Bioastronomy - The Next Steps

Proceedings of the 99th Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Balaton, Hungary, June 22-27, 1987

Inhalt

Session 1 Astrophysical Clues to the Habitability.- What Should We Look for When We Return to Mars?.- Water: An Absolute Requirement for Life.- Europa: The Prospects for an Ocean.- Is Uranus the Most Promising Planet for SETI?.- What Do We Know About the Nucleus of Comet Halley?.- Comets and Life.- Distribution of Planetary Systems.- Belt of Life in the Galaxy.- The Galactic Belt of Intelligent Life.- Landscapes on an Imaginary Planet.- Session 2 Search for Extrasolar Planets.- Planetary Detection Techniques: An Overview.- A Search for Planetary Mass Companions to Nearby Stars.- A Radial Velocity Search for Extrasolar Planets.- IRAS Statistics on Main Sequence Stellar IR Excesses and Models of Corcumstellar Particle Clouds.- Progress in Determining the Space Orientation of Stars.- A Photometric Approach to Detecting Earth-Sized Planets.- Systematic Aspects of Direct Extrasolar Planet Detection.- Direct Imaging of Extra-Solar Planetary Systems With a Low-Scattered Light Telescope.- Discovery/Study of Planetary Systems Using Astrometry from Space.- Session 3 Search for Primitive Life.- Optical Interferometry and the Detection of Evidence of Life.- Searching for Extrasolar Life With Space Telescopes.- Session 4 Alternate Biologies? Alternate Pathways?.- Development of Constraints Imposed by Cosmic Evolution Towards Life.- Cosmic Metabolsim: The Origin of Macromolecules.- Exotic Chemical Life.- A Sceptic'S View.- Hydrothermal Energy Flow of Planetary Bodies and the Creation of Living Systems.- Survival Strategies for Life in High UV, Low Density Environment.- Anticrick: The Nothing is Not Regulable.- The Right-Left Asymmetry in Biology.- Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich (1914-1987).- Chemical Production of Optically Pure Systems.- The Interferometer Paradigm for Mammalian Binaural Hearing.- Session 5 Is Intelligence an Inevitable Evolutionary Trait?.- Fast Tracks to Intelligence.- Form and Function in Neurobiology.- Can We Communicate With Other Species on this Planet?.- SETI and the Physical Scientist'S Misconstrual of Evolutionary Biology.- Can We Communicate with Aliens?.- CETI: Historical Retrospective of Interaction Of Cultures.- Some Biological Implications on Drake'S Formula.- Regional Jurisdiction in Our Galaxy.- One More Solution to the Fermi Paradox.- The Evolution of Technological Civilizations Within the Limits of their Own Solar System.- The Galactic Center.- Supercivilizations as Possible Products of the Progressive Evolution of Matter in the Universe.- Session 6 Prospects for Detecting Technological Civilizations.- Being Optimistic About SETI.- Fermi Paradox and Alternative Strategies for SETI: The Anthropic Principle and the Search for Solar Analogs.- The SETI Related Use of Large Astronomical Archives.- Artifical Signal Detectors.- Search for Artificial Cosmic Radio Emission.- The Quasat Satellite and its Set Applications.- SETI With a French Accent.- Field Test Results With the Targeted Search MCSA.- The Berkeley Piggyback SETI Program: Serendip II.- 3 Pulse/Multiple Stage Continuous Wave Detection Algorithms.- The CETI Ellipsoid and the Supernova 1987A.- Energy Saving Interstellar Communication With Moderate Effort.- Optical Lasers for CETI.- SETI in Optical Range With the 6M Telescope: Mania.- Stars as Gravitational Lenses.- The Pro'S and Con'S of Gravitational Lenses in CETI.- The Next Steps: 20 Possibilities.- Session 7 What If We Succeed?.- The Tale of a Candidate Signal.- The Argument for Eti in the Edo Age.- What If We Succeed? (A Media Viewpoint).- Who Will Speak for Earth?.- The Flag of the Earth.