To help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, there will be a special Isaac Asimov Debate entitled “Is Earth Unique?” The AMNH’s Publicist Lowell Eschen tells us the Isaac Asimov Debates “have always been extremely popular in the past (filling the Museum’s LeFrak Theater), attracting everyone from avid astronomers to the occasionally curious star-gazer. This panel will be moderated by astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson.”
The panel will focus on “Earth teems with life—but is life common or unique to our home? Can other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy support life? In what ways do the laws of biology, chemistry, and physics limit or enable the existence of life on Earth or elsewhere?
“These questions and more will be the subject of the debate ‘Is Earth Unique?’ With what we now know how Earth itself works and about stars in our Galaxy and the planets that orbit them, we can begin to address this question with informed debate. The panelists were selected for their diverse expertise in geology, biology, chemistry, and physics, and for the ways they have applied these fields to address the past, present, and future of planet Earth.”
Panelists include:
* Fred Adams, professor of physics at the University of Michigan
* Don Brownlee, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington
* Paul G. Falkowski, professor of geological and marine sciences at Rutgers University
* Chris McKay, scientist, NASA Ames Research Science Center
* Minik T. Rosing, professor of geology at the University of Copenhagen
The debate is this Sunday, 10 October, at 7:30PM in the Musem’s LeFrak Theater (enter at the 77th Street entrance). Admission is $15 for adults, $13.50 for members, seniors, and students. Tickets can be purchased in advance from this page.
The American Museum of Natural History is on Central Park West in New York City.