The question “what is life?” is foundational to biology and especially important to astrobiologists, who may one day encounter utterly alien life, and scientists trying to understand how life arises from nonliving chemicals under natural conditions.
On Thursday, Oct. 26, Professor Carol Cleland will present the Think! talk "How to Search for Extraterrestrial Life."
Who: Open to the public
What: Think! talk "How to Search for Extraterrestrial Life"
When: Thursday, Oct. 26, 7:30–9 p.m.
Where: Hellems Arts and Sciences, room 199
While the most popular approach to answering “what is life?” is to provide a definition of life. Cleland will explain why this approach is mistaken: A scientifically compelling understanding of life presupposes an empirically adequate, universal theory of life, as opposed to definition of life. Unfortunately, a truly general theory of life does not exist, in part because our experience with life is limited to a single example (familiar Earth life).
In the second part of the talk, Cleland will sketch a strategy for searching for alien forms of life without the guidance of a definition or universal theory of life, closing with an application to NASA’s fledgling search for extraterrestrial life.
About the speaker
Cleland is a professor of philosophy in the CU Boulder Philosophy Department. She has written on the nature and origins of life in several manuscripts and a book, The Quest for a Universal Theory of Life: Searching for life as we don’t know it.
She also is affiliated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute and is a member of CU’s Center for Astrobiology. Most recently, she was named director of the new Center for the Study of Origins.
All Think! talks are sponsored by the Center for Values and Social Policy and funded through the generosity of The Collins Foundation.
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