Conference on extra-terrestrial life
Some of the world's finest scientific minds have assembled today to discuss the question of UFOs.
Eminent academics and scientists are attending a two-day conference in London organised by the Royal Society - the UK's national academy of science.
World leading astronomers, biologists and astrophysicists including professor Colin Pilger, principal investigator for the British Beagle 2 Mars lander project, will address questions such as: What will alien life look like if we find it? Will we be meeting life-forms incredibly similar to ourselves or will they be the frightful monsters of sci-fi films? How do you break news of alien discoveries to the world without creating wide-spread pandemonium?
Professor Paul Davies, director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, will discuss man's search for extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society.
Speakers will also include representatives from Nasa, the European Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal will also be chairing one of the sessions.
The discussion meeting 'The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society' is the first to take place in the Royal Society's 350th anniversary year.
Astronomers are now able to detect planets orbiting stars other than the Sun where life may exist, and living generations could see the signatures of extra-terrestrial life being detected.
Should it turn out that we are not alone in the universe, it will fundamentally affect how humanity understands itself and we need to be prepared for what will follow.
Highlights of the conference include palaeontologist professor Simon Conway Morris on predicting what extra-terrestrial life might be like and preparing for the worst and Nobel prize winner Christian de Duve on life as a cosmic imperative.
Professor Davies, a physicist from Arizona State University, will conclude the meeting tomorrow with a public lecture 'The Eerie Silence: are we alone in the universe?'
Prof Davies told The Times that showing life has appeared more than once on Earth would be the best evidence yet that it must exist elsewhere in the Universe.
He told papers: "We need to give up the notion that ET is sending us some sort of customised message and take a new approach."
Older/Newer
« Google streetview comes to Stonehenge | Digital revolution makes earth 'invisible' to aliens »
1 Comments
Profile
Ben Hurst
- They are here! (in a parallel universe)... Astronauts of antiquity ... The case of an image taken by Jim Templeton in Carlisle (England), in 1964, which showed, after its development, a human being dressed in a silvery suit near his daughter... Talking to the Gods...
- "Deep Thought" - The Large Hadron Collider Could Prove the Existence of a Parallel Universe - A Daily Galaxy 2009 Top Story:
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2010/01/deep-thought-large-hadron-collider.html