Storytelling with Science: A Conversation and Book Signing with Sarah Scoles
"Making Contact" is an examination of the science behind the search for extraterrestrial
intelligence and the life
of its pioneer, Jill Tarter, the inspiration for the main character in Carl Sagan's
"Contact." Jill Tarter is a pioneer, an innovator, an adventurer and a controversial
force who is not afraid to ask big questions about the universe and whether or not
we are alone within it. Obsessed with "Contact" as a young teenager, author Sarah
Scoles eventually became a journalist and decided to write about the real person
behind that fictional story. In this talk, she will discuss how the book came to
be, what it's like to ask people invasive questions about their lives so you can
recreate them on the page, why the SETI Institute and Tarter seemed important to
chronicle and how to incorporate real science and real scientists into storytelling.