ordinaryguy
Jul 20, 2008, 09:39 AM
Personally, I'd be delighted. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner we get over thinking we're so damn special, the better. What do you think?
Search for Alien Life Gains New Impetus (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071901657.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008071902028&pos=)
When Paul Butler began hunting for planets beyond our solar system, few people took him seriously, and some, he says, questioned his credentials as a scientist.
That was a decade ago, before Butler helped find some of the first extra-solar planets, and before he and his team identified about half of the 300 discovered since.
Biogeologist Lisa M. Pratt of Indiana University had a similar experience with her early research on "extremophiles," bizarre microbes found in very harsh Earth environments. She and colleagues explored the depths of South African gold mines and, to their great surprise, found bacteria sustained only by the radioactive decay of nearby rocks.
"Until several years ago, absolutely nobody thought this kind of life was possible -- it hadn't even made it into science fiction," she said. "Now it's quite possible to imagine a microbe like that living deep beneath the surface of Mars."
The experiences of these two researchers reflect the scientific explosion taking place in astrobiology, the multi-disciplined search for extreme forms of life on Earth and for possibly similar, or more advanced, life elsewhere in the solar system and in distant galaxies.
The confidence that alien life will ultimately be found is strong enough to have kindled formal discussions among scientists, philosophers, theologians and others about the implications that such a find would have for humanity's view of itself, and how to prepare the public for the news, should it come.
Search for Alien Life Gains New Impetus (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/19/AR2008071901657.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008071902028&pos=)
When Paul Butler began hunting for planets beyond our solar system, few people took him seriously, and some, he says, questioned his credentials as a scientist.
That was a decade ago, before Butler helped find some of the first extra-solar planets, and before he and his team identified about half of the 300 discovered since.
Biogeologist Lisa M. Pratt of Indiana University had a similar experience with her early research on "extremophiles," bizarre microbes found in very harsh Earth environments. She and colleagues explored the depths of South African gold mines and, to their great surprise, found bacteria sustained only by the radioactive decay of nearby rocks.
"Until several years ago, absolutely nobody thought this kind of life was possible -- it hadn't even made it into science fiction," she said. "Now it's quite possible to imagine a microbe like that living deep beneath the surface of Mars."
The experiences of these two researchers reflect the scientific explosion taking place in astrobiology, the multi-disciplined search for extreme forms of life on Earth and for possibly similar, or more advanced, life elsewhere in the solar system and in distant galaxies.
The confidence that alien life will ultimately be found is strong enough to have kindled formal discussions among scientists, philosophers, theologians and others about the implications that such a find would have for humanity's view of itself, and how to prepare the public for the news, should it come.