ASU Symposium on April 3-6 kicks off Origins Initiative

A Symposium on April 3-6, 2009 will inaugurate Arizona State University’s Origins Initiative, a multi-year program that will focus on foundational questions that resonate across the entire spectrum of scholarship at ASU and with the general public.

National Public Radio (NPR) Science Friday will broadcast from ASU on Friday, April 3, from 11am-1pm PST. The broadcast will feature two panels: Physicists and the Origin of the Universe, and Origins and Evolution of Life. In addition, some portions of the program will be webcast. Check the schedule for details.

Questions to be addressed by the Origins Initiative include:
• How did the Universe begin?
• How did life arise?
• How does life evolve?
• What is the origin of human uniqueness?
• What is the origin of disease?
• How does consciousness arise?
• How do human institutions arise and develop?
• What will be the technologies of the future?

These questions often provoke fascination and heated debate, and are central to research at the edge of human knowledge. The Origins Initiative will address a range of issues from evolutionary biology to nanotechnology, from human institutions to the origin of the universe.

The April 3-6 Symposium, “A Celebration of Discovery from the Universe to Humanity,” will bring together 70 of the world’s leading scientists and scholars to explore key outstanding Origins issues.

The Origins Symposium is sponsored by ASU and is not funded by NASA. However, ASU is home to one of the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s fourteen science teams. Participants in the Symposium include the NAI’s former Director, Dr. Baruch Blumberg, the Principal Investigator of NAI’s ASU Team, Dr. Ariel Anbar, and various scientists from the NASA astrobiology community.