I did go to the website, Sondra. I skipped out before I learned much. It sounds interesting from your description. Maybe I shall return.
Speaking of quantum physics, I'm watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos right now, which I checked out from our tiny little library in a metal pole barn. According to him, there are "Billions and Billions" of possibilities for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. He injects a lot of spirituality into the scientific method, presumably to make it palatable to the unwashed such as myself. I'm enjoying the series, which I saw on TV about 20 years ago.
Check out this video if you can: "The Privileged Planet." It explores the unique position of earth in the universe and holds the view that, unlike Sagan's billions, the possibility of life elsewhere is relatively minute because of all the conditions that have to line up perfectly. There are so many unlikely conditions that by the time you get all of them the probability is quite small. That is, if the probability of a planet being exactly the right distance from a star is 0.1, then you have to multiply that times the probability of that planet having an iron core to create a magnetic field capable of deflecting the solar wind. If that probability is 0.1, (one out of ten), then 0.1 times 0.1 is 0.01. Then there are about a dozen or so other conditions that must be met, each with an unlikely probability. Ultimately, it's 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.1 until the likelihood of ALL conditions being together at once, as they are on earth, is so remote that it defeats even Sagan's Billions.
There are other fascinating conclusions in that video, such as the conditions necessary for complex life are the very same conditions necessary for scientific observation. For example, our moon is exactly the right diameter and distance from the sun to produce a total solar eclipse, which is the only way we had to determine the composition of the sun's atmosphere. The moon was one of the conditions necessary for life, because it helps keep the earth's axis and rotation stable, thereby preventing it from frying to a crisp like Venus. There were many other examples in this video, which makes it very fascinating to an unwashed stargazer like me.
A book I'm reading right now, called "The Big Bang," explores the creation of the universe in much the same way that Sagan's Cosmos did, but in a more up to date fashion. It's written for the layman. If you are at all interested in cosmology, I recommend it to you. It's written by Simon Singh. simonsingh.com |
