Presentation on “The Search for Life in the Universe” offered at MJC
(Modesto, CA) – The Modesto Area Partners in Science (MAPS) will offer a presentation entitled “The Search for Life in the Universe: Are We Truly Alone” by Lynn J. Rothschild, astrobiologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center, TEDx (Technology, Entertainment and Design) speaker and winner of the 2015 Isaac Asimov award. The free event is scheduled for Friday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Stuart Rogers Student Center on Modesto Junior College’s West Campus, 2201 Blue Gum Avenue, Modesto.
Following the presentation a free astronomy open house with telescope viewing will be offered in the Science Community Center and the Great Valley Museum, also located in the SCC, will be open.
Where there is liquid water on Earth, virtually no matter what the physical conditions, life is found. Rothschild will discuss life in extreme environments on earth and the possibilities for discovering life in our solar system and other parts of the Universe, including the recently discovered exoplanets.
Because of the correlation between water and the existence of life, each recent report of liquid water existing elsewhere in the solar system has reverberated through the international press and excited the imagination of humankind. Rothschild, an evolutionary biologist known for her research on life in extreme environments and a founder of the field of astrobiology, will discuss some intriguing new data.
At the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, Rothschild leads a program in synthetic biology and works with researchers in industry, government agencies around the world and in academia, including at Brown and Stanford University. The prevalence of potential abodes for life in our solar system and beyond; the survival of microbes in the space environment; modeling of the potential for transfer of life between celestial bodies, and advances in synthetic biology suggest that life could be more common than previously thought.
The free public MAPS event is intended for people over 12 years of age.
For more information about the MAPS program visit the website http://maps.events.mjc.edu/, the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Modesto-Area-Partners-in-Science/244618054801 or contact MJC Professor Noah Hughes at 575-6800 or hughesn@mjc.edu.
