Transcriber: Jose Escobar Reviewer: Caroline ERUIMY
Thank you.
I'd like to start today by telling you a quick story.
About 1,200 years ago several Polynesian men climbed into a canoe,
and started pedaling east across the Pacific Ocean.
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months.
Huge waves crushed over their small wooden boat,
and no doubt many of these men began to question if it was all worth it,
if they would ever make it back home.
But one day, they finally found a tiny stack of land on the horizon.
A stack that they called Rapa Nui,
and most of us know as Easter Island.
Easter island is the most remote inhabited place on the planet.
More than 1,300 miles from the nearest island.
and the funny thing is that, as far as historians can tell,
the Polynesians explored not out of necessity,
but out of curiosity.
They didn't have to risk their lives on this epic voyage, but they did.
Over the centuries people have explored for several reasons.
Survival, economic gain, national pride,
but today, the main driver is science.
A modern form of that same curiosity that drove the Polynesians.
One of the key targets of scientific exploration is Mars,
where several instruments are probing for sings of life.
As an astro-biologist, much of my work has focused on this search,
and I'd like to introduce you very briefly,
to a few of the extreme environments
where my work has taken me,
to show you how exploration on Earth enhances exploration in space.
All with the goal of answering one of the key scientific questions of our time.
Are we alone?
This is the Rio Tinto river in Spain
where the water looks like red food coloring,
and has the Ph of battery acid.
These minerals, which also form on Mars,
require these acidic conditions
which makes it very difficult for life to exist.
Glacier caves in Iceland
experience sub-zero temperatures year around,
just like most of Mars,
and it's these sort of ice crystals that make it difficult
for cells to maintain fluid environments.
At Hydrate Ridge, half a mile beneath the surface of the ocean,
microbes feast on the huge amount of methane being squeezed out of the earth's crust.
We can compare these modern seeps with ancient inactive seeps in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco,
to see how biological molecules break down over hundreds of millions of years.
This is important because methane has recently been found on Mars,
but it disappears from the atmosphere faster than you would predict.
No one quite knows what is going on,
but is possible that organisms like those at these methane seeps
could be playing a role.
So in all of these extreme environments life has found a way.
And it's these source of scientific expeditions that are changing our idea of what life is capable of.
So why does all this really matter?
So I would ague that there is certainly important scientific and economic reasons to explore,
but I also think there is something deeper going on.
Something that gets me really excited about trying to find new places
regardless of their potential application.
To illustrate this point, I want you to think
about the key historical moments you've lived through.
Moments that have come to define a generation,
or alter the course of history.
Moments for which you can say
I remember where I was when such and such happened.
You have a list? Do you think you have a couple? Good.
I was having this discussion a couple of years ago
with an interesting group of scientist, academics and writers.
And we were able to come up with four events
in our collective lives that fulfilled these criteria.
Now, this list is different for everyone, but ours included:
the assassination of JFK, the moon landing,
the death of princess Diana, and 9-11.
This list is telling us something remarkable.
Three of these events were tragedies.
One was a triumph.
Three of these events bring up feelings of anger and sadness.
One inspires pride and optimism.
So, exploration has accounted for one of the only positive moments
that echoes in the public consciousness
showing us in a very tangible way
what we are capable of as a species.
There is a reason that every time a politician
proposes an enormous world changing effort
he calls for a "moon shot".
As the settlers of Easter Island showed us,
exploration is in our roots.
It is an uniquely human characteristic
that has produced some of the most important
unifying positive moments in history
and I believe that the discovery of life in Mars,
if it were to happen, will be a similarly profound moment.
These moments bring people together and change what it means to be human.
And that is why we explore.
Thank you. (Applause)