Newswise — Hollywood movies about aliens abound, but do they really exist? The real scientific search for evidence of life, and particularly intelligent life, elsewhere in the cosmos is just as exciting as the "reel" version, and a lot more logical. So far, there is 'life-as-we-know-it' to guide our speculations and observations. But a new appreciation for the tenacity of life, a growing respect for the world of microbes, and new research technologies involving observatories and spacecraft are rapidly expanding our viewpoint. Many expect surprises. SETI is at the forefront of this research and has plans to extend its range out even further into the galaxy, looking for evidence of someone else's technology. In the next few decades, scientists will take a much closer look at places within our solar system where liquid water (or even vast oceans) may exist and harbour life. They will also probe the closest stars to see if other 'Earths' and biospheres exist. Dr. Jill Tarter will describe research in a discipline some call the "archaeology of the future."
About the Speaker:Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research and is Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Tarter received her Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree with Distinction from Cornell University and her Master's Degree and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as Project Scientist for NASA's SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, and has conducted numerous observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since the termination of funding for NASA's SETI program in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue this exploratory science.
About PI: Perimeter Institute is an independent, non-profit research centre where international scientists are clustering to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws by contemplating and calculating new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The Institute, located in Waterloo just outside Toronto, also provides a wide array of educational outreach activities for students, teachers and the general public across Canada and beyond in order to share the joys of creative inquiry, research, discovery and innovation.
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