Excellent. So Rarely Does the News Put a Smile on My Face. We Are Not Likely Alone. Ya!

I am not sure why this mathematical probability makes me happy.

Wait. I know why. I have been saying it for years. If Humankind is the smartest species in the Universe, someone needs to go back to the drawing board and start it all over, from the beginning.

Now this story does not say that there are smarter critters than us out there, but hum, I like these odds:


Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System.

Very few of these would be capable of supporting life, however. Most are gas giants like our Jupiter, and many orbit so close to their parent stars that any microbes would have to survive roasting temperatures.

But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.

This simple calculation means there would be huge numbers capable of supporting life.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm

I am not expecting a wise and benevolent ET to show up anytime soon. And you know, a more advanced species might instead of being the benevolent tutors, might weigh, and measure us, and find us lacking, and do like what happens in that book, "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and demolish planet Earth for a hyperspace by-way.

For the record, I think that would be a total buzzkill. But I like the idea of our galaxy possibly teeming with life, instead of being a vast, colorful wasteland.