Is There Life Out There?
The History, Science, and Relevance of the Search for Life Beyond Earth
Bill Diamond
President & CEO
The SETI Institute
Sponsored by PSW Science Member Charles Clark
Video
About the Lecture
Greek philosophers pondered the question of habitable worlds and life beyond Earth nearly 2,500 years ago. Maya and Aztec cosmologies included celestial beings inhabiting the sky, and native American traditions describe star peoples and star ancestors. The question ‘Are we alone in the Universe?’ likely dates to our earliest ancestors who first gazed upon the stars and wondered. For the vast majority of human history, however, this question has been confined to the domains of religion and philosophical speculation. But starting with the publication of a seminal paper in 1959 and the first SETI experiment using a radio telescope in 1960, the question of life beyond Earth has moved squarely into the domain of science.
Recent discoveries of the ubiquity of exoplanets and the abundance of potentially habitable worlds has served to amplify interest across the scientific community. As such, the technological and scientific search for life elsewhere in the cosmos is now among the most profound and consequential scientific inquires.
The use of radio and now optical telescopes for SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is not an endeavor that seeks intelligence directly, but rather an effort that seeks evidence of technologies or engineered phenomena that serve as a proxy for life and intelligence beyond our solar system. Yet SETI research is only one component of a wide-ranging multidisciplinary effort to understand the nature and origins of life and intelligence in the universe and in so doing, to understand our place in the cosmos and indeed what it means to be human.
This talk will describe the history, evolution, technology, science and relevance of the search for life beyond Earth. It will delve into the three fundamental modalities of in-situ, remote sensing and SETI techniques and their associated parameter space, and explore the Drake Equation as providing a reference framework and roadmap for Astrobiology and SETI research. The lecture will describe these methodologies in detail, including: observational and radio astronomy; advanced signal processing and data analytics; laboratory research; field expeditions; space missions; theory and modeling; and instrumentation development, and it will explain why we are now living in the 2nd Copernican revolution.
The lecture will address the so-called ‘Fermi Paradox’ which ponders the absence of evidence for alien civilizations given cosmological time scales and examine the ‘L’ variable of the Drake Equation, which may hold the answers.
At its core, the search for life beyond Earth is an outward looking exploration. But at the same time, this endeavor holds up a mirror to humanity, as it is shaped by our biology, our evolution, our consciousness, our curiosity and how we see and interact with the natural world around us. Humanity’s most profound discovery may yet be constrained only by our imagination.
Selected Reading & Media References
SETI Institute Website: www.seti.org
Sara Scoles, (2017) “Making Contact – Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Pegasus Books.
Frank Drake, Dava Sobel (1997) “Is Anyone Out There – The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Delacorte Press.
Nathalie Cabrol (2024) “The Secret Life of the Universe – An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life,” Scribner.
Understanding the Drake Equation: https://www.seti.org/research/seti-101/drake-equation/.
Where it all began: COCCONI, G., MORRISON, P. Searching for Interstellar Communications. Nature 184, 844–846 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/184844a0
The “Trailer” for after the talk: Boston Museum of Science: https://f.io/8FnzVxZM.
About the Speaker
Bill Diamond is President and Chief Executive Officer of the SETI Institute. Previously, he was CEO of WaveSplitter Technologies, CEO of Denselight Semiconductor, CEO of Xradia, President of COMET Technologies USA and he held executive leadership roles at Oclaro.
At the SETI Institute he oversees astrophysics and astrobiology research programs focused on detecting and understanding life beyond Earth, on planetary science, and on the origins and evolution of life on earth and more generally.
Bill’s work has centered on lasers, photonics, optical communications networks, X-ray imaging systems, and semiconductor processing technologies. It has largely been in applied physics and advanced instrumentation, areas directly relevant to astronomical observation and space science technologies, and he has guided the commercialization of high-precision optical and imaging platforms used in scientific and industrial applications.
Among other professional distinctions, Bill has served on the Advisory Board of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He is a member of the Optical Society of America (now Optica), the International Astronautical Congress, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Science and Innovation Council.
Bill earned a BA in Physics at the College of the Holy Cross and an MBA at Georgetown University.
Webpage(s): https://www.seti.org/people/bill-diamond/
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdiamond-seti
YouTube Channel(s): https://www.youtube.com/@SETIInstitute