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The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life

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Gresham College

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Ian Morison on the Politics of Searching for Alien Life

02 min 54 sec

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Astronomer Ian Morison shares the history of NASA-sponsored SETI from the 1980s to present day.

Project Phoenix arose from the ashes of the NASA-funded search for alien signals thanks to individuals like Jill Tarter who sought private funding.
Ian Morison Calculates Chance of Finding E.T.

03 min 31 sec

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Astronomer Ian Morison explains how scientists assess the likelihood of discovering extraterrestrial life.

The Drake Equation balances the frequency -- "how often advanced civilizations arise" -- with the expected lifespan of that civilization.
Ian Morison Traces WOW Signal to Possible Alien Life

02 min 40 sec

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Astronomer Ian Morison remembers the mysterious "WOW" signal transmitted to an Ohio telescope named the Big Ear.

Although it is a verifiable signal, its presence still remains an unexplained transmission from beyond our solar system.
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57 min 31 sec

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There are 4 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

Fora & Fauna

Posted: 01.31.10, 05:37 AM

I think we are searching for everything but for other life. If it would be about life, then the search would end right here on earth. I think its about the human soul that cries out for answers. Imagine we would find a civilization and even communicate and find out that their knowledge is lower than ours. So the results would be: We cannot benefit from that species, so leave them be.

nightlight

Posted: 10.12.09, 08:27 PM

There are a lot of people that are plugging in numbers into the Drake equation and giving there reasons why and it is little but a exercise in theory but never the less it is interesting and does render some insight as we gain more and more knowledge of the universe we live in. I to was surprised that the current estimation of new star births in the Milky Way is only about seven. I don't think that it is totally invalid to plug in reflections of our own experience and thought, like is it likely that a technologically advanced society would destroy it's self or be subject to natural disasters like colliding with foreign objects and how long would it take for life to develop and how long would it take to develop intelligence and then develop the curiosity, technology and the will to want to communicate with intelligence outside of it's own world. Would they be asking the same questions we do, do we want to communicate, can we afford it and what are the rewards.

TadMC

Posted: 09.06.09, 09:23 PM

Its a thought experiment almost. Nothing from drakes equation is considered fact. Its just a rough number by tweeking variables. In fact the only number that is actual fact in the whole equation is the number of stars born per year

theunmovedmover

Posted: 03.26.09, 03:32 PM

Although it's all very interesting and entertaining to talk about this, how can you possibly calculate anything that has to do with the chances of life arising (let alone intelligent life) on another planet? Considering we've very little idea of how many or what kind of variables exist in any given circumstance in any place in our galaxy.