‘Puzzle of Earth’s Uninterrupted Habitability’ Conference
Environmental conditions at the Earth’s surface have been continuously suitable for life for more than three billion years. Temperatures, for example, have only varied by few tens of centigrade despite large changes in solar luminosity and atmospheric composition. Since the Archean, the planet has not once been rendered sterile. However, the reasons for this long-term life-friendliness remain contentious. How has Earth’s climate avoided the runaway warming shown on Venus or the runaway cooling of Mars? Has Earth’s relative stability resulted from geochemical feedback (e.g. through...
Read MoreCOST Action CM1401: ‘Our Astrochemical History’
The EU COST Action CM1401 “Our Astrochemical History” will hold its inaugural meeting in Prague from May 26th – 29th 2015. The conference is open to the whole community of physical chemistry and astrochemistry. Aiming to bring together theoretical and experimental chemists to address key issues in atomic and molecular chemistry of interest in solving issues in astronomy, the network action will facilitate collaborative working between scientists from the 27 action member states, as well as affiliated countries. The maximum number of attendees is set to 100 people. We...
Read More‘The Copernicus Complex: The Quest for Our Cosmic (In)Significance’ by Caleb Scharf
Caleb Scharf’s latest book investigates the tension between the Copernican Principle (that there’s nothing particularly special about us or our planet) and what he insists on calling the Anthropic Principle but would be better described as the Rare Earth Hypothesis (that Earth-like levels of habitability are very rare or, perhaps, even unique). I’ll come back to why I object to it being called the Anthropic Principle later but that really is my only complaint with this excellent book. The book begins with a fairly conventional tour of the historical background to Copernicanism but with the...
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