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troutman · 03-12-2012, 10:00 AM

Building Aliens with Dr. P.Z. Myers
Thursday March 15, 2012 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM - TELUS Spark

http://events.r20.constantcontact.co...mu67uc8bb2addb

What can we expect aliens on other worlds to look like? Some scientists argue that evolution will inevitably produce forms of life we'd find familiar – so maybe we'd see humanoid aliens, as in popular science fiction movies and TV shows.

Another perspective – and one Dr. Myers will be taking – is that evolution has so many possible solutions that we ought to expect aliens to be wildly different than Hollywood's depictions and, well, alien. Dr. Myers will discuss why life's solutions are not inevitable, but dependent on many unpredictable factors.

Dr. P.Z. Myers is Associate Professor of Biology at University of Minnesota Morris. He is well known in evolutionary biology for his popular and often controversial blog, Pharyngula. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on skeptical science, often sharing the stage with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Lawrence Krauss, Eugenie Scott, and other popular scientists in the field of evolutionary biology, physics and cosmology.

His free lecture is a presentation of the Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, as their annual Peter Sim Memorial Lecture, dedicated to the memory of Centre member and local science popularizer Peter Sim.

03-12-2012, 10:00 AM	#1422
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	Building Aliens with Dr. P.Z. Myers Thursday March 15, 2012 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM - TELUS Spark http://events.r20.constantcontact.co...mu67uc8bb2addb What can we expect aliens on other worlds to look like? Some scientists argue that evolution will inevitably produce forms of life we'd find familiar – so maybe we'd see humanoid aliens, as in popular science fiction movies and TV shows. Another perspective – and one Dr. Myers will be taking – is that evolution has so many possible solutions that we ought to expect aliens to be wildly different than Hollywood's depictions and, well, alien. Dr. Myers will discuss why life's solutions are not inevitable, but dependent on many unpredictable factors. Dr. P.Z. Myers is Associate Professor of Biology at University of Minnesota Morris. He is well known in evolutionary biology for his popular and often controversial blog, Pharyngula. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on skeptical science, often sharing the stage with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Lawrence Krauss, Eugenie Scott, and other popular scientists in the field of evolutionary biology, physics and cosmology. His free lecture is a presentation of the Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, as their annual Peter Sim Memorial Lecture, dedicated to the memory of Centre member and local science popularizer Peter Sim.