october 2009 issue

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Coming event
The Fossil and the Astronaut

What do Dr. Roberta Bondar and the Burgess Shale have in common?
Find out Nov. 9 when Canada’s first woman in space speaks in Calgary

BY ELIZABETH HENDERSON
PEGG Contributor

WELL-GROUNDED Dr. Roberta Bondar is one of Canada’s best-known astronauts. But terrestrial pursuits such as photogaphy are also a major part of her life. Dr. Bondar will connect her many worlds in a Nov. 9 presentation in Calgary.

Time machines and outer space are two things that western society has dreamed about, written about and experimented with for centuries. From H.G. Wells’ 1895 classic The Time Machine to the 2003 best-selling novel and current movie release The Time Traveler’s Wife, time travel captures the collective imagination and influences both our future and our past.

Star Trek and Star Wars are cultural phenomena. John F. Kennedy’s going-to-the-moon speech and the space race made space travel part of North America’s public agenda. Space fascinates us, pushing the boundaries of our universe and providing a celestial measuring stick for progress.

On Nov. 9, the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation presents a must-see lecture combining both time and space travel. The Fossil and the Astronaut features Dr. Roberta Bondar — celebrated photographer, practicing physician, researcher, author and coach, and, of course, Canada’s first woman in space.

Dr. Bondar is Canada’s honorary patron of the International Year of Planet Earth. Although technically 2008 is the designated year, its events have been spread through 2007, 2008 and 2009.

This year is important for another reason, too — 2009 is the centennial of the discovery of the Burgess Shale, a fitting complement to the International Year of Planet Earth.

This keynote lecture continues a triumphant year of Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation activities, which included programs such as Kids in Burgess Shale, Kids in Trilobites and a Chautauqua series of speakers on Earth science topics.

The shale is one of only a handful of sites worldwide that give us a window on what life was like when it first began on Earth. Known collectively as lagerstätten, these are fossil sites that are remarkable for either their diversity or for the quality of their preservation.

The Burgess Shale is remarkable for both the diversity of its life forms and for the quality of its preservation. In fact “weird” is an adjective often applied to life forms such as the five-eyed Opabinia or the spiky Hallucigenia, named for its bizarre and dream-like quality.

In his book Wonderful Life, scientist and writer Stephen Jay Gould described the Burgess Shale this way: “The animals of the Burgess Shale are holy objects — in the unconventional sense that this word conveys in some cultures. We do not place them on pedestals and worship from afar. We climb mountains and dynamite hillsides to find them. We quarry them, split them, carve them, draw them and dissect them, struggling to wrest their secrets. We vilify and curse them for their damnable intransigence. They are grubby little creatures of a sea floor 530 million years old, but we greet them with awe because they are the Old Ones, and they are trying to tell us something.”

Randle Robertson, executive director of the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation, believes that The Fossil and the Astronaut is a natural tie-in to the work of the foundation. “Stones are the memories of the Earth,” he says. “We are the first eyes to see these fossils after half a billion years. These fossils have travelled through time to tell us their stories.

“Astronauts take what they have learned from the Earth and apply it to things that we are seeing for the first time; it’s like (using a) Rosetta Stone for the geosciences.”

Education is a major part of the focus of this event, which complements the activities of the International Year of Planet Earth, the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation, and the newly formed Roberta Bondar Foundation, which seeks to further people’s education in science. Organizers plan to engage a select number of Calgary elementary and middle schools prior to the event to talk about the Burgess Shale and the geosciences.

The hope is to engage students at a young age, so they develop a passion for science. At the very least, they will gain a better knowledge of some of the world-renowned fossil discoveries that lie in their own backyards.

Elizabeth Henderson is the volunteer chair of the Fossil and the Astronaut. She is a certified meeting manager and a certified meeting professional, and has a master’s degree in environmental design.