Cafe2009

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Café information is to be relocated to the Science Centre's new webpages.
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Please note that admission to ALL cafés (from 1 June 2010 onwards) is complimentary to attendees who are Individual/Family/Educator/Corporate members of the Science Centre. The privileges accorded to these membership packages will also apply (unless otherwise stated). Our regular admission charges will apply to all attendees who are not Science Centre members or who subscribe to the Associate/Institutional membership packages.

2009 CALENDAR
The listings are arranged chronologically with the latest café at the top.
Click on the DATE to see the details of each Café.
Please do pre-register (rather than "walk-in") as the information below may not be up-to-date.

DATE	PRESENTER	TITLE
19-Nov-09	Prof Graeme Britton	Shake, Bake & Roll! Design & Testing Of Small Satellites
18-Nov-09	Mr Kenji Williams	Bella Gaia A Poetic Vision of Earth from Space
05-Oct-09	A/P Suresh Valiyaveettil	Nanomaterials Good, Bad & Ugly
23-Sep-09	Dr Angus Dawson	Resetting the Parameters Public Health as the Foundation for Public Health Ethics
22-Sep-09	Mr Darren Heath	The Formula for Capturing Speed A talk on high-speed motor sports photography by one of the world’s best F1™ photographers
18-Sep-09	Ms Anayansi Prado	Children in No Man's Land
10-Sep-09	Prof Huosheng Hu	Towards Embedded Systems & Intelligent Robots
10-Sep-09	Prof Huosheng Hu	From Biological Systems to Intelligent Robots
08-Sep-09	Dr Amy Eguchi	Robots & Education
08-Sep-09	Dr Amy Eguchi	What is RoboCupJunior?
27-Aug-09	Ms Verena Tan	Diet Myths Exposed!
20-Aug-09	Mrs Kalpana Bhaskaran	Low Glycemic Index Diet Smart Carbs for Health, Vigour & Vitality
06-Aug-09	Prof P Gopalakrishnakone	Beauty & the Beasts
30-Jun-09	Ms Eva Rosdiana	Development of Digital Television (In Singapore & Around the World)
25-Jun-09	Dr David Crookall	Games & Simulations for Learning Some Basic Notions & a Glimpse of the ACTION
18-Jun-09	Dr David Jiang LiJun	What Does Your Heart Sound 'Look' Like?
17-Jun-09	Mr Unni Krishnan Ambady	Intelligent Building Technology
20-May-09	As/Prof Fu Chi Wing	Astronomical Visualisation Showcase
29-Apr-09	Prof Liew Ah Choy	Lightning Protection Any Room For Innovation?
09-Apr-09	As/Prof Mandar Chitre	The Good, The Bad & The Noisy
20-Mar-09	Prof Oussama Khatib	Meet the New Robots
18-Mar-09	Prof Chris Rogers	Engineering With Your Children Should Everyone Be Engineering-Literate?
05-Mar-09	Dr Ong Fook Rhu	Biomechanics in Medicine
26-Feb-09	Prof Jocelyn Bell	What's Going On In The Universe?
14-Jan-09	Prof Paul Davies	Is there a Shadow Biosphere on Earth?

Date of Café Time & Venue
Presenter, Organisation / Supporters
Title : Synopsis

19 Nov 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Prof Graeme Britton, Raffles University, Singapore
Shake, Bake & Roll! Design & Testing Of Small Satellites ... Satellite technology is no longer the sole province of big companies. The cost of satellite technology is low enough for universities to build and fly their own small satellites. In this cafe, a non-technical overview of small satellite technology together with the issues involved in their design and testing to meet the harsh demands of the space environment, will be discussed.

18 Nov 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Mr Kenji Williams, Remedy Arts LLC
Bella Gaia – A Poetic Vision of Earth from Space ... Bella Gaia (“Beautiful Earth”) is a ‘living atlas’ journey of our world, expressing the deeply moving beauty of planet Earth as seen through the eyes of astronauts. Created by award winning director and classically trained violinist, Kenji Williams, Bella Gaia features a 50-minute live performance by Kenji against a large-screen backdrop of orbiting visualizations of Earth from space: from fires in the Amazon basin to time-lapse images of Arctic ice melts, the stunning orbital imagery – rendered by SCISS' Uniview using data from NASA, provides an exquisite simulation of the astronaut's view from space. The performance also includes earthbound visitations from exotic Japanese temples to Egyptian pyramids, bringing a rich cultural dimension to the experience. Bella Gaia is a powerful entertainment and educational outreach vehicle for planetariums, science centres, universities, government agencies and other institutions that wish to convey a broader worldview that the destiny of humans and our planet Earth are inextricably linked. In this café, Kenji will perform an abbreviated version (~10 minutes) of his beautiful creation, Bella Gaia. The short performance will be followed by a discussion about the background of his inspiration on Bella Gaia, and examples of the variety of uses for Bella Gaia, including science education. Time-permitting, Kenji will discuss his creative processes in this fusion of science and art. Movie clips may also be included in this café (time- and resource-dependent).

5 Oct 2009 7pm in Mendel Auditorium
A/P Suresh Valiyaveettil, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore
Nanomaterials – Good, Bad & Ugly ... Nanotechnology has been considered as one of the greatest innovations since the Industrial Revolution, expecting to generate waves of novel revolutionary commercial products from machines to medicine. The worldwide market for nanotechnology products is estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2015. Currently nanotechnology is already commercially available in many consumer products such as sun blocks and dressing, as well as being utilized in scientific imaging such as Qdot® labelling kits. Other potential biomedical applications for nanoparticles (eg: for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes) are also actively researched. Gold nanoparticles are currently used for gene delivery, bio-detection of pathogens, detection of proteins, probing of DNA and hyperthermal treatment for tumour destruction. However, very few studies have been conducted on the “environmental” safety of nanoparticles and nanomaterials despite many papers on their synthesis and proposed applications. To avoid potential risks conferred by human exposure and environmental release in the midst of these applications, more studies will be required to understand the cytotoxicity profile of gold nanoparticles. This talk highlights some simple aspects of nanomaterials, our recent efforts in preparing nanomaterials and their good and bad potential impact on the environment.

23 Sep 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Dr Angus Dawson, Centre for Professional Ethics, Keele University, UK / Bioethics Advisory Committee, Singapore & Centre for Biomedical Ethics, NUS
Resetting the Parameters: Public Health as the Foundation for Public Health Ethics ... This café is an attempt to set out an agenda for how I think public health ethics should evolve in the future. I begin with the observation that if you approach public health from the perspective of much contemporary medical ethics, many public health policies and activities are likely to be viewed as ethically dubious. This is for a number of reasons but will include the following: public health’s primary focus on populations rather than individuals, public health’s assumptions about necessary features of the human good, and a broader focus on other values beside non-interference. Consider just a few examples of core public health activities: @ Many public health research activities are focused on populations, where epidemiological work to determine risk factors for disease may require the analysis of personal health information without the consent of individuals. @ Most preventive vaccination programmes seek to reduce the risk of individuals being infected with harmful diseases, through the creation and maintenance of a population effect called herd immunity. Such programmes aim to maximise participation because if insufficient individuals contribute, then this important protection cannot be achieved. @ Health promotion can seek to change people’s preferences in relation to issues such as smoking, exercise and food choices, with the aim of reducing the chronic disease burden in a population through the promotion of healthier lifestyles. @ Preparing for and responding to public health emergencies may require infrastructure for disease surveillance and legal structures to compel behaviour and seize property (in at least some circumstances). @ Health inequities are the result of many different socio-economic determinants and can often be addressed only through structural and societal level policy initiatives (that may in turn restrict or negate individual choice). If the currently dominant views in contemporary medical ethics are applied to public health research and practice, there is a danger that such routine public health actions will be seen as wrongly prioritising population over individual interests. One possible response is to accept this critique and argue that much of public health research and practice is actually unethical because it fails to prioritise individuals and their choices, as well as the moral principles that have evolved within the field of medical ethics to protect these considerations such as informed consent and patient confidentiality. However, an alternative approach is to argue that public health is a vitally important activity, that its ends are legitimate, and that they can only be attained (in many cases) through such population-level interventions. On this view, the ‘problem’, assuming it is one, lies with the perspective derived from traditional medical ethics, not with public health research and practice itself. On this latter view, it is certainly possible for public health actions to be unethical, but the mere fact that they do not easily fit within a medical ethics or research ethics framework does not make them unethical; and we certainly have no a priori reason to hold public health to be intrinsically unethical. I argue that thinking about the importance of public health research and practice provides an opportunity to question the dominance of liberal ethical theory, not just in public health ethics, but also in medical ethics and research ethics. This re-setting of our theoretical parameters will result not only in the justification of much public health research and practice but also pull public health ethics towards the core of thinking about bioethics in general.

22 Sep 2009 7pm in Annexe Hall 1
Mr Darren Heath / Datum Branding
The Formula for Capturing Speed – A talk on high-speed motor sports photography by one of the world’s best F1™ photographers ... Come, see and hear first-hand the colour, vibrancy, speed and drama of Formula One™ racing through the eyes of this UK photographer. Learn what it takes to be an F1™ photographer: the how-to on those incredible fast-action sports shots – the tips and tools of creating the mood through light at high-speed; using track features for a dramatic story; techniques of the master revealed; capturing the unexpected; shooting in the “dark” of the SG GP Night Race; … Darren will also share his personal insights on working with F1™ teams and their celebrity drivers, as well as the life behind-the-scenes with F1™. Darren’s unique brand of photographs will also be on exhibition for the first time ever in Singapore – featuring one of the most unique F1™ tracks: the Singapore Grand Prix night race. Slides galore! Some 50-80 slides will be presented.

18 Sep 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Ms Anayansi Prado Impacto Films / The Embassy of the United States of America in Singapore
Children in No Man's Land ... This film is Ms Prado’s second documentary feature. It follows the plight of unaccompanied minors who travel illegally from Mexico into the United States. Focusing on the Arizona/Sonora Desert border area, this work takes an up-close-and-personal look at the stories behind both successful and unsuccessful border crossing attempts by Mexican children seeking to reunite with their families in the US or in pursuit of work and a better future. ... Come interact with the filmmaker and understand the "science" of communicating such a multi-dimensional issue.

10 Sep 2009 7pm in Mendel Auditorium
Prof Huosheng Hu, University of Essex, UK
Towards Embedded Systems & Intelligent Robots ... Over the last few decades, there has been an exponential growth in activities involving embedded systems and intelligent robots, which has led to the development of exciting new products for our daily use: auto cameras, CD players, mobile phones, PDAs and even robotic pets. However, the operation of all these systems or robots does not really require them to ‘think’ as they are simply programmed to perform a series of repetitive tasks. If anything interferes with the pre-programmed task, they will malfunction because they are not able to sense the interference and think of a solution. It remains a great challenge for us today to build intelligent systems and robots that can ‘think’ like we do. To achieve this goal, scientists have been trying very hard to capture the essence of human intelligence in our robots and machines, to make them intelligent enough to function well in the real world. This is a very challenging and ambitious task since the robot or machine intelligence must cope with various ‘noises’, uncertainties and dynamic changes in the real world. Like human beings, embedded systems and intelligent robots should be able to sense their environment, reason and make decisions, respond to tasks and unexpected events quickly, as well as learn from experience. In other words, they need a fast connection from sensing to acting autonomously – without human intervention. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art robotics technologies, and address some key challenges in robotics. Our current research work towards the development of advanced theory and technologies based on inspiration from biological systems will also be presented. More specifically, bio-mimetic system modelling, robotic fish, and human-machine interaction will be discussed respectively, and some preliminary results are demonstrated via video.

10 Sep 2009 3:30pm in Dalton Lecture Hall Regular entry charges apply for non-members of the Science Centre.
Prof Huosheng Hu, University of Essex, UK
From Biological Systems to Intelligent Robots ... After recent advancement of computing and robotics technologies, intelligent robots are soon ready to serve us in our home, hospital, office and elsewhere. They are mobile, autonomous and interactive, inspired from behaviour demonstrated by biological systems. A number of new areas of application have currently received significant interests in the robotics community, including service robots, medical robots, education robots, entertainment robots, etc. However, these robots face a number of challenges. Firstly, they have to deal with uncertainty within the systems, such as sensor noise, actuator inaccuracy, and components failure. Secondly, they have to handle a huge uncertainty in the real world which is dynamically changing all the time. Thirdly, inspiration from biological systems is an important issue to be addressed in the design of intelligent robots since it can provide some guidance to solving problems. Finally, human-robot interaction is a key to success, including communicating with and navigating around humans. In this talk, I shall give a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art robotics technologies, and present our current research work toward the development of advanced theories and technologies, based on inspiration from biological systems. More specifically, bio-mimetic system modelling, robotic fish, and swarm robotics are discussed respectively, and some preliminary results are demonstrated using video.

8 Sep 2009 7pm in iSpace Theatre
Dr Amy Eguchi, Bloomfield College
Robots & Education ... What is robotics? What robots are out there? What can they do? Are they harmful? This café will let you explore the world of robotics. Also, we will explore how robotics can help children learn.

8 Sep 2009 3:30pm in Mendel Auditorium Regular entry charges apply for non-members of the Science Centre.
Dr Amy Eguchi, Bloomfield College
"What Is RoboCupJunior?" ... "What is RoboCupJunior?" "How has it started?" "What do they do?" "What are the children working on RoboCupJunior learning?" This lecture will introduce you to the world of RoboCupJunior – a robotics tournament that gather children from around the world who build and program robots.

27 Aug 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Ms Verena Tan, Temasek Applied Science School, Temasek Polytechnic
Diet Myths Exposed! ... "Lose 10 kg in 30 days!" "Don’t eat after 8pm." "Coffee can help you lose weight." And so on and on. With so many weight-loss "theories" out there, it is easy to become confused. This café will help clear up the confusion around weight loss and nutrition with some honest-to-goodness truths about how to keep your weight under control. It also offers advice to help you make healthy changes to your eating habits.

20 Aug 2009 7pm in iSpace Theatre
Mrs Kalpana Bhaskaran, Temasek Applied Science School, Temasek Polytechnic
Low Glycemic Index Diet – Smart Carbs for Health, Vigour & Vitality ... What is the best diet for us to follow in order to lead a healthy life? Not just a diet that will help us lose weight, but also a healthier one that will help us live life to the fullest. This café explains the concepts of the Glycemic Index (GI) and the Glycemic Load, and the advantages of consuming low GI diets. GI is the ranking of carbohydrates on a scale of 0 to 100 according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after the consumption of food that contains the carbohydrates. Some carbohydrate foods break down quickly during digestion and the glucose (or sugar) in the blood stream increases rapidly. Such foods have high GI. Conversely, carbohydrate foods that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the blood stream have low GI.

6 Aug 2009 7pm in Maxwell Auditorium
Prof Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone, Department of Anatomy, National University of Singapore
Beauty & the Beasts ... SNAKES and scorpions are much known – or maligned as in many a Hollywood movie – for their deadly venoms. However, to Prof Gopal of the Venom and Toxin Research Programme, the components of venoms can be used to develop drugs that help to alleviate certain symptoms such as soothing inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis or pain relief in terminal illness. Prof Gopal will give a presentation on the dangerous animals in the lands and seas around Singapore and how to identify them and also prevent their bite, and if any accident happens, what to do! He will also touch on the uses of these venoms in medicine.

30 Jun 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Ms Eva Rodiana, Ngee Ann Polytechnic / Engineering at the Polytechnics
Development of Digital Television (In Singapore & Around the World) ... This talk will relate the historical development of Analogue TV from around the 1930s, until the successful launch of the new Digital TV standards in the late 1990s. The problems faced by engineers in the early years of Digital TV will be recounted. The objectives and advantages of switching to Digital TV will also be discussed along with the challenges and the competition faced by the current broadcast service providers. Some technical aspects of the European Digital TV standards, namely, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), are also explained. Singapore has adopted the DVB standard since 1999. The standard includes all platforms for wireless or wired broadcast services, ie services over Terrestrial, Satellite, Cable and Hand-held devices (mobile phone). Samples of Digital TV receivers will be exhibited, together with some interesting demonstration of Digital TV services.

25 Jun 2009 7pm in Hall C
Dr David Crookall, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, France / Embassy of France in Singapore
Games & Simulations for Learning: Some Basic Notions & a Glimpse of the ACTION ... This café aims to help teachers, parents and learners to understand the advantages of using games and simulations in education and training, and to provide a little guidance to parents and teachers on how to draw out the positive and diminish the negative effects of using games and simulations in the classroom. The event will also provide participants with an opportunity to try out some simple games, so that learners, parents and teachers will have a little learning fun together.

18 Jun 2009 7pm in Mendel Auditorium
Dr David Jiang LiJun, Republic Polytechnic / Engineering at the Polytechnics
What Does Your Heart Sound 'Look' Like? ... Since the French physician Rene Laennec invented the first stethoscope in 1816, a number of attempts to improve the stethoscope has been made, the most recent being the advent of the electronic stethoscope (e-stethoscope). Have there been any further developments in the e-stethoscope? This café will introduce the latest development in heart sound detection, processing, as well as the analysis technology. We will explore how to make heart sound detection more ‘objective’, regardless of people’s hearing capability. Also, what other uses of heart sound, etc.

17 Jun 2009 7pm in Mendel Auditorium
Mr Unni Krishnan Ambady, Temasek Polytechnic / Engineering at the Polytechnics
Intelligent Building Technology ... In Singapore, buildings account for close to 30% of total energy consumption nation-wide. With the current concern over global warming and sustainability, energy efficiency has become a primary concern in the operation of buildings. One way to ‘green’ a building and make it a conducive place to work and play is to make it ‘intelligent’. Incorporating such intelligence will also help to address the safety and security issues connected with buildings. This café will include a description of how to nurture students in this emerging technology area.

20 May 2009 7pm in Maxwell Auditorium
Asst Prof Philip Fu Chi Wing, Nanyang Technological University
Astronomical Visualisation Showcase ... This cafe will present the application of 3D computer graphics techniques to the visualization of astronomical data, including some brief historical and scientific background. The main body of the presentation will showcase some of our recent demonstration systems for exploring astronomical data. Examples will include methods for scale-insensitive navigation of the entire Universe, with scales ranging from the Earth to the Milky Way to the entire visible Universe, display and exploration of uncertainty in common astrophysical data sets, and advanced volume-visualization methods for viewing and analyzing multi-wavelength all-sky data. No technical knowledge of the underlying 3D graphics details (such as GPU methods) is required, as our goal will be to focus on the techniques we have developed to support the scientific goals of astronomy with the tools of scientific visualization. Some of our work, (eg multispectral visualization, large-scale error visualization, etc) can be found at http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/cwfu/papers/

29 Apr 2009 7pm in Maxwell Auditorium & The Atrium
Prof Liew Ah Choy, National University of Singapore
Lightning Protection - Any Room For Innovation? ... Lightning protection came into focus following Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite experiment in June 1752. He then proposed the use of an intercepting rod and down-conductor path to earth to capture and to divert the lightning current (which would otherwise strike a structure) as a means for lightning protection. This concept is still used today. So, have there been any further developments in lightning protection? Is there any room for innovation? This talk will introduce lightning and the causes of lightning damage to equipment, and dangerous situations to persons and livestock. Attempts to improve the efficacy of lightning protection systems will be presented – some fairly innovative – and their effectiveness (or otherwise) will be discussed. Case studies of problems and solutions to some everyday situations, eg airside workers at Changi airport, soldiers in outdoor operations, etc, will be discussed. There will also be a spectacular demonstration where a 3.5MV arc from the Science Centre’s Tesla Coil will be applied to a lightning-resistant tent with a person in it to show the need for voltage equalization.

09 Apr 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Asst Prof Mandar Anil Chitre, Acoustic Research Lab, TMSI, NUS
The Good, The Bad & The Noisy ... Snapping shrimps are perhaps the noisiest of creatures that live in warm shallow waters around the world. Although snapping shrimps are only a few centimetres in size, they compete with sperm whales and beluga whales for the title of the loudest animals in the sea! Why they produce such loud noises is only vaguely understood, but it is certain that the noise they produce has a big impact on underwater acoustic sensing for both nature and man. Although traditional acoustic sensing systems have considered snapping shrimps as undesirable noise sources for decades, some novel acoustic cameras can use the noise to “see” underwater in pitch darkness. Perhaps snapping shrimps are also instrumental in keeping the reefs alive by functioning as underwater navigational beacons for fish larvae. In this café, let’s explore these and many other interesting facets of the cacophony that snapping shrimps produce.

20 Mar 2009 7pm in Dalton Hall
Prof Oussama Khatib, Stanford University / Interactive Digital Media Institute, NUS & Social Robotics Lab, NUS
Meet the New Robots ... Imagine robots capable of learning, navigation, vision, tactile sensing and reasoning. They're here today; robots have escaped the manufacturing plants and are invading our everyday world – in hospitals, offices, homes and construction sites. Examine these new "assistants" and explore how humans and machines interact and communicate. Come try Prof Khatib's haptic device. (Haptic technology interfaces with the user through the sense of touch.)

18 Mar 2009 4pm in Planck Lab @ 3^rd Level Regular enrty charges apply for non-members of the Science Centre.
Prof Chris Rogers, Tufts University / LEGO® Education
Engineering With Your Children: Should Everyone Be Engineering-Literate? ... Engineering education centres around solving problems. It teaches students how to identify a goal, how to plot a path to attain that goal, and how to re-plot that path when something goes wrong. It teaches students how to work in teams, how to make an informed decision based on science, maths, and multiple constraints. It teaches students how to think logically, to learn on their own, and to realize that there is no one right way to do something - no right answer - just some are better than others. Where does this fit in our education system? Is it only reserved for university students? Should it be part of every elementary school curriculum like the multiplication tables? Engineering is difficult to teach because there is no one right answer, because it takes a while to actually build your proposed solution, and because conventional instruction does not really work. Many teachers do not have the content knowledge, nor are they ready for the excitement and chaos that tends to pervade the class. Many cannot see how they can add more to what they already have to teach. Some find the classroom management of team-based learning difficult. What can parents do to help? In this Cafe, I will argue that engineering education is needed at all levels and show how parents and teachers have helped students around the world to use LEGO bricks to learn about maths, science, and engineering design.

05 Mar 2009 7pm in Newton Room
Dr Ong Fook Rhu, Singapore Polytechnic / Engineering at the Polytechnics
Biomechanics in Medicine ... Biomechanics is a part of the diverse field of Bioengineering. It involves the application of mechanics to living organisms. One of the important contributions of biomechanics is in the field of medicine. Studies conducted in biomechanics have helped in better understanding normal and pathological conditions, the evaluation of outcome of a surgical procedure, the improvement of rehabilitation medicine, as well as in the invention of many medical devices. Hand motion is normally used to analyse the hand’s biomechanical function. Studies on repetitive strain injury as a result of excessive use of wireless handheld devices, and the effects of rheumatoid arthritis on hand function can be carried out. These studies can result in the design and development of new assessment tools, rehabilitative aids and surgical implants for finger joint replacements. Foot behaviour can be described by pressure distribution and plantar foot deformation. By relating these 2 measurements, biomechanical function of the foot can be studied and customised insoles or footwear can be designed for a diseased or an injured foot. The current breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy can benefit from the use of a breast mould built from 3D images of the breast. Surgeons can use the breast mould as a template to position and contour reconstructed breast intra-operatively. The 3D images can also be used to evaluate the cosmetic outcome of breast reconstruction in terms of symmetry.

26 Feb 2009 7pm in Annexe Hall 1 Auditorium
Prof S Jocelyn Bell Burnell, University of Oxford, UK / British High Commission & National University of Singapore
What's Going On In The Universe? ... Why is Pluto no longer a planet? The process that led to the reclassification of Pluto will be discussed, as will some of the big topics that are engaging professional astronomers today such as dark matter and dark energy.

14 Jan 2009 7pm in Maxwell Auditorium
Prof Paul Davies, Arizona State University / Centre for Quantum Technologies, NUS
Is there a Shadow Biosphere on Earth? ... Are we alone in the universe? This biggest of the big questions of existence hinges on the probability that life emerges from a mixture of non-living chemicals. Is life on Earth a statistical fluke, or is there a “life principle” built into the laws of nature, so that life is almost bound to occur wherever there are earth-like conditions? Many astrobiologists believe the latter is the case, but how can their hypothesis be tested? No planet is more earth-like than Earth itself, so if there is a life principle at work in the universe then life should have started many times on Earth. This raises the fascinating possibility that there is a shadow biosphere populated by microbial descendants of other biogenesis events. What are the strategies for finding a shadow biosphere? Could there be alien organisms living right under our noses?

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