Free public science talks. Summer 2017.

Outline & Schedule.

Staged by the Ecospheres Project.

A new exploration of the opportunities and challenges for life in the universe that takes us from the woods and hedgerows of southern England to the farthest galaxies spied by the Hubble Space Telescope. We look at future directions for astrobiology and how they could transform our perceptions of our home world.

Presented by Dr. Martin J. Heath AKC.

Each of these talks is free and assumes no previous knowledge. You are invited to come to as few or as many as you choose.

Thursday evenings 7:30 to 9:30 pm. The Lodge, Crystal Palace Park.

“Forests are essential for understanding our habitable Earth and they could become astrobiology’s biggest adventure.”Martin Heath, Ecospheres Project.

“It could be that the first detection of extra-terrestrial life will be forests.”Statement by Laurance R. Doyle to a congressional hearing at Washington DC, May 9, 2013.

 

Schedule August 3 to September 21, 2017

Thursday evenings 7:30 to 9:30 pm. The Lodge, Crystal Palace Park SE19.

1. Forests and how they made us what we are.

August 3.

i) Forests and the Earth as a living planet.

ii) Our origins in the trees and how forests enabled civilisation.

August 10.

iii) Key concepts: ecosystem, niche, Habitable Zone and Drake Equation.

iv) Where do forests thrive on planet Earth?

2. Zones of life & zones of death.

August 17.

v) Of forests, stars and planets.

vi) How do forests fit into the Habitable (“Goldilocks”) Zone?

August 24.

vii) Forests, seasons and superseasons.

viii) Other planetary systems – dangers and opportunities.

3. Re-making the world.

August 31.

ix) Forests, the Anthropocene and the global crisis.

x) Planetary stewardship, geoengineering and catastrophe.

September 7.

xi) Bio-tech and future forests.

xii) Forests and Galactic colonisation.

4. Special lectures.

September 14.

The search for other forested worlds – the coming decades.

Dr. Laurance R. Doyle of the SETI Institute. NASA Kepler science team.

September 21.

Down to Earth – how you can make a difference for wildlife.

i) Acorns to oaks: ecology in our local landscape.

Dave Clark, ornithologist.

ii) The Great North Wood – South London’s forgotten landscape.

Sam Bentley-Toon, London Wildlife Trust.