This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Douglas Lin takes a scientific approach to explain exploration. Lin goes into depth about the search for life in outer space and the scientific techniques behind it.

Professor Douglas Lin is a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Founding Director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, China.He obtained his PhD at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University.He held post-doctoral fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard University. He joined the faculty at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz in 1979, became a full professor in 1985, served as its chair in 1998, and was elected as a distinguished faculty in 2009. For his research, he has won awards from the US, Germany, UK, and Russia. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. He serves on many advisory committees for universities and national laboratories in the US, Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan, and Austria. He is the author or co-author of over 200 research papers, mainly on astrophysics and planetary sciences and several science articles for the general public. He has frequent television and newspaper interviews and lectures widely, and has held visiting professorships at many universities around the world.

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