The Physics department colloquia are usually on Friday afternoons at 3:30 pm in Lapham Hall Room 160. Coffee and cookies are served at 3:15 pm in the same room. Anyone is welcome.

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative: Our Boldest Effort to Answer our Oldest Question
Dr. Andrew Siemion Director, Berkeley SETI Research Center & Project Director, Breakthrough Listen Initiative

For millennia, humanity has pondered their place in the cosmos and asked the question “Are we alone?” For the first time in our history, the answer may be within our grasp. We have recently determined that the key environmental factors that are believed to have given rise to life on Earth are present in abundance throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Long lived stars, planets, water and complex organic molecules are now known to be ubiquitous. Armed with the certainty that life could have developed elsewhere, scientists everywhere are racing to determine if indeed it did, and if so, whether some of that life went on to develop a technological capability similar to our own. In July 2015, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking announced Breakthrough Listen – a 10-year 100-million-dollar search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This program will be the most sensitive, intensive and comprehensive search for intelligent life beyond the Earth in the history of humanity.

I will discuss the scientific rationale behind the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and some of the recent discoveries in astrophysics that are informing and spurring the search. I will review the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, including current observational status, early results and plans for the future.