{"id":1550,"date":"2014-05-01T19:50:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T19:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2019-04-21T19:55:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T19:55:14","slug":"free-public-lecture-finding-life-05-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/01\/free-public-lecture-finding-life-05-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Public Lecture \u2014 Finding Life (05\/22)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On the evening of Thursday, May 22nd, UW Astrobiology presents <em>Finding Life: On Earth, on Mars, and throughout the Cosmos<\/em>, with Dr. Steven Benner from The Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida. This event will be free and open to the public! However, pre-registration is required to guarantee seating. To register, click <a href=\"https:\/\/catalyst.uw.edu\/webq\/survey\/astrobio\/232817\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">UW Astrobiology &amp; The NASA Astrobiology Institute present:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\" class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>Finding Alien Life:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>On Earth, on Mars, and throughout the Cosmos<\/em> <br><br>with<br><br>   Dr. Steven Benner<br><br>   Director, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution &amp; <br>The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology, Gainesville FL<br> <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/drupal\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/PlanetArt2.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>May 22nd, 7:00pm* &nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp; 120 Kane Hall<\/strong><br>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How \ndo we define \u201clife\u201d?  This fundamental question has remained largely \nphilosophical, because it has  been asked for so long, by so many, and \nwith so few concrete conclusions. In this talk, Dr. Benner will take a \ndifferent tack. He will show how laboratory studies to create a second \nexample of life help us develop a firmer scientific understanding of \nwhat life is. The challenge of &#8220;synthetic biology&#8221; is on! Dr. Benner \nwill discuss how we are hitchhiking on rockets, rovers, and telescopes \nto find life elsewhere in the Solar System, and will describe how his \nresearch team is working to develop that second example of life in \nlaboratories here on Earth, one step at a time.\n<br>\n    This event is <strong>FREE<\/strong> and open to the public! However, pre-registration is required to guarantee seating. <br>To reserve your spot, click <a href=\"https:\/\/catalyst.uw.edu\/webq\/survey\/astrobio\/232817\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.\n\n<br>\n*Doors open at 6:30pm.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About Dr. Benner:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img src=\"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/drupal\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Benner.jpg\" alt=\"Jonathan Fortney\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr. Steven Benner is Director of The Westheimer Institute of Science  and Technology and the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in  Gainesville, Florida. In the past, he held a distinguished faculty  position at the University of Florida, and he has also worked at Harvard  University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Dr.  Benner&#8217;s research seeks knowledge about the ancient origin of life, and  looks for the essential, universal features of life by studying from  four different directions: by developing tests for life on other planets  (with the NASA Astrobiology Institute), by using Paleogenetics to  resurrect and study ancient proteins that may have belonged to  long-extinct ancestors, by recreating prebiotic chemistry to explain the  chemical origin of life, and by synthesizing an artificially expanded  genetic alphabet that has led to a revolution in our understanding of  the structure of DNA.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the evening of Thursday, May 22nd, UW Astrobiology presents Finding Life: On Earth, on Mars, and throughout the Cosmos,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/astrobio\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}