Beam Me Up, Scotty

A few weeks ago on The Colbert Report, my favorite faux anchorman reported the discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting a distant star. A professional devil's advocate, Colbert saw this as (I'm paraphrasing) a reason to gas up the SUV, because there's another friendly rock out there. Joking aside, is it far-fetched to assume that the final frontier will be anything more than a staging ground for more stupid human tricks?

Tonight at 7 p.m., the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Boulevard, hosts the second installment of "Beyond Earth: Ethical and Political Choices in Space." During a moderated discussion, experts and audience members will consider the effects of a new space race between the U.S. and China.

"These are questions that go beyond the scientific and into the philosophical and ethical," says David Grinspoon, DMNS curator of astrobiology. Tickets are $12 for members and $15 for non-members. For more information, blast into www.dmns.org.