eugene@ames-lm.UUCP (05/10/84)
Today, May 9, Carl Sagan (Cornell) spoke to the Center about the search
of life in the Universe. Hopefully, since he is in the Bay Area, others
will get a chance to hear him in public lectures (today's was for Ames
personnel only). The following is a summary of topics.
Sagan began by making a distinction between the search for life versus
the search for intelligent life starting in the solar system. He covered
the work preceeding and including Harold Urey and Stanley Miller.
The focus then moved to space looking first at the basic results of the
Viking Mission to Mars, and then the latest Voyager Titan data.
(He hinted that we should put together a Titan probe because of previous
Ames probes to Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.)
If any person doubts that Carl has foresaken research for public life,
it must be noted that he presented his latest research analysing and
modelling the atmosphere of Titan [this is the latest stuff]. He detailed
atmospheric profiles for complex organic molecules which won't be
reproduced here.
Lastly after a light set of questions, he gave a plug for the joint research
done on the nuclear winter study with Jim Pollock, Brian Toon, and
Tom Ackermann (all at Ames).
--eugene miya
NASA Ames Research Center
{hplabs,hao,dual,research}!ames-lm!statvax!eugene