Volume 122 · No. 35
Monday, October 17, 2016
EST. 1887
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dailyreveille ACADEMICS
Yale lecturer to speak today BY JADE BUTLER @jadeyybug7
GOING
GLOBAL
Rotary Club moves Global Community Day to campus BY ALLISON BRUHL @albruhl__ PHOTOS BY CAROLINE MAGEE
Countries from abroad joined together on campus Sunday afternoon as the Baton Rouge Capital City Rotary Club and the University’s International Programs displayed cultural exhibits and performances 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday in Parker Coliseum for Global Community Day. The free event celebrated its third year in a new location this year. Global Community Day moved from downtown in hopes of growing the number of guests, said Baton Rouge Capital City Rotary Club president Charles Landreneau. Global Community Day brought
in people representing China, Russia, Uganda, Panama and more, along with families and children from the Baton Rouge area to join in on the fun. “You know, if we can influence [children] in a positive way at such an early age, hopefully that will transcend throughout their life,” Landreneau said. Guests were given a “passport” with the mission to visit each country’s booth for a stamp. After filling the passport the guests could redeem it for a prize at the end of their journey around the world. Each country’s booth provided
facts, food and crafts. Some booths had articles of clothing or jewelry reflecting the country’s culture. A few booths accepted donations for areas suffering from disasters or third world issues. The Haitian booth accepted $10 donations to provide families with 350-500 gallons of clean drinking water. “We’re trying to promote unity and diffuse all the stuff you hear on the news because these are our neighbors,” Landreneau said. Landreneau said this was the first
see GLOBAL COMMUNITY, page 2
Yale University’s Norma Thompson will be exploring the challenges and benefits of introducing a new generation to classic texts in her lecture “Can You Learn More From a Person or From a Book?” on Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the French House. Thompson’s lecture is the first of the Millennial Classics lecture series, which is co-sponsored by the Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College and Eric Voegelin Institute. Thompson is a senior lecturer at Yale University in humanities and associate director of the Whitney Humanities Center. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Bowdoin College and her Ph.D. in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. She is also the author of three books: “Herodotus and the Origins of the Political Community: Arion’s Leap;” “The Ship of State: Politics and Statecraft from Ancient Greece to Democratic America” and “ Unreasonable Doubt: Circumstantial Evidence and an Ordinary Murder in New Haven.” The objective of this year’s Millennial Classics is to discuss different ways to excite students about classical literature.
see THOMPSON, page 2
RESEARCH
Distinguished professor discusses possibility of life outside earth BY LAUREN HEFFKER @laurheffker Recent scientific advances have made discovering life on other planets outside our solar system a likely possibility. Chris Impey, a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, was the keynote speaker at the LSU Undergraduate Research Conference on Oct. 14. His talk,
“Water Worlds: The Search for Habitable Exoplanets,” detailed the probability of finding life elsewhere in the universe. To find life on distant planets, scientists use spectroscopy to analyze light. The light’s wavelengths reflect the world’s physical properties, like which gases make up the planet’s atmosphere and if biomarkers are present. Scientists are looking for a few things when determining the likelihood of life:
within the habitable zone water, oxygen and ozone. of a star, meaning within “Within five to 10 an appropriate distance years, you will hear the where liquid water can announcement of life beyond Earth, and it will form and remain liquid. be by this method on an Although there is no Earth-like exoplanet,” direct evidence of life Impey said. existing on other planets, Once an exoplanet Impey said he is confiIMPEY dent of the possibility due is discovered, scientists attempt to characterize it to de- to a number of factors that favor termine if life can be sustained a microorganism’s ability to surthere. The planet must be found vive. The ability of microbial life
on Earth to withstand extreme conditions shows that if life could thrive here, before the Earth was fully formed, it could exist elsewhere in similar conditions. Life began on Earth almost as soon as one imagines — about four billion years ago, when the planet was a heavily volcanic world. The places where life could be are abundant, Impey said.
see EXOPLANETS, page 2