Annual CNSV Dinner Meeting: The Search for a Second Genesis of Life on Other Worlds as Problems in Information Science
Location: Shiva's Indian Restaurant
Dinner meeting schedule:
- 6pm No-host Bar
- 7pm Full Buffet Indian Dinner w/ drink+desert ($30 in advance)
- 7:45pm Speaker
This talk will describe the search for a second genesis of life in our Solar System, which is a search for a material system that enables Darwinian evolution but also represents a separate origin from life on Earth.
The location and nature of the origin of life remains unknown, but studies of biochemistry indicate that the nature of life that most distinguishes it from other complex open systems is information storage and algorithm-based processes – and these processes enable Darwinian evolution.
About the speaker, Chris McKay, NASA-Ames: Space Science & Astrobiology Chris McKay is a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mtn. View, CA. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions, including human exploration.
Chris has traveled to the Antarctic Dry Valleys, Siberia and the Canadian Arctic, and the Atacama, Namib and Sahara deserts, to conduct polar and desert research in these Mars-like environments. He was a co-investigator on the 2005 Huygens probe to Saturn’s moon Titan, the 2008 Mars Phoenix lander mission, and the current (2012) Mars Science Laboratory mission.
Location: Shiva's Indian Restaurant
800 California St, Mountain View, CA 94041
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