We are close:' SETI astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol on the search for life

[Admin]

Astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol seeks answers to two key questions: Are we alone in the universe? How did life on Earth begin in the first place?

We are close:' SETI astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol on the search for life : Read more

 

[Balter]

Just need some "climate science" to find what you're looking for, works every time.

 

[orsobubu]

she lost me when blabbered about quantum physics.

 

[Helio]

I’ve been enjoying her book. Her lucid and thorough style makes this a great read.

 

[AboveAndBeyond]

I don't understand how you get "close". Either you've got an ironclad SETI detection or you don't.

 

[Helio]

I don't understand how you get "close". Either you've got an ironclad SETI detection or you don't.

Her response was to a question of life. So, I took her answer to be about discovering living microbial life forms, not ETs, and in places we can now go, which isn't true for exoplanets. Her book details all the different places within in our own backyard where life might have a chance given all the prebiotics. Although she makes no claims of understanding abiogenesis -- I don't think she ever used that term in her book -- she is clearly optimistic at finding answers over the next few decades.

[Correction, she did mention "abiogenesis" in her book after all.]

 

[Torbjorn Larsson]

Cabrol has made good work on extremophiles.

Just need some "climate science" to find what you're looking for, works every time.

Relevance? Astrobiology is so much more than climate modelling of habitable planets!

she lost me when blabbered about quantum physics.

Perhaps she has some discussion in her books on the general topic - quantum physics explains spectroscopy of atmosphere planets, for instance - but not in her biology of extremophiles.

I don't understand how you get "close". Either you've got an ironclad SETI detection or you don't.

She describes the ongoing work to find life with new methods.

Perhaps finding traces of pollution and synthetic molecules could happen, to make sure we're finding life.