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Alien Encounters (TV Series)
''Alien Encounters'' is a science fiction mini series on the Science Channel. The series explores how humanity might react to first-contact with aliens. The fictional series is presented as a documentary intermixed with commentary from scientists and sci-fi writers. The series begins with an alien signal detected by the SETI Institute and follows through alien contact and the creation of hybrids ("Brids") based on alien DNA. Episodes The series had the following episodes: Season 1 There are 2 episodes in the first season. Season 2 There are 2 episodes in the second season. Season 3 There are 6 episodes in season three. Recurring Commentators Recurring commentators included: * Anthony D. Call - Narrator * Ariel Anbar - Director, ASU Astrobiology Program * Jeffrey L. Bada - Distinguished Professor of Marine Chemistry, UCSD * David Brin - Astronomer, Author, NASA Consultant * Paul Davies - Physicist, Director of the Beyond Center at Arizona State University * Alan Dea ...
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Science Channel
Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manufacturing, technology, space, space exploration, ufology and prehistory. As of February 2015, Science is available to approximately 75.5 million pay television households (64.8% of households with at least one television set) in the United States. History In November 1994, Discovery Networks announced plans for four digital channels set to launch in 1996. Discovery originally named the network under the working title Quark!; this was changed before its launch to the Discovery Science Network. Discovery Science launched in October 1996 as part of the simultaneous rollout of the new channel suite (alongside Discovery Home & Leisure, Discovery Kids and Discovery Civilization). In 2007, adult shows began airing around the clock weekdays, ...
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Joan Slonczewski
Joan Lyn Slonczewski is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel. Their books have twice earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel: '' A Door into Ocean'' (1987) and ''The Highest Frontier'' (2011). With John W. Foster and Erik Zinser, they coauthor the textbook, ''Microbiology: An Evolving Science'' (W. W. Norton) now in its fifth edition. They explore ideas of biology, politics, and artificial intelligence at their bloUltraphyte Biography Slonczewski was born in 1956 at Hyde Park, New York and raised in Katonah, New York. They earned an A.B. in biology, magna cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College in 1977. They completed a PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1982 and post-doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania studying calcium flux in leukocyte chemotaxis. Since 1984 they have taught at Kenyon College, taking sabbatical leaves at Princeto ...
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First Contact (science Fiction)
First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species' first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites. The theme allows writers to explore such topics such as xenophobia, transcendentalism, and basic linguistics by adapting the anthropological topic of first contact to extraterrestrial cultures. Overview Murray Leinster's 1945 novelette " First Contact" established the term "first contact" in science fiction, although the theme had appeared earlier. Its roots lie in colonial narratives from the Age of Discovery onward. Of many variations of the trope, one may recognize the subclasses of the actual interstellar meeting of two civilizations and the "message from space" one.Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars, by Brooks Landonp. 81/ref> Notable examples 1890s: * 1897: ''The War of the Worlds'' by H. G. Wells 1 ...
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Cultural Impact Of Extraterrestrial Contact
The cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact is the corpus of changes to terrestrial science, technology, religion, politics, and ecosystems resulting from contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. This concept is closely related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), which attempts to locate intelligent life as opposed to analyzing the implications of contact with that life. The potential changes from extraterrestrial contact could vary greatly in magnitude and type, based on the extraterrestrial civilization's level of technological advancement, degree of benevolence or malevolence, and level of mutual comprehension between itself and humanity. The medium through which humanity is contacted, be it electromagnetic radiation, direct physical interaction, extraterrestrial artifact, or otherwise, may also influence the results of contact. Incorporating these factors, various systems have been created to assess the implications of extraterrestrial contact. ...
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Astrobiology
Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investigates the deterministic conditions and contingent events with which life arises, distributes, and evolves in the universe. Astrobiology makes use of molecular biology, biophysics, biochemistry, chemistry, astronomy, physical cosmology, exoplanetology, geology, paleontology, and ichnology to investigate the possibility of life on other worlds and help recognize biospheres that might be different from that on Earth. The origin and early evolution of life is an inseparable part of the discipline of astrobiology. Astrobiology concerns itself with interpretation of existing scientific data, and although speculation is entertained to give context, astrobiology concerns itself primarily with hypotheses that fit firmly into existing scien ...
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Douglas Vakoch
Douglas A. Vakoch ( ; born June 16, 1961) is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations. Vakoch led METI's participation in Sónar Calling GJ 273b, which transmitted a series of interstellar messages to Luyten's Star, located 12.4 light years from Earth. Vakoch advocates ongoing transmission projects, arguing that this does not increase risks of an alien invasion as suggested by British cosmologist Stephen Hawking. He has participated in several SETI observation programs, and after sixteen years at the SETI Institute, where he was director of Interstellar Message Composition, Vakoch founded METI International. He has edited over a dozen books in SETI, astrobiology, the psychology of space exploration, and ecocriticism. He is general editor of two-book series i ...
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. In 1994, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist and the Princeton faculty as a visiting research scientist and lecturer. In 1996, he became director of the planetarium and oversaw its $210 million reconstruction project, which was completed in 2000. Since 1996, he has been the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson wrote monthly essays in the "Universe" column for '' Natural History'' magazine, some of which we ...
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Jill Tarter
Jill Cornell Tarter (born January 16, 1944) is an American astronomer best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ( SETI). Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. In 2002, ''Discover'' magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science. Early life and education Tarter grew up in New York State, and graduated from Eastchester High School in 1961. She was elected to its alumni association hall of fame in 2001. Prior to his death when she was twelve years old, Tarter's father was an early inspiration who encouraged her curiosity when she resisted suggestions that she follow pursuits considered more appropriate for a girl and announced that she wanted to be an engineer. On family trips to Florida with her father, she would look up at the dark skies and wonder who or what might be out there. Tarter earned a Bachelor of Engineering Physics deg ...
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Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak (born July 20, 1943) is an American astronomer and author, and is currently the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. Shostak hosts SETI's weekly radio show/podcast ''Big Picture Science'', has played himself numerous times in TV and internet film dramas, and has acted in several science fiction films. Early life and education Seth Shostak was born in a Jewish family in Arlington, Virginia, the son of Arthur and Bertha Shostak (née Gortenburg); his father was an electrical engineer. He earned his BS in physics from Princeton University and a PhD in astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology. Professional work Shostak used radio telescopes in the US and the Netherlands, searching for clues to the ultimate fate of the universe by analyzing galaxy motion. In 1999, he produced twelve 30-minute lectures on audio-tape and video titled "The Search for Intelligent Life in Space" for The Teaching Company. An updated overview about the search for extrate ...
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SETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets. Scientific investigation began shortly after the advent of radio in the early 1900s, and focused international efforts have been ongoing since the 1980s. In 2015, Stephen Hawking and Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner announced a project called Breakthrough Listen. History Early work There have been many earlier searches for extraterrestrial intelligence within the Solar System. In 1896, Nikola Tesla suggested that an extreme version of his wireless electrical transmission system could be used to contact beings on Mars. In 1899, while conducting experiments at his Colorado Springs experimental station, he thought he had detected a signal from Mars since an odd repetitive static signal seemed to cut off when Mars set in the night ...
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