The Possibility of Life: How the Search for Aliens Is a Search for Ourselves

“Are we alone in the universe?” is one of those since the dawn of time questions. It has always been fundamental to our understanding of our place in the universe, though in recent decades it has become more the province of science than of the human search for meaning. Yet the search for alien life, scientifically driven as it is, is still a quest to answer some very human questions. In this talk, author Jaime Green will delve into the history and cutting edge of the field of astrobiology, showing how scientific discoveries drive and are driven by science-fictional imaginings, which together offer new possibilities for understanding ourselves, our world, and our place in the cosmos.

Jaime Green’s book The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was named a best book of the year by Esquire and The Washington Post. Green is also series editor of The Best American Science and Nature Writing and a lecturer at Smith College and the Johns Hopkins University Master of Arts Program in Science and Medical Writing. She has her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Aeon, Vulture, Slate, Popular Science, Astrobites, and elsewhere.

Poster