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The Royal Scottish Society of Arts
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1st Meeting of the 192nd Session (2012-2013)

The Search for Life Beyond the Earth

Professor Charles Cockell
Director
UK Centre for Astrobiology
University of Edinburgh

In the Augustine United Church
41 George IV Bridge
Edinburgh, EH1 1EL
On Monday 15th October 2012, at 7pm

The question 'is there life elsewhere in the universe?' has fascinated humanity since the ancient Greeks, yet until recently its answer has remained within the realms of speculation. The discovery of earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars and places within our own Solar System that may be conducive to life has finally brought this question into the arena of empirical testing. What will we expect to find and what will the search for life tell us? How can the study of extreme environments such as polar deserts on the Earth help us search for life elsewhere? This talk will explain how the study of life on the Earth can help us explore distant worlds and discuss new findings in the field of astrobiology.

Charles Cockell is Director of the UK Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. He was previously Professor of Geomicrobiology at the Open University. He was a National Academy of Sciences Associate at the NASA Ames Research Centre, California. He is Chair of the Earth and Space Foundation, a charity he founded in 1994 that seeks to build links between environmentalism and space exploration. He has had a long term interest in astrobiology. He is an author on over 200 scientific publications and has written popular science books exploring life in extreme environments and space exploration.

Location of meeting


Members of the Public are welcome to attend

Jane Ridder-Patrick, Secretary
secretary@rssa.org.uk
Telephone: 0131 556 2161


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