LIT 167O Aliens: Science and Fiction

Explores how astrobiology and literature (especially science fiction) have been linked culturally as each explores ideas about alien life. As planetary astronomy has refined our ability to detect and image exoplanets beyond our own solar system, the question of the existence of life on or around exoplanets has gained a renewed urgency. The principal challenge of this course is how to imagine aliens that are scientifically coherent while also capturing the true variety and difference suggested by astrobiology. The course also provides a philosophical and literary introduction to the scientific method, and a scientific framework for evaluating public imaginaries about alien life.