Guidance Sheet #4 - for Quiz #3 on 08/15/96

1. What were the pre-biotic conditions on the Earth?
2. What are the main ideas as to how life began on Earth? How long did it take for the first single-celled organisms to appear once the early bombardment of the Earth ceased?
3. How does the process of evolution work? What have been the major "events" in the biological history of the Earth? Has evolution proceeded in a uniform fashion over the past 3.8 billion years?
4. What are the key elements that define "intelligence"? How did intelligence arise in the biological world?
5. What distinguishes homo sapiens from other primates and intelligent animals (if anything!) ?
6. What is the definition of "life"? What are the key characteristics of our type of life? What other types of life might there be besides our own?
7. Where should we search for other life? What techniques should we use? Why has so much attention been focused on radio waves?
8. How can we estimate the number of technical civilizations coexisting with us in the Milky Way?
9. What types of coding of radio signals might we expect when conducting searches for extraterrestrial intelligence?

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