Professor to give talk at Princeton University on the origin of life

   Peter Ward, a paleontologist and professor of biology and earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, will deliver the Stafford Little lectures 8 p.m. Nov. 28, 29 and 30 in McCosh Hall 50 on the Princeton University campus.
   The lectures, titled "The Undesigned Universe," will argue that while bacterial life may be widespread in our universe, conditions for complex forms of life are actually hostile.
   Professor Ward, who has appeared in public debates with proponents of intelligent design, will explain how scientific evidence points to a finite age for life in the cosmos and why this evidence is incompatible with the theory of intelligent design.
   Professor Ward’s current research interest is the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction and mass extinctions in general. He is co-author, along with Donald Brownlee, of the best-selling "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe," published in 2000. He is also author of "On Methuselah’s Trial: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions," and "The Natural History of Nautilus."
   The lectures, cosponsored by Princeton University Public Lectures and the Princeton University Press, are free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://lectures.princeton. edu.