ASU ORIGINS PROJECT NEWSLETTER

From the Director
This past year has been truly
remarkable. From cuttingedge workshops to a new
Origins honors course to cultural events that included the
likes of Werner Herzog and
Stephen Hawking, the stories
in this newsletter only hint
at the excitement associated
with the ASU Origins Project. In an array of activities, the ASU Origins Project once again gathered the
world’s leading scientists and cultural innovators to
push the boundaries of scientific research and engage the public in serious discussion of key issues.
Resting on our laurels, though, is not in the cards.
We are already developing a number of projects for
2012. I am particularly excited about our workshop
on the origins of xenophobia, planned for March
2012. This topic interests me for two reasons. First,
it brings into play some of the most interesting science being done—How do we explain our tendency
to develop in-groups and out-groups? But like most
interesting topics in science, the topic has social relevance. As we navigate the diversity of opinion on
immigration, it seems important to engage the scientific dimension of our propensity to categorize.
Even if we grant its evolutionary origins, to what
degree is xenophobia maladaptive in a community
linked in unprecedented ways by communication
technology and facing daunting global challenges?
As gratifying as these discussions are, they would
mean very little and would, in fact, be impossible
without your support. Thanks for your interest
and we’ll see you at the next Origins Project event.
—Lawrence Krauss

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/ASUOriginsProject

@asuOrigins

JUNE 2011

Students ready to chat with aliens
“Dear Aliens, My huge, beautiful planet has water, land, and an atmosphere.” “Have you heard of school?” “Everybody on earth comes in
peace. Please do not eat all of us.”
Those were a few of the messages in hundreds of letters written by
area students for a contest sponsored by the Origins Project as part of
its 2011 Science & Culture Festival. Students brainstormed how they
would respond to contact by extraterrestrial intelligent life. Winners attended a special event April 9 during which an excerpt from the overall
winning entry was bounced off the moon into space.
Contest creator and ASU Origins Project writer-in-residence, Lucy
Hawking, was amazed at the variety of responses. “Some writers described our planet, others described themselves,” Hawking noted. “They
wrote about school, transportation, technology, language, and jobs.
There were pleas for peace and warnings of being armed if the aliens
wanted to invade.”
Benjamin Lee, a seventh-grader from Pardes Jewish Day School in
Phoenix wrote the overall winning entry. At the ceremony, physicist
Stephen Hawking read Lee’s letter and each winner received a certificate signed by contest judges Lucy Hawking, Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss, and SETI Post-detection Task Force Chair Paul Davies. To
read more about the contest, visit http://asu.edu/20110407_dearaliens.
Watch the ceremony at http://origins.asu.edu/media/videos.php?id=3.

Back row: Lucy Hawking, Qabas Jalil, Mason Bartelt, Benjamin Lee, Lawrence Krauss, Allison
Lamountain, Tommy Walton, Madelyn Norstrem, Paul Davies. Front row: Stephen Hawking,
Udayketan Mohanty, Sophia Suda, Angela Perez.

U P C O M I N G E V E N TS

November 2011
February 2012
March 2012 		
March 31, 2012
Fall 2012		

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WORKSHOP: Aspects of Quantum Mechanics and Gravity
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WORKSHOP: The Origins of Xenophobia
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Great Debate: Why do we fear other? (7 pm, ASU Gammage)

WORKSHOP: Sex & STEM: The Origins and Anatomy of a Challenge

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1. Physicist Stephen Hawking talking about his upbringing; 2. Lawrence Krauss and
Tamara Pullman performing “The Matter of Origins”; 3. Dear Aliens contest awardee,
Tommy Walton; 4. Philosopher AC Grayling delivering a ‘secular sermon’; 5. ASU
Symphony Orchestra performing Holst’s “Planets”; 6. ASU paleoanthropologist Curtis
Marean, Lawrence Krauss, and filmmaker Werner Herzog discussing early human
habitats; 7. Opening panelists Werner Herzog, Kimberly Marshall, Lawrence Krauss,
Liz Lerman, and Hugh Downs; 8. Lucy Hawking congratulating ‘Dear Aliens’ contest
overall winner Benjamin Lee; 9. Lawrence Krauss congratulating undergraduate essay
contest winner Jessica Piper; 10. Werner Herzog speaking about his film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams; 11. ASU Journalism Professor Ed Sylvester with novelist Jean Auel; 12.
Choreographer Liz Lerman and broadcaster Hugh Downs discussing the relationship
between science and culture; 13. Novelist Cormac McCarthy on NPR’s Science Friday;
14. Physicist Paul Davies explaining SETI.

science
&culture

FESTIVAL
april 7-11, 2011

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Despite our desert ecosystem here in Tempe, April brought a shower of talent and
creativity to our Science & Culture Festival 2011. From a symposium on the humanities and human origins to a student contest on how to communicate with aliens, from
a dance about physics to a film about cave art, from music about the planets to novels
about Neanderthals, the week’s activities prompted all to consider the important relationships between science and culture.
ASU Origins Project director, Lawrence Krauss, explained the motivation behind the festival. “Science
forces us to reassess our place in the cosmos, but so
does good art, music, literature. So what better way to
bring them together to celebrate these wonderful aspects of being human, in the context of Origins? And as
everything the ASU Origins Project has attempted, we
want to do it in an unprecedented and exciting fashion.”
Highlights of the festival included an episode of NPR’s
Science Friday with novelist Cormac McCarthy, filmmaker Werner Herzog, and Lawrence Krauss discussing the interplay of art and science, Stephen Hawking’s
moving talk about his own path into science, wideeyed kids rubbing elbows with world-renowned physicists, and an innovative dance piece choreographed by
MacArthur Award winner, Liz Lerman.
Feedback from the festival has been terrific. In perhaps the most meaningful comment, Ann Suda, mother
of Sophia Suda, one of our “Dear Aliens” contest winners, wrote: “We wanted to say thank you very much....
Sophia has not stopped talking about how special it is
that Stephen Hawking signed her certificate with a fingerprint. Sophia also told me that someday she wants
to go into space; she has definitely been inspired!”
We hope you’ll consider joining us for our next Science & Culture Festival in 2013. Email us your ideas at
origins.project@asu.edu.

Visit our website for news, images, and
videos about Science & Culture Festival 2011.

http://origins.asu.edu
(Click on “Multimedia Library” for videos and pictures.)

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EXPLORING BIG QUESTIONS IN A BIG WAY
The ASU Origins Project hosted two
phenomenal workshops and associated public events which addressed
some of the biggest questions there
are: Can science tell us right from
wrong? and What is life? Both workshops took place near Arizona State
University and included leading researchers in a range of fields.

Great Debate: Can Science Tell Us Right From Wrong? Panelists (l-r: Sam Harris, Patricia Churchland, Peter Singer,
Roger Bingham, Lawrence Krauss, Simon Blackburn, Steven Pinker)

Great Debate series
In tandem with the invitational workshops, the ASU Origins
Project initiated a public event series called the “Great Debate.”
The first Great Debate took
place in November and focused
on the question of whether science can tell us right from
wrong. A second debate in February asked the deceptively
simple question: What is life?
Each debate occurred in ASU
Gammage Auditorium in front
of audiences of more than 2000
people. Notable workshop participants, including Steven
Pinker, Craig Venter, Richard
Dawkins, Patricia Churchland,
Sam Harris, and Chris McKay,
engaged in lively debate about these key questions.
The public and transdisciplinary nature of these events really
resonated with participants. As one Great Debate attendee remarked, “These discussions are incredibly interesting and in my
opinion, important. Thank you for allowing these discussions to
occur in front of audiences.” Workshop participant John Sutherland, a researcher at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
in the UK, praised the
transdisciplinary nature
of the workshops, noting that the ASU Origins
Project is one of the few
academic entities to “recognise the importance of
a joined-up approach” to
cracking the mysteries of
life’s origins.
In the coming weeks,
we will be planning our workshops for the next academic year,
which will include more Great Debates. We hope you will consider being part of the discussion.

SUPPORT THE ASU ORIGINS PROJECT!
Visit http://origins.asu.edu and click “Support”
or call us 480.965.0053.

Workshop details
Origins of Morality, November 5-7, 2010
In partnership with the prestigious Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, the ASU Origins Project hosted “The Origins of Morality: Evolution, Neuroscience and Their Implications (if Any)
for Normative Ethics and Meta-ethics.” The workshop gathered
an impressive list of neuroscientists, legal experts, psychologists, and philosophers. Read about the debate at http://origins.
asu.edu/news/greatdebate-morality/.
Origins of Life, February 11-13, 2011
ASU Origins Project director Lawrence Krauss teamed with ASU
biogeochemist Ariel Anbar and Origins Project Distinguished
Visiting Professor and Nobel prize-winning chemist Sidney
Altman to host “The Origins of Life: The RNA World Revisited”.
With sessions on the “Early Earth and Pre-Biotic Chemistry,”
“The RNA World,” “Life Elsewhere,” and “Alternatives to Life as
We Know It,” the workshop included representatives from biology, chemistry, geology, cosmology, and physics, to name a few.
Link to a New York Times article on the workshop from our website at http://origins.asu.edu/news/origins-of-life/.

Watch video and see images from both Great Debates
on our website. http://origins.asu.edu/media

New Student Origins Project Club
The ASU Origins Project is thrilled to work with a new club for
students interested in questions of origins. Formed through
the efforts of freshman biology major Samantha Hauserman,
the club will discuss books on origins issues, volunteer at
events, and offer input on
programming.
The club was
an enormous
help at the Science & Culture
Festival, volunteering at a
number of the
events. Read
about the club
at http://www.statepress.om/2011/04/04/student-club-contemplates-human-origins/.

Contact: ASU Origins Project | Old Main, Suite 105 | 400 E. Tyler Mall | PO Box 871902 | Tempe, AZ 87287-1902 | 480.965.0053 | origins.asu.edu