You certainly get the impression that intelligence isn't a particularly useful trait for survival beyond that needed to find food and evade predators. The development of human-level intelligence seem… (View Post)

It's the fact that there are so many things that had to have happened for complex life to evolve that makes me think it is likely to be very rare. A planet of sufficient size to hold an atmosphere ci… (View Post)

I finished my degree in astrophysics in 1994, and I don't remember anyone saying there could not possibly be exoplanets. Indeed, it was generally assumed that other stars would also have planets, eve… (View Post)

With regard to the discovery of intelligent life, fi is, I think, the biggest unknown in the Drake Equation. You can't really extrapolate from a sample of one, but it seems to me that it's not ridicu… (View Post)

After a bit of a wake-up call last summer when I discovered that I had high blood pressure, I've managed to lose almost a stone over the past 6 months and have even got through Christmas without putt… (View Post)