NOTE FROM TED: We’ve flagged this talk, which was filmed at a TEDx event, because it appears to fall outside TEDx’s curatorial guidelines. The sweeping claims and assertions made in this talk are based on the speaker’s own theory and lack legitimate scientific support. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_content_guidelines.pdf.
The origin of intelligent life on earth requires a host of statistically improbable events which may imply that similar intelligent life elsewhere is extremely unlikely, a fact mostly ignored in discussions about contacting extraterrestrial life.
“Marc Defant is a professor of geochemistry at USF and studies volcanoes through various funding such as the NSF and National Geographic. He has published research in Nature and other journals and has written a book on the history of the universe, earth and life. He was the keynote speaker at a conference on granitic rocks in China and was one of the first American scientists to work on volcanoes in Kamchatka when it was part of the Soviet Union. He is currently focused on emphasizing the importance of science in society.”
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
