Is There Life Out There?

I’ve been thinking about this topic lately. I don’t see how there cannot be other life out there. There are so many other stars out there that it seems absurd to think that we, on our tiny little speck, are the only living things in the Universe. A comment on an article I was reading about the subject said it very well.

I think it is nothing but hubris to think that, in all of space, we are the only planet with sentient life.

I think that that statement says it all. If we really are the only living things in the universe, then this is one amazing planet (which we already know that it is, but that would make it even more amazing). But, I simply cannot believe that we are the only life. Dr. Seth Shostak, the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute had this to say on the subject:

Well, it comes down to this, there is a lot of cosmic real estate. There are four or five hundred billion stars in our galaxy. There are one-hundred billion other galaxies, each with a few hundred billion stars. You add that all up, that’s a lot of real estate. So, just on the basis of the numbers, you figure that, unless this is some sort of miracle here, there is going to be other life out there and some of it is going to be intelligent.

I think that what he said there pretty well sums up how I feel about the subject. There is so much more out there. We are just this tiny little blip in space. Bill Nye puts us into perspective with the rest of the universe quite nicely.

So, I’m this guy, standing on a planet. Our planet is pretty big compared to me. Really, I’m just a speck, standing on this big planet, but the planet compared with the stars is just another speck. The Earth is orbiting the sun and the sun is a huge star and our star may be a big deal to us, but my friends, our star is just another speck. So, I’m a guy, I’m a speck, living on a speck out on the edge of the galaxy. I mean it isn’t really in downtown Milky Way, it’s way out on the side. We’re just a speck on a speck, orbiting a speck. I’ll tell you what else, there is billions and billions of stars, billions and billions of specks. And then billions of galaxies. I mean, I’m a speck living on a speck, orbiting a speck in the middle of specklessness.

If you are interested in this subject, you should check out the first episode of The Eyes of Nye, which is titled Astrobiology. It is a pretty cool show. If you don’t know what it is, it is Bill Nye’s adult science show. Check it out!

Tesla Coils Playing Mario Bros Theme

This is so awesome. If you love Tesla Coils like I do, and even if you don’t, you will think this is cool.

From Youtube

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI.
The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB.