1
Pluto, The Undiscovered Country - Russ McGlenn
1:24:35
The Drake Equation - Russ McGlenn
50:51
3
Cassini's Grand Finale - David Coppedge
1:49:40
4
Hydroplate Theory and Its Astounding Confirmed Predictions - Bob Enyart
1:40:12
5
The Origin of Comets, Asteroids, and TNOs - Kevin Lea
1:33:39
6
Trade Secrets of Evolution - Bruce Malone
1:07:37
7
The First Four Days Of Creation - Helmut Welke
1:26:32
8
Distant Starlight and Biblical Creation - Spike Psarris
1:26:07
9
DART Prediction and NASA Blunders - Kevin Lea
1:22:40

The Drake Equation - Russ McGlenn

3 years ago
109

A recent National Geographic article alluded to a scientific formula that "proves" we will find life in the Galaxy. My ears pricked up at that because normally neither search for extraterrestrial intelligence nor evolution have any mathematical formulas that could be used to prove or falsify a statement.

In September 1959, physicists Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published an article in the journal Nature with the provocative title "Searching for Interstellar Communications." Cocconi and Morrison argued that radio telescopes had become sensitive enough to pick up transmissions that might be broadcast into space by civilizations orbiting other stars. Soon thereafter, Radio astronomer Frank Drake hosted a "search for extraterrestrial intelligence" meeting on detecting their radio signals. The meeting was held in 1961. The equation that bears Drake's name arose out of his preparations for the meeting and is touted as proof of the existence of life in the galaxy. SETI is still searching!

What it proves depends on the assumptions and guesses you put into the equation.

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