What we plan to do

In the Einstein Circle we approach the topic of otherness and alien situations in planetary sciences that are part of the natural sciences, in conjunction with different perspectives on those topics from the social sciences and humanities. We specifically want to lay ground to understand and find ways to deal with otherness in the form of natural catastrophes that may be seen as alien environments, colonization of planetary objects, as well as alien life. We will ask the questions: What is (the) alien? How do humans approach alien environments or alien life? While culturally and societally, the alien is usually defined as ''something strange and frightening'' or understood as ''different from what we are used to'', it can often be perceived as negative or disapproving. From a natural science perspective, however, finding ''alien life'' to prove that we are not alone, or exploring alien environments elsewhere in the universe is desirable. In that regard the Einstein circle is proposing to integrate contradicting perspectives and shedding light on this topic from different disciplinary perspectives.

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