Fourth IAA Symposium on Searching for Life Signatures

Fourth IAA Symposium on Searching for Life Signatures


San Marino, Kursaal, September 25th -26th -27th, 2012.



PROGRAM – Tentative schedule, subject to change



8:00 – 9:00 Registration of Participants

Opening Morning Tuesday, September 25th, 9:00 - 12:30

Chairs: J.-M. Contant, IAA, C. Maccone, IAA & IASF-INAF

IAA Paper #

9:00 – 9:10 Welcome to Participants, Claudio Maccone, IAA & IASF-INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0101

9:10 – 9:20 Welcome Address, Authorities of the Republic of San Marino IAA-S12-0102

9:20 – 9:40 IAA and SETI: Fifty Years of Scientific Research,

Jean-Michel Contant, IAA, France IAA-S12-0103

9:40 – 10:00 We are the Martians, Giovanni Bignami, COSPAR & INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0104

10:00 – 10:20 How SETI can benefit from the transformation of Radio Astronomy,

Michael A. Garrett, ASTRON/Leiden, Netherlands IAA-S12-0105

10:20 – 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 – 11:20 Searches for Electromagnetic Signatures of Advanced Technologies,

Andrew P. V. Siemion, University of California at Berkeley, USA IAA-S12-0106

11:20 – 11:40 Recent Observations and Next Steps for SETI Programs at the SETI Institute,

Gerry Harp, SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA IAA-S12-0107

11:40 – 12:00 Mathematical SETI collected in a book, Claudio Maccone, IAA & IASF-INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0108

12:00 – 12:20 Computing the KLT quickly and on PCs, Stephane Dumas, SETI League, Canada IAA-S12-0109

12:20 – 12:40 Closing the First Symposium Day, Claudio Maccone , IAA & IASF-INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0110

12:30 GROUP PHOTOGRAPH OF ALL PARTICIPANTS

TAKEN ON THE KURSAAL FRONT DOOR STEPS

Tuesday, September 25th, AFTERNOON: ALTERNATIVE PUBLIC EVENTS

1) 15:00 – 17:00 Guided Tour (in English) of the Republic of San Marino.

2) 15:00 –17:00 Public Lecture and Demonstrations (in Italian) about scientific

blogs in Italy by Associazione Chimicare, Carnevale della Fisica, Carnevale

della Chimica

Tuesday, September 25th, EVENING:

Gala Dinner, Restaurant La Terrazza, Hotel Titano, San Marino.

2

Session 1: Passive SETI Wednesday, September 26th , 9:00-9:40

Chairs: TBD

9:00 – 9:20 A half-century of SETI science, H. Paul Shuch, The SETI League, USA IAA-S12-0201

9:20 – 9:40 Optical SETI at the FOAM13 Astronomical Observatory,

Giuseppe Savio, FOAM13 Astronomical Observatory, Tradate, Italy IAA-S12-0202

Session 2: Languages and SETI Wednesday, September 26th, 9:40-10:20

Chairs: TBD

9:40 – 10:00 TBD about Languages and Signal Processing,

John Elliott, School of Computing, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK IAA-S12-0203

10:00 – 10:20 Clicks, whistles and pulses: passive and active signal use in dolphin communication,

Denise L. Herzing, Wild Dolphin Project & Florida Atlantic University, USA IAA-S12-0204

Session 3: Astrobiology and SETI Wednesday, September 26th, 11:00-12:00

Chairs: TBD

10:20 – 10:40 On the possible properties of the GJ1214b atmosphere,

Leonid Ksanfomality, Space Reasearch Institute of the RAS, Moscow, Russia IAA-S12-0205

10:40 – 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 – 11:20 Alternative Biochemistry and Alternative Evolution: Alternative View on Search for

Extraterrestrial Life, Konstantin B. Shumaev and Alexey F. Topunov,

A. N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry, RAS, Moscow, Russia IAA-S12-0206

11:20 – 11:40 Possible life found not at the right place.

Leonid Ksanfomality, Space Research Institute of the RAS, Moscow, Russia IAA-S12-0207

11:40 – 12:00 A possible spontaneous generation of silicon utilizing minimal containers as

precursor of life in the cosmos,

Satadal Das, B.K. Roy Research Centre, Kolkata, India IAA-S12-0208

Session 4: Space Missions for SETI Wednesday, September 26th, 12:00-13:20

Chairs: TBD

12:00 – 12:20 A Solar/Nuclear Mission to the Sun’s Inner Gravity Focus,

Gregory L. Matloff, Dept. of Physics, New York City College of Technology, USA IAA-S12-0209

12:20 – 12:40 Gravity Assist via Near-Sun Chaotic Trajectories of Binary Objects,

Joseph Breeden, Prescient Models LLC, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA IAA-S12-0310

12:40 – 13:00 Multi-sensor Navigation of Spacecraft formation for Near-Earth Asteroid Exploration,

Huixin Yang et al. National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China IAA-S12-0211

13:00 – 15:00 Lunch Break

3

Session 5: Mathematics for SETI Wednesday, September 26th, 15:00-16:00

Chairs: TBD

15:00 – 15:20 SETI and Prime Number Algorithms,

Chiara Giacomoni, University of San Marino, Republic of San Marino IAA-S12-0212

15:20 – 15:40 A mathematical argument against intelligent machines,

Paolo Musso, University of Insubria, Italy, and Universidad Catolica, Lima, Peru IAA-S12-0213

15:40 – 16:00 Quantization of the free electromagnetic field with the KLT of the vector potential

Nicolò Antonietti, IMEX.A, Torino, Italy IAA-S12-0214

16:00 – 16:20 Coffee Break

Session 6: Active SETI & Society Wednesday, September 26th, 16:20-17:40

Chairs: TBD

16:20 – 16:40 The Active SETI debate and Insights from Risk Communication and Perception,

Adam Korbitz, State Bar of Wisconsin, USA IAA-S12-0215

16:40 – 17:00 Protocols and Practice for SETI Discovery Announcements,

Morris Jones, Sydney, Australia IAA-S12-0216

17:00 – 17:20 The game of active SETI: Breaking the “Great Silence”,

Harold P. de Vladar, Austria IAA-S12-0217

17:20 – 17:40 Evolutionary Contingency and the Search for Life,

Milan Cirkovic, Belgrade Astronomical Observatory, Serbia IAA-S12-0218

Wednesday, September 26th, EVENING, ALTERNATIVE PUBLIC EVENTS,

8:30 pm-10 pm at the Kursaal:

1) Public Lecture (in English) by Denise L. Herzing about Dolphin Intelligence.

2) Presentation (in Italian) by Giuseppe Palumbo (FOAM13 Observatory, Italy):

“Primo Contatto” : da “A come Andromeda” a “Contact”

and Public Show of the movie “CONTACT” (in Italian).

4

Session 7: Simulations for SETI Thursday, September 26th, 9:00-9:40

Chairs: TBD

9:00 – 9:20 The Selfish Biocosm Hypothesis in the Light of Simulation Theory,

Claudio Flores Martinez, University of Heidelberg, Germany IAA-S12-0301

9:20 – 9:40 Dysonian SETI as an Antidote for “Fashionable Opinion",

Milan Cirkovic, Belgrade Astronomical Observatory, Serbia IAA-S12-0302

Session 8: Advanced Computers and SETI Thursday, September 26th, 9:40-10:20

Chairs: TBD

9:40 – 10:00 Supercomputing development and possible benefits for SETI,

Nikolay N. Smirnov and V.B. Betelin, Lomonosov State University, Moscow, Russia IAA-S12-0303

10:00 – 10:20 Karhunen-Loève Transform on GPU computing,

Francesco Schillirò, Claudio Maccone, Salvatore Pluchino, INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0304

Session 9: Advanced SETI Searches Thursday, September 26th, 10:20-11:40

Chairs: TBD

10:20 – 10:40 Current Practice and Some Unexploited Degrees of Freedom for SETI Searches,

Gerry Harp, SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA IAA-S12-0305

10:40 – 11:00 Coffee Break

Session 10: Further Suggestions for SETI Thursday, September 26th, 11:00-12:20

Chairs: TBD

11:00 – 11:20 An enhanced piggyback mode for SETI observations,

Salvatore Pluchino, INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0306

11:20 – 11:40 Targeted SETI activity in the uplink spacecraft communication channels,

Francesco Schillirò, Salvatore Pluchino, P. Cassaro, INAF, Italy IAA-S12-0307

11:40 – 12:00 A strategic “viewfinder” for SETI research,

Massimo Teodorani, Italy IAA-S12-0308

Session 11: Alien Spaceships & SETI Thursday, September 26th, 12:20-12:40

Chairs: TBD

12:10 – 12:20 A Review of the Observability of Interstellar Travel,

Al A. Jackson, Astronautics Consultant, NASA JSC, Houston, Texas, USA IAA-S12-0309

12:20 – 12:40 Search for high-proper motion objects with infrared excess,

Massimo Teodorani, Italy IAA-S12-0310

Session 12: Exoplanet Recent Progress Thursday, September 26th, 12:40-13:00

Chairs: TBD

12:40 – 13:00 TBD - Recent Progress in the Hunt for Extrasolar Planets,

Martin Dominik, Royal Society Fellow at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK IAA-S12-0312

13:20 – 15:00 Lunch Break