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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
November 6, 1998 |
Contact: Ed Scott, 808-956-3955 Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology David Baker, 808-956-9405 Distinguished Lecture Series Donnë Florence, 808-956-7522, PIO, U Relations, Media & Publications |
1998-99 Distinguished Lecture Series continues Nov. 17-18 at UH Manoa J. William Schopf to discuss ancient life on Earth and Mars Professor J. William Schopf of UCLA will talk at UH Manoa on November 17 about the evidence for ancient life on Earth and Mars. Schopf is the discoverer of the oldest known fossil organisms on Earth and has devoted his research career to understanding how life began to evolve during the first 4 billion years of Earth's history. He is the second guest in this year's Distinguished Lecture Series. In 1996, Schopf was asked by NASA administrator Dan Goldin to give his assessment of NASA scientists' claims to have discovered evidence for even older fossils in a meteorite from Mars. At a frenzied press conference, Schopf gave his view that the evidence was not conclusive. But his words of caution were lost in the excitement. Schopf pointed out that the alleged Martian fossils were much smaller than any known organism-more than a million times smaller than a typical bacterial cell. He argued that there was little evidence to show that the jelly-bean-shaped objects photographed by NASA scientists were biological in origin. In his talk at UH Manoa, Schopf will review again the evidence for life in the Martian meteorite and the theory that microscopic life may once have existed on Mars. How does the evidence for 4-billion-year-old Martian fossils compare with the evidence for 3.5-billion-year-old organisms on Earth? What criteria have been developed to distinguish genuine fossils from bogus claims? Schopf will reassess from his unique perspective the claims made by the NASA scientists in 1996. Was this the most exciting scientific discovery of all time or do these claims deserve to be classed with those of Percival Lowell, who a century ago convinced many people that Martians had built canals to irrigate their crops? In a second lecture on November 18, Schopf will discuss the results of his work on ancient fossils on Earth. For 2.5 billion years, life on Earth consisted of microscopic organisms that were exceedingly long-lived and could survive in a great range of environments. Life evolved extraordinarily slowly by the standards of the past billion years. What happened a billion years ago to change the way that evolution worked? According to Schopf, what happened was sex. Sexual reproduction increased the speed of evolution and the rate at which new species developed. Plants and animals became enormous by earlier standards and were specialized for particular habitats. Schopf says, "Evolution evolved." Schopf will lecture on "Ancient Life on Earth and Mars: Extraordinary claims! Extraordinary evidence?" on November 17 in the UH Manoa Campus Center Ballroom at 7 p.m. His technical colloquium, "Tracing the Ancient Roots of Life: Solution to Darwin's Dilemma," will be in the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (POST) Building, Room 723, at 4 p.m. on November 18. The colloquium is sponsored by the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, the Department of Geology and Geophysics, and the Pacific Biomedical Research Center. Both programs are free and open to the public. About the UH Distinguished Lecture Series The UH Distinguished Lecture Series was inaugurated last year. Overall plans for the series are coordinated by David Baker, associate professor of English at UH Manoa. Various units within the University-and occasionally businesses or community organizations-co-sponsor the appearances of individual DLS guests. All DLS events are free and open to the public. Each DLS guest makes one presentation in a large public forum and a second appearance addressed to the more specialized interests of a generally smaller audience of scholars. The first programs in this year's DLS series brought Harvard University law professor Lani Guinier and University of Texas law professor Gerald Torres to Manoa last month for a public lecture on race, representation and power and a panel discussion, including UH law professor Eric Yamamoto, on race theory. Co-sponsors for the October 20 and 21 programs were the University of Hawai'i's William S. Richardson School of Law and the local law firm of Davis Levin Livingston Grande. In 1997-98 the Distinguished Lecture Series and its co-sponsors presented Kenyan author and activist Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Nobel Peace Prize recipient José Ramos Horta, English Patient author Michael Ondaatje and Britain's Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees. |
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