You direct, in California, the Carl-Sagan Center of the Seti Institute, which specializes in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. What is your job ?
Astrobiology is the search for life in the Universe. How do life and the environment evolve together? What is the nature of life? How can it emerge on Earth and elsewhere in the universe? These are the central questions studied in my discipline.
You are also a passionate explorer…
Since the age of 6, I have been fascinated by the conquest of space. It all started on July 21, 1969, the day Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Discovering the silhouettes of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, I knew I wanted to explore the Universe! Very lonely little girl, I immersed myself in reading the Iliad and the Odyssey . And, of course, in Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.
Your family environment encouraged the intuitive and precocious young girl that you were…
My parents didn’t put any limits on my dreams, as long as I worked hard. We weren’t rich, and nothing in my family background prepared me for this journey. When I was 14, I wrote to Jacques-Yves Cousteau asking him to join the crew of the Calypso . I was turned down, but that didn’t stop me from diving in extreme conditions years later. If you don’t force the hand of fate, things don’t happen. You have to use your own energy to set the universe in motion.
Extreme diver, mountaineer, you explored the Andes in 2002. What connection do you make with astrobiology?
As part of a research project for NASA, I explored Andean high lakes whose landscapes take us back to the beginning of the history of Earth and Mars. At an altitude of 6,000 meters, we tested new instruments to study the adaptation of life to extreme environments as well as the conditions for the emergence of life on Earth. The Licancabur volcano site had extraordinary scientific potential.
By studying the geology, sediments and ultraviolet radiation of this region of the world, you were preparing a mission to explore Mars…
Yes, because following these explorations on Earth, the two rovers Spirit and Opportunity were sent to Mars in early 2004, collecting crucial geological data for us. We have lived a fantastic scientific odyssey! Rocks and geological outcrops form a book of stones that tells a past story, favorable to the appearance of life on Mars.
What have you learned from humanity’s past and future?
To study our past is to understand that our environment is constantly changing. During our missions in the Andes, we measure the effects of rapid climate change on ecosystems. The conclusion is there: for the first time in the history of our planet, a species knowingly destroys the environment which has seen the emergence of its civilization: ours, and this is inexcusable.
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“We are becoming orphans of our roots”, you write. What do you mean by that ?
We gradually lose the sense of belonging to our environment, gradually breaking the link with our planet. We choose to substitute technology and its gadgets for the language of nature. In the heart of the Andean landscapes, I feel like a little dust in the wind of time. Let’s be humble in our relationship to the environment and don’t exclude ourselves from it!
Are new technologies harmful to humanity?
Absolutely not ! It is the use we make of it that is wrong. Let’s be responsible in using the technologies and industries we create. The environment that led to the rise of the human species is in immediate peril, as is our species. Humanity is part of a system. Everything we put into it has consequences. It is absolutely necessary to mark with a hot iron this fundamental notion of co-evolution of life and environment for the next generation.
Concretely, how can such changes be resisted in the midst of an ecological crisis?
Each of us must readjust our request. Every gesture counts: think about reducing your own waste every day and ask yourself: how can I contribute to regenerating the environment rather than imposing my presence?
“Our planet has so much to teach us: we just have to look at it and listen to it, be ready to take our walking sticks”…
Let your children discover the beauty of nature! When I was little, the teachers took us to the forest and taught us about trees, plants, flowers. My first explorations took place in the wood of Saint-Cucufa with my father, but also in the Cévennes and the Tarn gorges with my grandparents. Let’s explain to children their place in the ecosystem in order to reconnect them to the environment.
Why is it today neither conceivable nor desirable to colonize Mars to save humanity from climatic perils?
To think of displacing populations to respond to the disaster we have created on Earth is an insult to the spirit of exploration. Even if we moved a million people to Mars tomorrow, it wouldn’t change the climate problems at all. We must act here and now.
Your scientific research is intensely linked to a spiritual quest…
The great scientist Carl Sagan – who supported the launch of the Seti program – said: “Not only are science and spirituality not opposed, but science is a great source of spirituality. I totally agree with these words: spirituality is living in balance with the environment and the Universe that surrounds me. From this point of view, I agree with integral ecology.
Contrary to some popular belief, scientists are not opposed to religion.
Quite the contrary! Once the scientific hypotheses have been posed, the question of meaning arises inexorably. Science tries to measure nature and express it through calculations and experiments. Spirituality attempts to understand what cannot be quantified.
As director of Seti, do you interact with the Vatican Astronomical Observatory?
Yes, its director, Guy Consolmagno, is part of the scientific council of the Seti Institute; it’s a chance to be able to talk about our work with this fascinating interlocutor. Like his predecessor, this Jesuit holds a thesis in astrophysics. Basically, we ask ourselves the same questions about the origins of life and the Universe. We just try to answer it with different perspectives.
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During my exchange with Nathalie Cabrol by videoconference, she refuses to make any prognosis on a date of discovery of extraterrestrial life: “We would rather discover biosignatures than little green men, she specifies. The question “are we alone in the universe? depression. She prefers to say: “They are not alone!” »
His bio
August 30, 1963 . Born in the Paris region.
1986-1991 . Masters and doctorate at the Paris-Sorbonne University and at the Paris Meudon Observatory (planetary geology).
1994 . Settles in the United States with her husband Edmond Grin, a postdoctoral fellow at the Space Science and Astrobiology Division from NASA.
1998 . Joined the Seti Institute as a researcher.
2002 . Beginning of a series of scientific explorations in the Andes.
2004 Launch of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.
2015 Director of the Carl-Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe.
2021. She publishes Journey to the frontiers of life a plea for an understanding of the world and the universe as a living whole.