100 years, 100 Canberra scientists, 100 public lectures

Many different events have been organised to celebrate Canberra’s 100th birthday over the course of 2013. One of the most intellectually exciting events that has been organised is a series of a hundred public lectures by Canberra scientists.  Jared Wilkins, Questacon’s Visitor Programs Manager, is the man responsible for putting together the program of lectures.

He approached  Aditya Chopra in January about giving a lecture for the series. Adi was very willing, and was happy to share his work with the public.I spoke to him on Tuesday about his upcoming lecture and about his background. Adi was one of those kids who always knew he wanted to be a scientist. His mum was one, and he spent much of his childhood in laboratories, watching her work.

On Saturday 4th May, at 11 am, Adi will give a lecture titled My 14 billion year search for ET. His lecture will cover the period from the Big Bang until current times, and he will talk about the search for the basic components of life and how an understanding of the basic components of life helps you know where and how to look for it.  Adi’s own PhD is in a closely related field. His earlier qualifications are in chemistry and astronomy and he has a very strong driving interest in astro-biology.

Adi is convinced the odds are that there is extraterrestrial life, and he says he has become only more strongly convinced  the more he has studied the conditions and components and supporting environments of life. He mentioned the Curiosity mission to Mars which is searching for traces of life. He also spoke of the SETI  program and his own belief that Europa and Titan may well hold extraterrestrial life.

The series of lectures has covered a wide range of matters. One other lecture that I found of particular interest was Dr Janette Lindesay’s lecture on climate change.  She argued the case that human made carbon was contributing to global warming and a shift in climate that meant we experience in general more extreme weather events and a higher mean temperature now than earlier.