical exercise. But, after some arguing back and forth, I figured it might actually be possible, so I put up the prize money and launched the website.

Broadcast 1332 (Special Edition)

Guest: Dr. Paul Dear. Topics: N-Prize, genetics and DNA. Dr. Paul Dear returned to The Space Show for important N-Prize updates in addition to an informative science discussion. For information about the N-Prize, please visit www.n-prize.com. In our first segment, Dr. Dear went over the basics of the N-Prize with us including teams, rules, costs, and regulatory issues. He explained there were two tracks, the reusable track and the regular track and there is a prize for each section. We talked about balloon launch Rockoons, rocket guns, and more. Dr.

Broadcast 1121 (Special Edition)

Guest: Dr. Paul Dear. Topics: N-Prize, RACOON/BALLOON LAUNCH, orbital satellite, AST, ITAR. Dr. Paul Dear returned to The Space Show to update us about new developments with the N-Prize (see http://www.n-prize.com for more details). We also went over the rules and several distinctions were made as well as clarifications pertaining to what is and is not an N-prize expense. Several N-prize team members called the show to discuss their entries as well as how they are complying with federal regulations pertaining to launching an orbital rocket.

Broadcast 956 (Special Edition)

Guest: Dr. Paul Dear, creator of the N-Prize, was the special guest for this Friday Space Show program. Visit www.N-prize.com to learn more about the N-Prize competition. We started our discussion with Dr. Dear explaining to us how he created the N-Prize competition, what it's all about, the rules, the existing entries, and other facts and details related to it. Dr. Dear originally posted the idea on the creative and crazy idea site, www.halfbakery.com.