SETI talk - 21st January 2019 in Didsbury, Manchester

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UBT - Timbo
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Re: SETI talk - 21st January 2019 in Didsbury, Manchester

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi all

I'm offline now until tomorrow - a quick drive up to Manchester and maybe a nice curry on the Curry Mile ;-)

I will update if the T-shirts are still available, tomorrow.

regards
Tim
UBT - Timbo
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Re: SETI talk - 21st January 2019 in Didsbury, Manchester

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi all

So, the meeting took place as arranged and maybe 30-40 people turned up :-) (which was more than I was expecting) and it was good to meet forum members Jeffers and Chris (Suddick) who also came along.

Prof Garret gave a nice talk for just under an hour, covering all sorts of matter, including the development of the universe over the last 14 billion years, the range of cosmic objects (including exo-planets) "out there" that are being discovered now that may be in the habitable zone, the likelihood of any other intelligent civilisation (other than life on Earth) forming in that time, and whether it (or any of it's artefacts) can be found. And of course that human life has only been around for about 10,000 years, and we've only had the capability to actually search for non-Earth based life for a few decades...which is nothing compared to the 14 billion year age of the Universe.

Strangely at no point was the Drake Equation mentioned...!! But the Prof did indicate that on balance, statistically, there should be life, esp based on how life had evolved on Earth, having started (as single cell organisms) very soon after the Solar System formed (4 billion yrs ago) although it did take a lot longer for multi-cellular lifeforms to emerge.

The Prof also talked about:

* the Breakthrough Listen project, of which he is involved, and which is funded to the tune of $100m by Yuri Milner.

https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1

* the e-Merlin project, which is based in the UK.

* and of course the Square Kilometer Array, which is Headquartered at Jodrell Bank, even though the actual telescopes are based in South Africa and Western Australia.

Thereafter, followed a Q&A session, where the assembled audience were able to ask various questions.

I had introduced myself to both the Mensa organiser, James as well as the Professor before the talk, in the hope of maybe getting a few mins to talk to the audience...but in the end, it was only once an audience member asked about SETI@home that I had a chance to invite people to ask me about it, after the talk was over. (And I clearly didn't want to be seen to be jumping on anyone else's bandwagon, after they had given up their time to organise/present this talk).

(A few of my flyers were taken, so we might see a couple of new forum members register in due course).

Sadly, I wasn't able to interest anyone in T-shirts, so the two I have left are still available ;-)

So, a good hour or two of an interesting talk and chats with people, the Guinness was nice and a quick curry was indeed had afterwards, at Mughli on the Curry mile :-)

regards
Tim
UBT - Chris Suddick
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Re: SETI talk - 21st January 2019 in Didsbury, Manchester

Post by UBT - Chris Suddick »

It was a pity that the talk was conducted in a working bar and thoroughfare. I was amazed that the speaker was able to talk through all the distractions without so much as a single pause. I guess he lectures to students frequently and is probably very used to it.

Chris
chriscambridge
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Re: SETI talk - 21st January 2019 in Didsbury, Manchester

Post by chriscambridge »

A nice write up about the evening Tim; it all sounds pretty interesting.
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