As 21st-century telescopes transform the hunt for extraterrestrials from SF to hard science, physicist Jim Al-Khalili examines the prospects for finding life in space
Is there anybody out there? It’s a question that became inescapable as soon as Galileo turned his telescope to the heavens. The skies have been filled with fictional and philosophical speculations ever since, but 400 years later, according to the physicist Jim Al-Khalili, serious science is finally catching up.
When he joined us on the books podcast, Al-Khalili explained why a subject that has always been relegated to the fringes of scientific inquiry has moved centre stage, and how astronomers can now study planets around distant stars. The discovery of alien life, even if it was only the fossilised remains of some ancient bacterium, he argues, would be a scientific and cultural revolution to match Copernicus. But are we looking in the right places? For Al-Khalili, the answer is to ground our search for life among the stars in the basics of physics and chemistry.
Continue reading...via Science fiction | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2iTaEWM
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