I don’t usually reproduce news releases here, but this one is of unusual interest given that I am both a strong supporter of Breakthrough Starshot and a partisan for getting academic conferences available through live streaming. Breakthrough Discuss begins today and its sessions will be well worth your time, given the array of distinguished speakers and the tight attention to matters interstellar.

The third annual Breakthrough Discuss scientific conference (https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/events/discussconference2018), which will bring together leading astrobiologists, astronomers, engineers, and astrophysicists to advance discussion around recent discoveries of potential life in the universe and novel ideas for space exploration, will be held on Thursday, April 12, and Friday, April 13, and full sessions will be available for live viewing on YouTube.

The two days of discussions will focus on “Alien Life: Diversity in the Universe,” with sessions discussing the search for life in our solar system, possibilities for non-terrain life in the universe, as well as progress in novel space propulsion.

The conference will be live streamed on the Breakthrough Prize’s YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/breakthroughprize

Viewers are encouraged to participate virtually via a chat feature, which will be monitored by a facilitator who will feed questions into the panel discussion sessions.

Carolyn Porco, American planetary scientist and leader of the Cassini Imaging Team, and Martin Rees, British cosmologist and astrophysicist, will serve as keynote speakers.

Sessions will be chaired by Penelope Boston, Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Chris McKay, planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, Svetlana Berdyugina, Director of Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics, Lisa Kaltenegger, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, Sigrid Close, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, and Zachary Manchester, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University.

WHAT: Watch the third annual Breakthrough Discuss scientific conference, which will bring together leading astronomers, engineers, astrobiologists and astrophysicists to discuss recent discoveries of potential life in the universe and novel ideas for space exploration.

WHEN: Thursday, April 12, and Friday, April 13 — PACIFIC TIME
Schedule: https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/events/discussconference2018

WHERE: Watch Live on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/breakthroughprize

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