The Breakthrough Initiatives is holding a symposium at Stanford today and tomorrow. The theme is “Alien Life” – Diversity in the Universe.

You can watch the presentations via the live webcast:

Here is the schedule:

Day 1 Schedule: Presenters/Panelists

Live on YouTube: youtu.be/nFoTyKGHdLc

Pacific Time USA

09:00 Welcome to Breakthrough Discuss 2018: Hosts Charles Alcock, Penelope Boston, Jamie Drew, Peter Michelson, S. Pete Worden

09:15 Keynote: Carolyn Porco, “Enceladus: Little Moon, Big Possibilities”

10:00 Session One: Search for Life in our Solar System: Chairs Penelope Boston, Chris McKay

10:10 David Smith, “Why Aren’t Clouds Green?”

10:30 David Grinspoon, “The Case for Venus: Life in Acid Clouds?”

10:50 Britney Schmidt, “Robots Under the Ice, and One Day, In Space?”

11:25 Alfonso Davila, “Search for Life Beyond Earth: Motive, Means and Opportunity”

11:45 Morgan Cable, “Dragonfly: In situ exploration of Titan’s prebiotic organic chemistry and habitability”

12:05 Penelope Boston, “Wherever You Go, There You Are: The Questions That Drive the Destinations”

13:40 Panel One: Search for Life in our Solar Systems: Chairs Penelope Boston, Chris McKay, Panelists Dale Anderson, Steven Benner, Nathalie Cabrol, Cynthia Philips, Carol Stoker

15:10 Session Two: Possibilities for Non-Terran Life in the Universe: Chairs Svetlana Berdyugina, Lisa Kaltenegger

15:20 Lynn Rothschild, “Universal Biology: Investigating Life as it Must Be”

15:40 Steve Benner, “Chemical Constraints on Non-Earth Life”

16:00 Sara Seager, “A New View of Life’s Journey Through Chemical Space”

16:30 Charles Ofria, “Using Artificial Life to Uncover Universal Evolutionary Dynamics”

16:50 Emilio Enriquez, “Searching for lifeform-independent technosignatures

17:10 Lee Cronin, “The Evolution of Inorganic Life in the Universe

Day 2 Schedule: Presenters/Panelists

Live on YouTube: youtu.be/3GiN-tWAV_k

Pacific Time USA

09:00 Welcome Remarks, S. Pete Worden

09:10 Keynote: Martin Rees, “Will SETI Detect Organic or Electronic Intelligence?”

10:05 Panel Two: Possibilities for Non-Terran Life in the Universe:

Chairs Svetlana Berdyugina, Lisa Kaltenegger, Panelists Penelope Boston, Chris McKay, Anders Sandberg , Clara Sousa-Silva, Sara Walker

12:30 Session Three: Progress in Novel Space Propulsion: Chairs Sigrid Close, Zachary Manchester

12:40 Sonny White, “Pilot Wave Model for Impulsive Thrust from RF Test Device”

13:00 Ryan Weed, “Scaled Radioisotope Positron Propulsion for Interstellar Spacecraft”

13:20 Geoffrey Landis, “Sails: From the Solar System to the Stars”

13:50 Robert Zubrin, “Dipole Drive for Space Propulsion”

14:10 Kevin Parkin “Progress in Beamed Energy Propulsion”

14:30 Les Johnson, “Solar and Electric Sailing: Stepping Stones to the Stars”

15:00 Panel Three: Progress in Novel Space Propulsion:

Chairs Sigrid Close, Zachary Manchester, Panelists Elena Ancona, Harry Atwater, Heidi Fearn, Mateusz Józefowicz, Kelvin Long

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