[AANC Contacts] Reminder: Talk on the Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe at Foothill This Wednesday

[Andrew Fraknoi]

Public Lecture, Open to Everyone
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Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 7 pm:

The Search for Intelligent Life Among the Stars:
New Strategies

Dr. Seth Shostak, SETI Institute

part of the 11th Annual Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.

Free and open to the public.
Parking on campus costs $2 and
you should leave some time to get a parking sticker.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for
more information and driving directions.
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A half-century ago, astronomers began trying to "eavesdrop" for radio 
messages from nearby star systems.  This was the start of the 
scientific SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) program, 
looking for other civilizations in the universe.  The discovery of 
over 400 planets around other stars (including a number super-Earths) 
has provided a new foundation for this search. However, today, SETI 
researchers continue to point their telescopes at individual stars, 
on the assumption that technically advanced societies will inhabit a 
watery world like our own.  Seth Shostak will describe these 
searches, but then ask a controversial question: Are these familiar 
-- and nearby -- star systems the only (or even the best) places to 
look for signals?  He will go on to discuss some novel ideas for how 
we might pursue the hunt for "cosmic company" and why it's possible 
that we might find evidence of sophisticated intelligence out there 
within only a few decades.

Seth Shostak is Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain 
View, California and one of the best public lecturers in astronomy 
today.  If you have never heard one of his energetic and humorous 
talks, you are in for a treat.  He appears regularly on national 
radio and television programs, hosts his own syndicated radio show 
called "Are We Alone?" (broadcast locally on KALW each week), and has 
written hundreds of popular magazine and web articles.  He has an 
undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University, and a 
doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of 
Technology.  He lectures on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford 
and other venues in the Bay Area, and for the last six years, has 
been a Distinguished Speaker for the American Institute of 
Aeronautics and Astronautics.  His most recent book is "Confessions 
of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial 
Intelligence" (National Geographic).

No background in science will be required for
this talk.  Seating is first come, first served.
We expect significant crowds, so come a little early.
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The lectures are co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
* The SETI Institute

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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available
in MP3 format at:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html