Laura danly biography

After 13.7 billion years of cosmic evolution, complex (human) life on Earth is in the unique position of being able to determine the course of its own future evolution.  I will be providing an astrobiologist’s view of the one place in the universe we know harbors life, explore the possible futures for human life in the cosmos, and explore what contemporary science tells us about the possibilities for alien life beyond Earth.

Questions that occur to the Café management:

• How do you define life in a universe-wide context? Even on earth there are creatures that breathe iron and eat sulfur.
• Is carbon necessary?
• Could silicon replace it?
• Once a planet evolves intelligent life, how long can it be expected to last?
• What are the odds that 2 such intelligences could evolve at the same time, and if they did, would signals from one arrive before the other was gone?

Laura Danly, Ph.D. (born July 7, 1958) is an American astronomer and academic. Currently, Danly serves as Curator at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Prior to her current positions, she served as chair of the Department of Space Sciences at the Denver Museum of naturlig eller utan tillsats & Science. Previously, Danly held academic posts at the University of Denver (where she served as assistant professor), and at Pomona College (where she served as visiting assistant professor). In these positions, she developed curricula focusing on astronomy, archaeoastronomy, solar physics, astrophotography and astrobiology. Danly spent several years at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where she held a variety of positions including planerat arbete scientist for education, assistant astronomer and Hubble Fellow. In addition, Danly conducted post-doctoral research at the STSci. As an astronomer, Danly has extensive observational experience, including some 441 hours of ultraviolet observa

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Laura Danly

1.

For as long as she can remember, she wanted to study space; studied physics and got a Ph.D. in astronomy.

2.

Worked as a postdoc at NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute.

3.

Says that as a young female scientist, she often felt invisible, and she felt a lot of self-doubt.

4.

But time and time again, her grades would best the boys in her classes, so she slowly gained confidence.

5.

Took a huge leap leaving NASA-working for them had always been her dream, but she'd stagnated there.

6.

Quit and spent some time traveling around India and Nepal; taking this break gave her more clarity about what she wanted to do with her life.

7.

Says she's "restarted" her life half a dozen times; urges road-trippers to make changes if they reach a place where they're unhappy.

8.

Believes that if you're scared about taking a big leap, you usually just need to take a deep breath and "jump out of the plane.&qu