TALK: EXTREMOPHILES & EXOPLANETS
BY KATE BRITTON
While the Sydney property market is shrinking by the day, the intergalactic market is expanding to include such unlikely abodes as pure salt and boiling acid. Although the day when intrepid human explorers take up residence on other planets is still far away, new research suggests that hardy microbes called extremophiles may inhabit up to 200 planetary bodies currently in orbit. So called for their ability to live in unfathomable conditions, the discovery of these tiny extremophiles has the world of extraterrestrial research all aflutter.
Next week in Sydney, Professor Jill Tarter, director of the Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life in California and inspiration for Jodie Foster’s character in sci-fi thriller Contact, will deliver a lecture titled Extremophiles & Exoplanets: Expanding the Potentially Habitable Real Estate in the Galaxy. For those who know the truth is out there, or for those after just something a little out there, head over and soak up some of this intergalactic know-how.
6.30pm July 21st, Seymour Centre, cnr City Rd and Cleveland St, $15-20, 9351 7940 or www.usyd.edu.au/sydney_ideas
