Many of the great hoaxes of the past 50 years have involved reports of UFOs, extraterrestrial visitors, and contact with distant space civilizations.
Even on the week of April Fools' Day, however, Seth Shostak is seriously listening to the stars. As a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, Shostak spends endless hours analyzing bursts of electronic noise drifting through the cosmos, captured by radio telescopes. SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

He and his colleagues have never found proof anyone…or anything… "up there" is trying to make contact. He readily accepts the jokes that shower down on his efforts. But when this smiling, easygoing man ambles into my studio, he is clearly out to make believers of us all.

You can find the rest of the story here.

Thanks for this Very interesting Story, and welcome to the SETI@home Science

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli
"I am convinced that human flight is possible and practical."
-- Wilbur Wright, 1899

> Thanks for this Very interesting Story, and welcome to the SETI@home
> Science

Oh, yeah!


45°43'28"N 8°36'35"E QTH Locator: JN45HR

we make it better no ET needs ;-)))
[/url]
IN MEMORY OF CARL SAGAN.1934-1996

Everyone can believe in what they want. I believe that there is something out there, since otherwise it would just be .. well.. a drag if there wasn't :)

I didn't check out the story, but here's my two cents, so to speak.

The Frank Drake equation:

N=R*f(p)*n(e)*f(l)*f(i)*f(c)*L

N = Life.
R = Average rate of star formation. 10 stars every year in our galaxy.
= 10
f(p) = Stars containing planetary systems. 1 out of 10 are capable to sustain planets.
= 0.1 (10%)
n(e) = Earth-like planets.
= 1 (Earth)
f(l) = Planets containing carbon-based life.
= 1 (100% chance that a suitable planet will contain life)
f(i) = Intelligent species.
= 1-4 (species on earth qualified as intelligent species)
f(c) = Communicating intelligent species.
= 0.1-0.2 (10-20% wants to communicate with others)
L = Lifetime of a civilization (years).
= 10 000 ((years)Human race. This can be even a larger number.)

In our galaxy there are about 100 billion stars (100 000 000 000 stars).

N=10 x 0.1 x 1 x 1 x 4 x 0.2 x 10 000 = 8 000
or
N=10 x 0.1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 0.1 x 10 000 = 1 000

Meaning that every 1 000th or 8 000th star in this galaxy has a solarsystem containing life. Ofcourse the resulting value varies due the different possible factors. The number of galaxies in this universe is huge. So go figure.

Just to give you all something to consider ;)

regards

--J

too much work to make all this mathematica stuff ;-)))
he MEN it s summer sun,girls,drinks,fresh air and 1001 things
greetings guido OOPS
IN MEMORY OF CARL SAGAN.1934-1996

You're right there, Guido_Waldenmeier_and_Katze_Tom ;)

It was merely meant as a fun point to consider when thinking about this "is there anyone out there" thing :)

After all, Mr. Drake took all the time and effort into thinking about it and come up with a mathematical equation for it all.. as we all know, the only true universal language is mathematics :) Besides, we can all change the factors to our liking and see what crops up, maybe ET next door, or a bit further?

Just something to make time pass if someone doesn't have much else to do *looks at a mirror in shame* :P

Happy crunching!

--J