AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion

News & Events: Public Lecture

Searching for a Second Genesis of Life
in Our Solar System

While the discovery of life on another world would be of scientific interest, determining that this life was a second genesis would have more profound scientific, practical, and philosophical implications. Unfortunately, the nature of alien life cannot be determined from fossils alone. Direct biochemical and genetic analysis of Martian organisms is necessary. The organisms need not be alive but they must be biochemically intact -- corpses not fossils. In this talk Dr. McKay will consider where we should look and how we might recognize life that is not like we know it.

Coverage

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Keynote Speaker

Christopher P. McKay, Ph.D. , Professor of Astronomy, Research Scientist, Space Sciences Division, NASA - Ames Research Center

Respondent

Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Director, Religious Studies Program, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College