Richard Dawkins in conversation with Matt Ridley at the Centre for Life in Newcastle. Video: The Newton Channel

One of the many things that I appreciate about Richard Dawkins is the overall scientific quality of his speculations: he is an interesting thinker as well as an imaginative one.

In this video we see him conversing with journalist and writer Matt Ridley. Dawkins speculates what is and is not universal about life: life on Earth, life in space, human life, artificial life, synthetic life, the origin of life, the secret of life, the meaning of life.

This discussion is focused on the central question; if/when we discover extraterrestrial life, what might it look like?

To answer this question, we must first know what life is. Dawkins manages to synthesise research in genetics, biochemistry and cell biology (amino acids are universal while DNA is a "frozen accident"), synthetic life (which might have applications for resurrecting extinct species such as mammoths), artificial life and computer simulations and virtual worlds (revealing that his Second Life avatar is "a very nubile female"). What are the qualities that would be common to all living things?

This interview took place on 17 June 2010 in front of a live audience at the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The video comes to Guardian science courtesy of our friends at the Newton Channel.