Astrobiologist Paul Davies to speak Oct. 24 at URI
Olivia Ross
The next speaker in the University of Rhode Island Honors
Colloquium will deliver a lecture that prompts a thought-provoking question: “Are We Alone in the Universe?” Paul
Davies will explore this daunting question in depth during his lecture Oct. 24
at 7 p.m. in Edwards Auditorium, 64 Upper College Road.
Davies is Regents’
professor and director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science
and co-director of the Cosmology Initiative at Arizona State University, where
he also runs a cancer research program.
Astrobiology is a
relatively new field of study established by NASA. Its focus is to determine
where and when life on Earth began, and whether there is life beyond Earth.
Davies, who helped create the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, said that
prior to 3.8 billion years ago, the record of life on Earth was obliterated due
to our planet being bombarded by comets and asteroids.
“Astrobiologists are interested in life on other planets or moons in our Solar System,” Davies said.
“Plenty of effort within the NASA astrobiology program has been designated to plan missions. A few years ago it was discovered that Enceladus, a moon of Saturn covered with icy crust, has a fractured surface and gas is streaming out. The recently ended Cassini Mission detected organic molecules in the gas stream, not life but carbon molecules that life likes to use.”
Beyond our Solar System,
there are two great branches of astrobiology that look for organic molecules in
gas and dust clouds. The question Davies asks is how complex can chemistry be
in outer space?
“In recent years, people have become fired up about the detection of extrasolar planets or planets that orbit around other stars,” Davies said. “We have a list of these planets, some of which are earth-like in a sense, and we need to determine whether they have life on them or not.”
“In recent years, people have become fired up about the detection of extrasolar planets or planets that orbit around other stars,” Davies said. “We have a list of these planets, some of which are earth-like in a sense, and we need to determine whether they have life on them or not.”
Davies has also become
heavily involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, including the
search for radio signals. The challenging question posed by such an inquiry
causes researchers like himself to agonize over how life began and how non-life
turned into life.
“There is a major branch
of synthetic biology, both experimental and theoretical, on Earth. I wonder
what sparked a mix of chemicals into life and how likely is it that it would
happen again,” Davies explained. “Was the formation of life a bizarre chemical
fluke of stupendous proportions? Are we alone? There is plenty of real estate
to explore where life could emerge
but we have no idea how likely that it is that it will. Sure, we could be alone
or, in the other extreme, the universe could be teeming with life.”
In terms of solar system
exploration, Davies explained that one of the most notorious misconceptions is
that the objective of NASA’s missions to Mars is to search for life.
“The one thing NASA is not looking for on its missions to Mars is life. They tried in 1976 with the Viking 1 and 2 missions and turned up mixed results. Instead of life, they are examining the geology and asking whether or not Mars could have supported life in the past and could do so again in the future,” said Davies. “Solar System exploration is about looking for life but not looking for life. NASA is searching for habitability.
“The one thing NASA is not looking for on its missions to Mars is life. They tried in 1976 with the Viking 1 and 2 missions and turned up mixed results. Instead of life, they are examining the geology and asking whether or not Mars could have supported life in the past and could do so again in the future,” said Davies. “Solar System exploration is about looking for life but not looking for life. NASA is searching for habitability.
“The idea that there has
to be other life in the universe is nonsense,” Davies said. “We do not know how
Earth started, so we cannot assign probability to how likely it would be to
happen again. It is impossible to estimate the odds of an unknown process.”
Davies expressed that the
only way to settle this is to go look. “We don’t need to look beyond Earth
because if it is the case that life pops ups regularly, then it should have
popped up more than once on Earth. How do we know there isn’t another form of
life on Earth? Or ten forms? If they’re microbial, we’d never notice.
“We only need to find one
microbe that is life, but not as we know it, to declare that life has started
twice. If it can start twice, then it can start many times over. We should
start looking at our home planet and take seriously the idea of having truly
alien microbes in labs, under our microscopes, or even in our noses!”
Titled, “Origins: Life,
the Universe and Everything,” this fall’s colloquium addresses such questions
as “Where did we come from? How did the universe begin? How did intelligent,
rational beings arise? And from such humble beginnings, how did we develop a
mind that can ask these big questions? Now in its 54th year, the colloquium is
the University’s premier public lecture series, offering lectures on most
Tuesday evenings through Dec. 5. Davies’ lecture will be shown on the web at
stream.uri.edu