Astronomy and Evolution: From the Death of the Dinosaurs to the Stardust in your Bones

Almost 14 billion years ago, the Big Bang created the seeds of the vast structures that we see in the present-day Universe. But how did a sea of scorching hot gas evolve to form the cosmic web of galaxies, clinging together in huge filaments and sheets and separated by enormous voids? Modern astronomers use telescopes and computers as time-machines, compressing millions of years of history into the blink of an eye. The history of life on earth is unequivocally tied to the stars. Material from space - ashes from the burned-out corpses of previous generations of stars, the complex organic molecules necessary for life, and the comets that brought us the water that makes up our oceans - has rained down upon our planet for billions of years. As well as bringing life, destruction has also come from the skies - massive extinction events were brought about by the impact of extraterrestrial objects. Life on Earth has been largely determined by events beyond our atmosphere.

Speakers: Steve Croft, Department of Astronomy at UC Berkeley and David Lindberg, Professor of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley