Many people think of extraterrestrial life as "little green men" from Mars. There are scientists actually looking for a signal for intelligent life (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI). What are the basic requirements for life? Will these requirements provide clues to where life may be found in the Universe? Or will we be limited to the "little green men"? This roundtable will examine how human imagination, innovation, and invention can be marshaled to explain, define, and explore the meaning of extraterrestrial life. The panelists will attempt to assess the consequences that such knowledge could have for the integrity of the concept of man that has been maintained for the past 5000 years of recorded history.

Steven J. Dick is Chief Historian at NASA and Director of the NASA History Office. His books include Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant, The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science, and Life in Other Worlds. He is the Editor of Many Worlds: The New Universe, Extraterrestrial Life and the Theological Implications and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Debra Fischer is Professor of Astronomy at San Francisco State University. Fischer has been searching for planets orbiting nearby stars since 1997 and with her collaborators has discovered more than 130 planets. These other worlds include multiple planet systems, planets with masses down to seven times that of the Earth, and planets that reveal their atmospheres as they transit in front of their host stars.

James P. Ferris (moderator) is Research Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of the New York Center for Studies on the Origins of Life.

Dave Itzkoff is the author of the New York Times Book Review's "Across the Universe" column, which (usually) focuses on science fiction, fantasy, and other kinds of speculative fiction. He is also a regular contributor to the Times Arts & Leisure section, and his writing has also appeared in New York magazine, Esquire, GQ, Playboy, and other publications.

Avi Loeb is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and a member of the Institute for Theory and Computation of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

David Marusek is the author of the science fiction novel, Counting Heads. His fiction has appeared in magazines as diverse as Playboy, Nature, and Asimov's, and has been excerpted in Scientific American. A collection of his short works, Getting to Know You, will be released in 2007. One of his new stories will appear in MIT Technology Review, the first science fiction piece to be published in that journal. Marusek is currently working on his second novel.

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