There could be aliens round every corner. (Image: Nevada Commission on Tourism)
ALIEN-hunters, take heart. A long-standing argument against finding intelligent extraterrestrial life has been roundly challenged.
The theory, suggested by astrophysicist Brandon Carter in the 1980s, assumes set timescales for two processes: the life cycle of a star, and the emergence of complex life. By statistically combining the two it concludes that complex life takes longer to emerge than the life-friendly duration of most stars. If so, we could be alone in the galaxy.
Many scientists were unhappy with this conclusion, but could not disprove it. Now a…
