Posted on 03/23/2013 6:00:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin
“It is dangerous to assume life is common across the Universe.” These were the words of Charles Cockell at a Royal Society event on March 11 this year. While many people have freely debated the existence of extraterrestrial life, Cockell’s words carry a bit more weight than most. He happens to be the director of the U.K. Center for Astrobiology, based at the University of Edinburgh.
Bringing to mind the argument made by Fermi’s paradox — if the universe is teeming with life, where exactly is everyone? — this may seem at first to be a slightly pessimistic outlook. Evidently, however, the intention is not so much to pour cold water on the astrobiology research community, but to call into question our assumptions in the search for life elsewhere.
As Cockell went on to explain, ”People are encouraged to think that not finding signs of life is a ‘failure’ when in fact it would tell us a lot about the origins of life.”
In fact, this one single statement sums up what is potentially the biggest problem in astrobiology. We, quite simply, have no idea how life started. We don’t know where, how, when, or why molecules managed to replicate themselves into ever-more-complex forms and, eventually, living organisms.
Earth is the only example of a living planet that we have in the entire universe, and we don’t even understand it. Even now, biologists can still argue over what really constitutes a living thing, highlighted a couple of years ago by the discovery of giant viruses with genomes larger than some bacteria. And even if we did fully understand life here, there’s nothing to say it would be the same elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
Did you learn math from a Democrat?
/bingo
The argument a few years ago — ignoring the jackasses who claimed that exoplanets were all fake discoveries — was, oh look, no planets have been detected which are anywhere near the size of Earth. As detection of smaller and smaller exoplanets consistently improves, the arguments shift, mainly because they don’t proceed from anything but a priori rejection of such discoveries.
I’m already reconciled to the fact that I’m unique, just like everyone else.
:’D
Very rare....
Thanks. :-)
You can see we are a very long way away from speed of light = 186,000 miles per second (compared to 0.65 miles per second by SR-71).
But that is within our atmosphere. The New Horizons spacecraft is traveling 34,000 mph in space. The Apollo 10 has the speed record for a manned spacecraft at 24,791 mph.
“Earth is extremely rare. It’s fortunate that we found it.”
Yeah, well, some woman will claim it’s because she stopped and asked directions.
” So the maximum speed achieved by a man made object is 0.65 miles per second”
I think our spacecraft fly a whole lot faster than the SR-71. In fact, I know they do.
That statement assumes the author has seen the entire universe, inspected everything in it closely enough to make such a bold and sweeping statement.
I believe the universe is infinite, can't offer any proof but if not infinite, what comes beyond that? If infinite, why not an infinite number of possibilities of life elsewhere?
The universe is everything, there aren't two or more of them, no matter what the comic books say, All existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos = universe. Can there be two or more "everythings".
With the word "universe" meaning everything that exists, how can there be more than one "everything"? It defies logic.
Yeh, thats the stupid string theory stuff. My cat is an expert on string theory.
You are correct. But even the 34,000 miles/HOUR spacecraft speed is a far cry from 186,000 miles/SECOND, do you agree?
The crux of the point is that space travel to anything outside of our solar system is a pure pipe dream.
The whole concept of universe scrambles my brain. What is there beyond the end of universe? How can the Sun keep burning for billions of years? Where did the Sun come from? If the big bang theory is right, where did the material before big bang come from? Since the universe is expanding, how much space is out there for it to expand?
I think I need another drink!!
HOLY...!
Kinda forces one to conclude this must be a "fine-tuned" universe, huh? :)
The evidence for a Creator is overwhelming.
You've read it?
My best friend works for STSCI (Space Telescope Science Institute) the agency that allocates observation time on the Hubble. He's an astronomer and a physicist.
I'll be very sure to inform him of that. ;)
He's the one who turned me onto Rare Earth. He said it changed a lot of "Star Trek" life-is-common attitudes among folks in his department.
You Drake Equation folks are dinosaurs. ;) Don't hang onto an idea just because the New Idea frightens you.
Like I said, Rare Earth is a horror book.
OH, I might add: David Levy (of comet Shoemaker-Levy fame) referred to the authors as "...two of the top scientists in the field...." But what would he know?
The book has won plenty of accolades from astronomers, many of whom are extrasolar planet discoverers. Look at the dustcover.
The authors, Ward and Brownlee, make a convincing case, and a scary one. Ward, a geologist, tackles the stunning implications from his angle, and Brownlee, a professor of astronomy, lead the NASA Stardust mission and specializes in the origins of comets, meteorites, and astrobiology.
Brownlee is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. (Pre-Obama.)
Please tell me I'm able to sway your opinion, or is your mind still closed?
The Trouble With Physics by Smollin (sp?).
You're right. String Theory is this last decade's crock.
“Speaking of Ytterby, more elemnts come from Ytterby than any other single location on earth.”
I always wondered where Honda got their Elements ...
I always thought these guys were a bit suspicious:
http://www.honda.com/certified
Should the Big Boys ever decide for reasons of their own that this fringe part of this galaxy was worth paying attention to, watch the others bug out real fast.
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