SETI 01

OPENING QUESTION:

What does "SETI" stand for?

Here's an interesting idear:

Please work with your team to assess the impact of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life on human society (which is <<obviously>> a fairly profound question). In particular, how would your team rate that impact on a scale from 0 (no impacts) to 100 (massive impacts)?

OBJECTIVE: I will be able to relate one way that we are searching for extraterrestrial intelligence after today's class.

WORD FOR TODAY:

SETI

WORK O' THE DAY:

Today we'll start watching an extraordinary film: Contact, with Jodi Foster.

This movie was based on a book by the world famous 1970's and 1980's era astronomer Carl Sagan; and it an outstanding job of weaving science, philosophy, technology and politics. Carl Sagan was an astronomer at Cornell University and was one of the eminent astronomers of the 20th century.

Carl Sagan is something of a personal hero of mine: I went to a seminar he gave at the University of Hawaii (I grew up in Honolulu) to hear him speak to an auditorium full of graduate students when I was in high school. Even thought I was kind of intimidated by all the brainpower in the room, it is still a favorite memory from back then.

Carl Sagan was famous in the astronomy community but was just starting to get famous through his PBS series COSMOS (You may have seen the reboot starring Neil deGrasse Tyson -- it is also REALLY good). He also published an extremely influential scientific paper on the the projected effects of a nuclear war that came to be known as Nuclear Winter that created quite a stir back in the day.

Oh and by the by, in years past I've had an astronomy prof. from UPS (where I went to college) come and talk to this class. I was really psyched when he told me that he ALSO does a SETI unit and he also shows this film.

There are lots of different threads woven through the movie.

Please pay particular attention to the METHOD in which our hero discovers the signals from deep space.