Those present at this inaugural event, which is free of charge, will participate in the draw for 10 invitations to go on September 27th to the meeting of STARMUS 2014, at which Steven Hawking will lecture, in the Auditorium of Tenerife.
Life as we know it on Earth made its appearance very late in the Universe, when it was already some ten thousand million years old.
However we know that life emerged on our planet straight after it had cooled down. So "Is Life Inevitable?". Is it a normal phase in the development of the Universe, or is it a local accident, unlikely to be repeated? "Why must the Universe produce Life?". What role does Life play, if it indeed plays any role, in the overall evolution of the Universe? These will be the initial questions which will start the dialogue dialogue between the protagonists of this first session of "Switch on the Cosmos".
Antonio Mampaso is a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries (IAC), and is currently the director of the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, belonging to the Museums of Tenerife. His research is on planetary nebulae, and he was the scientific advisor to Alejandro Amenabar´s film Ágora.
Dorion Sagan is a writer specializing in science popularization in the US. He is the author of several book about culture, evolution, and the history and philosophy of science. Two of his most important books are "The Sciences of Avatar: from Anthropology to Xenology " and "Death and Sex". In his book "In theCold" written with Eric D. Schneider, he deals with the relation between non-equlibrium thermodynamics and life. He is the son of the astronomer Carl Sagan, and the biologist Lynn Margulis.
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