# anyone into finding life outside earth?



## NekoFox08 (Jun 19, 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWtWwN6HATk

I doubt anyone here besides me is into astrobiology, but here ya go


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## Tycho (Jun 19, 2008)

Sure, I'm all for finding extraterrestrial life.  I've always wanted alien love slave girls, like Twi'lek dancing chicks.


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## NekoFox08 (Jun 19, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> Sure, I'm all for finding extraterrestrial life.  I've always wanted alien love slave girls, like Twi'lek dancing chicks.



ah... ahem, I was thinking more like sharing cultures and technology, therefore possibly being able to travel in mass relays, and instantaniously warp to other planets... but uh, yours works just as good (only mine would be uh, slaveboys ^_^)


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## KalebFenoir (Jun 19, 2008)

I rather hope there's other life out there. Otherwise, it's a real waste of space out there. No other life than our little mudball would make me think the Universe settled for very little.


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## Monak (Jun 19, 2008)

I can tell you with out a shadow of a doubt that there is life out there , think about it this way , if there have been millions and millions of species on our one little planet which is relativly young then there is no way we are alone , chances are most quite a few races out there are far beyond anything we could imagine.


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## KalebFenoir (Jun 19, 2008)

Monak said:


> I can tell you with out a shadow of a doubt that there is life out there , think about it this way , if there have been millions and millions of species on our one little planet which is relativly young then there is no way we are alone , chances are most quite a few races out there are far beyond anything we could imagine.


 
Precisely. The idea that there's no other life is almost unimaginable. In fact, it'd be horrifying.


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## dietrc70 (Jun 19, 2008)

I'm afraid that any intelligent life that could cross the void would do it for the same reason we would: they had screwed their own planet up and wanted to colonize a new one.


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## Hybrid Project Alpha (Jun 19, 2008)

Ah yeah, the WOW signal


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## NerdyMunk (Jun 19, 2008)

There's a variety of theories on it, but I'll go for finding extraterrestrials.


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (Jun 19, 2008)

If there were extraterrestrial life and it were intelligent life, I'd like to indulge myself in learning about their political and social structure.


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## AlexInsane (Jun 19, 2008)

The idea that there is life in our universe? Possible.

Unfortunately, travel outside our own solar system is sadly limited, and the data we gather from probes we shoot into space is minimal.

Anyway, any life we found would promptly be engaged in warfare for the mineral resources they no doubt have.


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## Tycho (Jun 19, 2008)

AlexInsane said:


> Anyway, any life we found would promptly be engaged in warfare for the mineral resources they no doubt have.



WE REQUIRE MORE VESPENE GAS! NOT ENOUGH MINERALS!


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## Azure (Jun 19, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> WE REQUIRE MORE VESPENE GAS! NOT ENOUGH MINERALS!


OBLIGATORY YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS COMMENT...


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## Tycho (Jun 19, 2008)

AzurePhoenix said:


> OBLIGATORY YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS COMMENT...



Hey, if AlexInsane wasn't deliberately setting up for a Starcraft joke, I'm Sasquatch.  It was dangling there, like a ripe fruit on a tree...


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## Foxie299 (Jun 19, 2008)

The trouble with extra terrestrial life is the time.  Sure, there's probably other life out there, but what are the chances of it existing in the same few thousand years of us, _and_ crossing the millions of light years in those thousands of years, _and_ finding our rock ... The 'ands' go on and on and on.  Odds are stacked against us, peeps.

But the Earth is beautiful -- a tiny, wonderful jewel given to us by those same improbable odds.  Nothing wrong with looking and hoping, but lets not lose sight of what we already have.


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## Azure (Jun 19, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> Hey, if AlexInsane wasn't deliberately setting up for a Starcraft joke, I'm Sasquatch.  It was dangling there, like a ripe fruit on a tree...


Hey, I'm a plucker of sorts .  And yes foxie, I think that our planet is a geological marvel.  Water in this quantity must be incredibly rare, just look at the other planets.  Also, the concentration of heavy elements on this planet allowed us to create insane things.  Planets that support this form of life are rare indeed.  It would be interesting to see what forms of life evolved outside of the kind, accomodation properties of carbon.


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## Monak (Jun 19, 2008)

Lets look at this from another angle , our star is roughly 5 billion years old , it only took 1.2 billion years for earth to form , then it took another 3.6 billion for us to show up.  Going on the best guess that our universe is 13 billion years old and that the rate of cooling before stars formed was about 3 billion years after the bang , so that means that there are star systems with three billion years on us.  Now lets say that the average galaxy has a population of 1% inhabited planet systems , you still end up with 800,000,000 planets supporting some form of life , now lets say 1% of that falls into the goldie locks zone , then you are left with 8 million planets that have taken roughly the same process of developement as Earth.  So there are roughly 8 million planets out there with a chance of having life equal to us , and a 40% chance of that life being anywhere from 1 million to 5 billion years more advanced then us.


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## Hackfox (Jun 20, 2008)

ROFL *claps* Shakiskdjgh get over here, Assume the position, I SAID ASSUME THE POSITION! xD


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## Foxie299 (Jun 20, 2008)

where:
_N_ is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible; and
_R_* is the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
_f__p_ is the fraction of those stars that have planets_n__e_ is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
_f_â„“ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
_f__i_ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
_f__c_ is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
_L_ is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space. 

The number of stars in the galaxy now, _N_*, is related to the star formation rate _R_* by





, 

where _T__g_ is the age of the galaxy. Assuming for simplicity that _R_* is constant, then N* = R* _T__g_ and the Drake equation can be rewritten into an alternate form phrased in terms of the more easily observable value, _N_*.[2]







....

Nah, I don't understand, either.  But astrophysicists seem to take it seriously.  

Also helped Gene Roddenberry get Star Trek commissioned.  There's something to Google if you're bored


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## NekoFox08 (Jun 20, 2008)

wow... heh, I'm a bit surprised that my thread did somewhat successfull =^_^=

anyway, I think we should be getting to the point to where we don't say "IF there is life", and start saying, "there IS life". we don't have all the proof in the world because we searching not even .1% of out galaxy (if you didn't catch that, I put a dot in front of the 1 XD) for alien life form. say BEST case scenario, we manage to have searched our entire galaxy... think about it. we just finished searching OUR galaxy... out of the billions and billions of other galaxies. 

I like to put in this way. how long would it take to walk from one end of the earth, to the other? how long would it take to get from one planet to another? how long would it take to get from our planet, to pluto? THEN how long would it take to get from the milkyway, to another of the billions of galaxies? X3 it's truly amazing!

we just need patience... ahem* roughly thousands of years worth of patience... but still XD

we WILL find life outside our solar system


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## Karukatsu (Jun 20, 2008)

It's kind of selfish to say were the only creatures in the universe. And being such a big space science nerd I like to find new things. So yes finding life off this mudball we call home would be nice.


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## Azure (Jun 20, 2008)

Karukatsu said:


> It's kind of selfish to say were the only creatures in the universe. And being such a big space science nerd I like to find new things. So yes finding life off this mudball we call home would be nice.


It's a nice mudball .


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## KalebFenoir (Jun 20, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> The trouble with extra terrestrial life is the time. Sure, there's probably other life out there, but what are the chances of it existing in the same few thousand years of us, _and_ crossing the millions of light years in those thousands of years, _and_ finding our rock ... The 'ands' go on and on and on. Odds are stacked against us, peeps.
> 
> But the Earth is beautiful -- a tiny, wonderful jewel given to us by those same improbable odds. Nothing wrong with looking and hoping, but lets not lose sight of what we already have.


 
Well maybe not as astronomical as you might think. I mean, even though WE are currently bound to the inner solar system (excluding damned robot probes), we've so far mapped out what, 275....320 or so extrasolar systems? Some with the potential to have rocky inner worlds? If we can manage to develop a new telescope design that permits us to focus in past the glare of the parent star, we might start seeing our neighbour worlds.

And on the flip side... if some of THOSE systems are the ones with intelligent life, perhaps on par with our level of tech or higher... don't you think they might have already spotted us, much the way we spotted them? If we can find nearly 300 systems, and who knows how many worlds, with our relatively 'simple' tech (we don't even use exotic technology yet, since it doesn't yet exist, or exists in experimental designs), then there's nothing against THEM being able to see US.

'Course, the Distance is the thing that's a real killer... no way around that one unless one of us starts snapping the continuum like a whip to see if we can get somewhere in under a lifetime. XD Otherwise, it's time to build those colony ships. (which, I feel, we should be doing anyway, given the fact that the smallest mistake on our part on our world could destroy modern civilization. XP Like, say, flipping the wrong switch at a powerstation)


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## Tycho (Jun 20, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> *mathematical gabbledegak*



My brain hurts so bad right now.

I'm going to find one of these astrophysicists and get him to translate this to stupid-layman-ese for me.


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## NekoFox08 (Jun 20, 2008)

KalebFenoir said:


> 'Course, the Distance is the thing that's a real killer...



two words... dark matter


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## Monak (Jun 20, 2008)

NekoFox08 said:


> two words... dark matter



Dark matter is there , as well as takions , what I imagine the human race will find is that they are infact one in the same.  So what we have to do is not build a means to reach FTL speeds but simply capture particals  already moving at FTL speed I.E. Takions.  We already found out how to curve , slow , and stop light beams , which means we are on the way to figuring out how to build a dark matter decelirator , but not using our finds to make such things. You see so many new sciences that when applied together could get us to the hyperspace age , but we refuse to combine efforts so amazing break throughs like photonic harddrives will be applied to making an ipod that can store 20 terabytes of music , movies , and porno.  We as nerds have a responsibility to make our way of thinking trendy and turn the human race back into the academia it was in greek times , where the most forward thinking are given celebrity and the power to move us forward.  When the library burned and the dark age came we stagnated as a race , it is time we pull ourselves from the age of heresy and stupidity and move forward as a race worthy to rub elbows with our galactic neighbors.

Also I was just watching the news , and I would like to say THEY FOUND IT! WATER ICE ON MARS! THEY FOUND ICE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


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## NekoFox08 (Jun 20, 2008)

Monak said:


> Also I was just watching the news , and I would like to say THEY FOUND IT! WATER ICE ON MARS! THEY FOUND ICE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



so would you think, there's undeniably no question that there was previously life on mars? in order for life to exist, you need hydrogen, oxygen (and that other name I can't remember XD), plus you'd need a suitable temperature in which water won't freeze or evaporate. so yea, the whole WAS life on mars, but do you think it's possible to re-inhabit mars one day? just a stupid question :grin:


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## Monak (Jun 20, 2008)

NekoFox08 said:


> so would you think, there's undeniably no question that there was previously life on mars? in order for life to exist, you need hydrogen, oxygen (and that other name I can't remember XD), plus you'd need a suitable temperature in which water won't freeze or evaporate. so yea, the whole WAS life on mars, but do you think it's possible to re-inhabit mars one day? just a stupid question :grin:



A quick fix to terraforming would be to set off nuclear class chemical weapons which would create an abondance of greenhouse gases , if they atmosphere held , then we would have to work on mass producing CO2 then introduce plants slowly , till an oxygen enviroment took hold.  Then the big challenge would be the long term fix , I think we could duplicate a magnetosphere artificially with a little bit of practice and that would perminately fix the atmosphere to mars.  As for life having been on Mars , they already found a fossilized microbe , though everyone wants to say its not.  One of the many obiters photographed some massive cave openings and until they are explored we will never know if there is life or liquid water still on Mars.  Although I did love the blown up picture from the spirit rover that looked like bigfoot.


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## KalebFenoir (Jun 21, 2008)

Monak said:


> A quick fix to terraforming would be to set off nuclear class chemical weapons which would create an abondance of greenhouse gases , if they atmosphere held , then we would have to work on mass producing CO2 then introduce plants slowly , till an oxygen enviroment took hold. Then the big challenge would be the long term fix , I think we could duplicate a magnetosphere artificially with a little bit of practice and that would perminately fix the atmosphere to mars. As for life having been on Mars , they already found a fossilized microbe , though everyone wants to say its not. One of the many obiters photographed some massive cave openings and until they are explored we will never know if there is life or liquid water still on Mars. Although I did love the blown up picture from the spirit rover that looked like bigfoot.


 
To have life 'like us'... you'd need those materials. If you start with crystalline based life/silicon life, you don't need oxygen. All ya need is heat, light, a touch of shadow, and a decent enough mineral supply. (makes me wonder why we haven't found some real crystalline life here on earth. Perhaps oxygen is detrimental to such life?)


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## Foxie299 (Jun 21, 2008)

KalebFenoir said:


> To have life 'like us'...



Well, that's the problem, in my opinion.  Our search criteria are far too narrow.  We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the beds of the oceans on our world.  We need to explore and understand our own world so, if we do find something off it, we know what we're looking at.  Even, we know what to look _for_. 

The nuclear option is viable, but we'd need to wait several million years for the radiation to get to a safe point.  Far more sensible to wait until we can do things a bit more sympathetically.  

As for dark matter, I'm afraid I'm yet to be convinced.  Barking up the wrong tree.  Circumventing the known laws of physics is what science is all about, but not chasing fairies.  

Oh, Tycho, translation: life on planets other than Earth = I dunno ... maybe ...


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## Monak (Jun 21, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> Well, that's the problem, in my opinion.  Our search criteria are far too narrow.  We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the beds of the oceans on our world.  We need to explore and understand our own world so, if we do find something off it, we know what we're looking at.  Even, we know what to look _for_.
> 
> The nuclear option is viable, but we'd need to wait several million years for the radiation to get to a safe point.  Far more sensible to wait until we can do things a bit more sympathetically.
> 
> ...



Neutron bombs would be the nuclear weapon already able to do the job , tweak them with a chemical payload , and light Mars up like a christmas tree.  The radioactive dispersal rate of a neutron bomb is only a couple of weeks so we would be left with a greenhouse heavy planet to do what we wish with.       
As for the dark matter its out there , we are just to pig headed to do what it takes to find it.  I mean we found anti matter , hell we even have micro vacuums with single anti matter protons sealed inside.  We are on the crest of the human races greatest break throughs , we just need to take the leap


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## Foxie299 (Jun 21, 2008)

Monak said:


> As for the dark matter its out there , we are just to pig headed to do what it takes to find it.  I mean we found anti matter , hell we even have micro vacuums with single anti matter protons sealed inside.  We are on the crest of the human races greatest break throughs , we just need to take the leap



I appreciate and sympathize with the idea that we need to get rid of our hang-ups and just run until we run out of places to run.

I don't see how harnessing dark matter would work, though.  It doesn't interact with the universe as we know of, and the equations still don't balance on paper.  

See, this is the story of dark matter:
Group of scientists #1:  we think the universe is going to get more spread out and colder.
Group of scientists #2: we think the universe is going to get so big, and then start to contract.
Both:  well, it all depends on the weight of the universe.

Group of scientists #3:  the universe isn't heavy enough for a 'big crunch'.

Group of scientists #2:  no, wait ... hang on ... okay, right ... There's all this matter, right, all this matter which would make the universe heavy enough.  Only, yeah, only you can't see it, feel it, hear it -- in fact, you can't detect it _in any way_.  So, yeah, we're right.


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## NekoFox08 (Jun 21, 2008)

just incase any of you are interested, they're doing a special (I think it's about the moon though) on Discovery channel on june 22nd at 9-11 pm =^_^=


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## Foxie299 (Jun 21, 2008)

Always up for a good documentary, but I live in Wales.  The closest I can get to the Discovery Channel is the wildlife hanging around the local shops.  Stoopid scallies.


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## An Sionnach Rua (Jun 21, 2008)

You're all forgetting that before you can ask "Is there extraterrestrial life?" you must first answer "What is life?".


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## Tycho (Jun 21, 2008)

Monak said:


> Neutron bombs would be the nuclear weapon already able to do the job , tweak them with a chemical payload , and light Mars up like a christmas tree.  The radioactive dispersal rate of a neutron bomb is only a couple of weeks so we would be left with a greenhouse heavy planet to do what we wish with.
> As for the dark matter its out there , we are just to pig headed to do what it takes to find it.  I mean we found anti matter , hell we even have micro vacuums with single anti matter protons sealed inside.  We are on the crest of the human races greatest break throughs , we just need to take the leap



...
...
/facepalm


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## KalebFenoir (Jun 22, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> Well, that's the problem, in my opinion. Our search criteria are far too narrow. We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the beds of the oceans on our world. We need to explore and understand our own world so, if we do find something off it, we know what we're looking at. Even, we know what to look _for_.
> 
> The nuclear option is viable, but we'd need to wait several million years for the radiation to get to a safe point. Far more sensible to wait until we can do things a bit more sympathetically.
> 
> ...


 
I agree. We need to start finding out if some of these theoretical alternate life-form designs can actually work. Crystalline, gaseous, even perhaps energy based (what if it turns out there's a living creature in the heart of a furnace? But it's so alien we can't figure out how to talk to it?)


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## reigoskeiter (Jun 22, 2008)

an life outside earth?
hmm...if its better then living on the earth then


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## Tycho (Jun 22, 2008)

KalebFenoir said:


> Crystalline, gaseous, even perhaps energy based (what if it turns out there's a living creature in the heart of a furnace? But it's so alien we can't figure out how to talk to it?)



There was an episode of Doctor Who that involved a sun-type star that was actually a living being.  The concept intrigued me.


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## Foxie299 (Jun 22, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> There was an episode of Doctor Who that involved a sun-type star that was actually a living being.  The concept intrigued me.



The episode itself was beyond dire, even by Chris Chibnall standards.  

Maybe there are fire sprites out there.  It'd be a laugh if all those backwards cultures were right the whole time, eh?


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## Monak (Jun 22, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> ...
> ...
> /facepalm



why the facepalm?


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## Tycho (Jun 22, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> The episode itself was beyond dire, even by Chris Chibnall standards.



You know the one I'm talking about? With that ship falling into the sun, and the crazy possessed dude vaporizing people?


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## Foxie299 (Jun 23, 2008)

Tycho The Itinerant said:


> You know the one I'm talking about? With that ship falling into the sun, and the crazy possessed dude vaporizing people?



'Burn with me' ..?

Yep.  It was called _42_, and it was dire.


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## BenP321 (Jun 24, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> Yep.  It was called _42_, and it was dire.



It was a bad episode. This season seems to be going o.k though.
But some episodes are just an embarrassment to the BBC. Such as the one with the giant wasp. Such a ridicules story. 

I guess 2001 has just ruined all other sci-fi for me now!


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## KalebFenoir (Jun 25, 2008)

Monak said:


> Neutron bombs would be the nuclear weapon already able to do the job , tweak them with a chemical payload , and light Mars up like a christmas tree. The radioactive dispersal rate of a neutron bomb is only a couple of weeks so we would be left with a greenhouse heavy planet to do what we wish with.
> As for the dark matter its out there , we are just to pig headed to do what it takes to find it. I mean we found anti matter , hell we even have micro vacuums with single anti matter protons sealed inside. We are on the crest of the human races greatest break throughs , we just need to take the leap


 
Well, if you're talking about firing up the Large Hadron Supercollider that's buried under Geneva... I'd think twice. Personally, when something is written (by the people who built it), to have even the most miniscule chance of, oh, say, erasing the universe as we know it, or at the very least, turning the planet into a ball of gaseous molecules and 'strangelets'... I say don't fire it up. I'm all for knowledge and the quest for it, but there's some places I don't think we should push into. One of them is trying to duplicate the Big Bang, even on a lab level. Too big a chance of something going horrifically wrong.


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## Foxie299 (Jun 25, 2008)

Recreate the Big Bang in a lab?  That's brilliant!  I say we go for it.  I mean, if you're going to cock something up, do it with _style_.  If I'm ever in a position where getting it wrong means the end of all life as we know it, then damn, I've succeeded in life.  I'd push that big red button with a huge grin on my face.


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## BenP321 (Jun 25, 2008)

Foxie299 said:


> Recreate the Big Bang in a lab?  That's brilliant!  I say we go for it.  I mean, if you're going to cock something up, do it with _style_.  If I'm ever in a position where getting it wrong means the end of all life as we know it, then damn, I've succeeded in life.  I'd push that big red button with a huge grin on my face.



I just like the way the BBC says "it could have unforeseen consequences" in their news article about the LHC. And as all Half-Life fans know, that's the level which is when scientists at Black Mesa carry out an experiment that basically causes the end of the world!
It maybe a very appropriate description 

Here is the articlehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7468966.stm


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## M. LeRenard (Jun 27, 2008)

Aw... how did I miss this thread?  This is my specialty.  Maybe because it's in the TV section for some reason.


			
				Foxie299 said:
			
		

> Drake equation...


This is just the equation a fellow came up with a while back to predict the chances of intelligent life other than us in the universe.  It's handy, but a lot of the variables so far can't be observed directly and so have to be given an educated guess, so the actual answer isn't exactly agreed upon.  Most tend to believe it's more than zero, though.


			
				Monak said:
			
		

> Dark matter garglemesh


Tachyons are hypothetical particles that travel faster than light, and thus have the curious property of being able to go backwards in time (due to the mathematics of special relativity).  Their existence would be cool, but there's a paradox: suppose we build a tachyon detector, and that we shot a beam of tachyons at this detector.  Then when the tachyons are detected, this triggers the beam of tachyons to shut off.  Supposing the tachyon traveled backwards through time and triggered the shut off mechanism before the tachyon itself was sent?  So it's generally assumed that such a particle isn't real.


> We already found out how to curve , slow , and stop light beams , which means we are on the way to figuring out how to build a dark matter decelirator


No, we're not, because no one even knows what dark matter is.  Of course we can slow down light, and even stop it: glass does that, as does air, crystals, and a whole host of other things (refraction occurs because light slows down: this has been known since Copernicus).  But light obviously doesn't interact with dark matter (otherwise we'd be able to see it), so these two phenomena are completely unrelated.


			
				Monak said:
			
		

> Also I was just watching the news , and I would like to say THEY FOUND IT! WATER ICE ON MARS! THEY FOUND ICE!


They've known that there was water on Mars for 400 years.  This discovery is more concerned with analyzing the ice that they already knew was there.


			
				Foxie299 said:
			
		

> As for dark matter, I'm afraid I'm yet to be convinced. Barking up the wrong tree. Circumventing the known laws of physics is what science is all about, but not chasing fairies.


Dark matter is real: we've observed its effect on galaxies, the expansion of the universe, and even took a picture of it (well, you know what I mean: indirectly).  We're still in the beginning stages of understanding it, though.  But it's not a fairy.


			
				Foxie299 said:
			
		

> It doesn't interact with the universe as we know of


*cough*
Why else would it have been postulated?


			
				Foxie299 said:
			
		

> Group of scientists #2: no, wait ... hang on ... okay, right ... There's all this matter, right, all this matter which would make the universe heavy enough. Only, yeah, only you can't see it, feel it, hear it -- in fact, you can't detect it in any way. So, yeah, we're right.


Because that's what observations showed, dating back to Edwin Hubble and later confirmed by countless others.  This is all rooted in very clear observational data and well-known theory, friend.  It's not just an excuse.  Try studying it a little before you make judgments.


			
				Tycho The Itinerant said:
			
		

> There was an episode of Doctor Who that involved a sun-type star that was actually a living being. The concept intrigued me.


Haven't people found organic molecules inside of stars, too?  I say, why not?


			
				KalebFenoir said:
			
		

> Well, if you're talking about firing up the Large Hadron Supercollider that's buried under Geneva... I'd think twice.


Nothing is going to happen.  The folks running it even went ahead and, out of the kindness of their hearts, double and triple checked, both theory and observation, and found no reason to worry.  Consider this: every second, incredibly volatile objects like white dwarfs or neutrons stars are bombarded with cosmic rays of energies much higher than any particle beams that could possibly be created with the LHC.  The fact is, we don't see those objects imploding into black holes created by these collisions, EVER.  So nothing is going to happen.  Rest easy.

As for the original topic, they're sending up a new orbiter in 2010 called Keplar to track transitions of small planets across stars (and I think it's also equipped with a spectroscope, to determine atmospheric composition), so our knowledge of extra-solar planets should be increasing a great deal within the next couple of years.  Though I think they should have gone with the Terrestrial Planet Finder, which uses interferometry to block out the parent star's light (thus not requiring the planet's orbit to be along our line of vision and increasing the number of potential bodies we could detect), but I guess that one got canned for some reason.


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## Kanic (Jul 10, 2008)

Yeah I'm into finding extraterrestrial life. I just hope the extraterrestrial life we find doesn't end up being war like and technologically superior because then it will be just what happens in all of those video games and movies. The Earth gets the hell beaten out of it. XD


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