It's a Zoom Recorder, all those dials are for various mics that can get plugged into it and monitored independently. It also happens to have a built in mic which is what he's using!
Wherever or wherever they find it...leave it there! Don't bring it back! I always think of that movie, Andromeda Strain", 1971. Even on our own planet, plants, animals even microbes can get out of hand when taken out of their own environment. Plenty of examples past and present.
It's really unlikely it'll be a problem, pathogens on earth evolved specifically to attack life on earth, and we have massively complex immune systems that will kill anything that's not adapted to get around it. If there are microbes on mars or in the Venus atmosphere they'll probably be evolved for those environments and won't work well on earth at all. Not that we shouldn't be careful though.
Have you noticed how many small space stations and starship that are blown up due to some infection in Star Trek? Expendable off Earth science labs. We could use a similar approach.
@@michaelpettersson4919 I agree. I also think something like Star Trek's, "Prime Directive" should be established/implemented. Due to the nature of our species tho, I doubt it will happen.
Love Crichton's Andromeda Strain (honestly the film was good, but the book is wayyy better). There are many questions that remain about whether we are ready to bring samples back to Earth that may or may not contain alien life. I personally lean toward it being likely to not be any threat at all, but that slim little possibility is enough to justify asking some serious questions and maybe being extra thoughtful in how we return such samples.
@@DrDeuteron That's good to know! I normally have the gain cranked up to 8 and keep the mic a bit further away since I mostly focus on video. Might be time to step up my game and invest in a serious audio system (though the Zoom H6 has been a decent mic for many years).
When we ask the aliens what gravity are and they do not know, we ask if the universe are infinite and they do not know, we ask what is inside black holes, and they do not know, we loose interest
And the rest of us that are interested in this, and other, you tube channels that try to answer those questions for us, wonder why you even bothered to make such an ignorant and useless comment.
Don't worry guys. We are all there is. You want alien life? I'm sure humanity will create it as we spread out and conduct biological experiments. I for one enjoy it being just us. That means the universe is our playground.
Of all the planets and the stars There are no others quite like ours. What worlds have life? We know of one: Blue and white, third from the Sun; A gleaming gem in velvet space That circles in it’s privileged place And dances in a grand design; This planet Earth, this home of mine. And as we look out at the stars And wonder: are there worlds like ours? I know it wouldn’t be by chance; I’ve met the One who calls the Dance Of planets, stars, the cosmic breeze, The pirouetting galaxies. My home is not a pale blue dot, Adrift in space, that fate forgot. It soars amid the starry stream Suspended in a golden beam. There’s not a chance that chance evolved This universe, nor was involved; Too finally tuned, too much a plan, The stars, the Sun, this Home of Man.
I doubt we'll ever run into alien life. We might even be the only intelligent life in the galaxy. The only intelligent life in the universe? The odds of that seem infinitesimal and my ego just isn't that big.
GAIA was "only" able to see about 2 billion stars in the milky way, but we estimate that there may be as many as 400 billion - is there any way that we can increase the number we can see with future missions? Are there any plans to do so?
Lets say we find life on another world in our solar system. The big question then becomes whether it shares heritage with life on Earth. If it doesn't, that makes it much more likely that the great filter that causes us to not have noticed intelligent aliens around other stars is in front of us, rather than behind us.
I like how we can barely see earth strength broadcast signals from 100 light years but somehow we have shown something about ruling out other civilizations. All we have ruled out is ludicrous levels of rearranging entire galaxies which may never have been a realistic metric.
@@hugegamer5988 The galaxy is old enough that a spacefaring civilization could have colonized all of it, even with slow colony ships. If abiogenesis is so easy as to happen twice in one solar system, it means the lower limit of number of worlds with any life in the galaxy goes from one, to at least tens of billions, more likely hundreds of billions. That means the liklihood that we're facing an extinction level threat we don't know about also increases billions of times.
Life with an independent origin says nothing about whether or not there is a filter, as it says nothing about the number of dead civilisations out there. It could be that the filter is between microbial life and complex life. We just can’t tell.
This interview was intellectually delicious. I feel like my mind and imagination have just finished dessert and I'm happily full. Thank you Fraser for this amazing guest.
I don't expect ETL would be radically different in terms of DNA or coding. Biology is bounded by the limits of chemistry and exploitable energy. While there are many different amino acids, some are suited to being folded into a protein and others are not. That also brings another limiting factor into play which is the charge states of elements and how that produces a chiral bias in biomolecular compounds like sugars. The bounding put in place by these factors would drive life to resemble what we have already observed.
Now I want to take a class on everything groovy. Maybe even getting my doctorate in it, just so I can be "The Other Professor of Everything Groovy" Lol at the journalist part of you taking over at the end
When the Astronauts finally reach Mars, their musculature will be so weakend that they won't be able to do much. No amount of workout has prevented muscle loss of the ISS crews. If the Mars expedition makes it back, the crew may very well never be able to recover entirely.
To go to Mars on the chemical fuel timeline, what you say is likely correct. As I see it, to go takes ample radiation shielding, a vessel large enough for spin gravity at Earth levels and so large the inner ear isn't confused and finally some sort of faster propulsion. Given how well robots are doing just send them for the foreseeable future.
Refuel a ship in orbit to allow for a longer burn. If possible add an rotating habitat. The simulated gravity do not need to reach 1G as long at it have something. And combine that with the gymn. Medical research could perhaps yield something of use like something that slows down the muscle and bone mass loss. Every little thing may only help a little but together it should hopefully be enough.
Indeed, but there are some ingenious ways around this. Robert Zubrin highlighted in The Case for Mars in 1996 the work that had been done for decades in showing that we could use a spin on the spacecraft to replicate some amount of gravity on the transit between Earth and Mars, and I think that's likely to be incorporated into whatever our first human missions to the Red Planet will look like.
we're causally alone. so. happy lonely photonic cones everyone. now let's be more alone and leave this pestilent rock for something crisper and nicer like an L2 civilization
It's hard to imagine a case where we find out any time soon that we are alone. There's just so much space our there to explore. But say some thousands of years from now whatever remains of our biosphere has now gone out and settled worlds across the galaxy and still hasn't found anything, it would be compelling to think they may be the only life... until some other thing from another galaxy shows up :)
@@charlesgibson2171Are you not counting planet earth and it's trilions of lifeforms as not part of the universe or are you trying to gaslight us to think we are not real?
@@AM-gx3dy what? I'm pretty sure the op was just saying how there is a possibility. I have no idea why you asked for clarification. Both of your replies seem to be arguing with people you agree with. Have a great life, it won't involve me ever again
@@hive_indicator318 Sir...read his coment again. There is life in the universe... We are in thw universe We are alive Our universe is capable of generating life, it doesnt matter you think we are made by god, or science, or both, or none. We still alive In the universe This is not for debate.
It may be some time, but at least with Europa Clipper launching next month (and JUICE already on the way) we'll start learning a lot more about Europa soon. And if things like the Icefin robot end up going under that ice in the next couple of decades, that would be exceptionally awesome!
I have question for you! Can to black holes colide directly, without orbiting each other? What kind of power would be made, and how would that gravitional wave look like?
Ken Nealson, who's great at answering emails, is my favorite astrobiologist. If he could send a lander to one place, it would be the hot springs of Ganymede. Reach out to him!
Why are we able to use isotope ratios to determine what body an object is from? It makes sense for extrasolar objects, but for in-system objects, everything formed from the same proto-planetary disc. Wouldn't they all have the same ratios?
I've been fascinated by astronomy for 60 years and have come to the same conclusion as what you believe, that there is no other life in the universe. In fact, I concluded that 30 years ago and now I am even more convinced of it than ever. I really hope I'm proved wrong though. ;)
I always listen to these while running or mowing the lawn, but I had to come back just to comment, this is one of the best interviewees you’ve had on the show! Interesting and very well spoken, love his energy! Here’s to hoping we make a ground breaking discovery within the next decade or so.
Turbulent? Are you talking about solar wind? Perhaps the colonisation could be a turbulent process? Countless millions of people living on space habitats slowly drifting away into space.
@@michaelpettersson4919 I'm talking about spacetime, not things in spacetime. I've always seen the assumption that expansion in the early universe is smooth because of how fast it happened. It seems to me that it could not have been very smooth due to the fact that we see galaxies very early in history. Maybe expansion wasn't very smooth, as assumed.
@@takanara7 We can see differences in spacetime from one place to another today (that's how gravitational lensing works). So, could the expansion of spacetime be non-uniform (turbulent)? It seems obvious that it can't be totally uniform, but would that cause vortexes and such? Does enthalpy cause it to try to equalize potential energy across areas with variations?
Having the same type of DNA does not mean a shared origin. It could be that is how life works regardless of where it arises. DNA, as we know, it could be a universal law.
I think it could have an impact but I don’t think it’s possible to determine how much of an impact it would have now. However, studies and polls going back to the 1960s have shown that the overwhelming majority of the American public couldn’t care less about the existence of extraterrestrial life. So, Fraser is right. Most people would forget about it within a month or so. For example, a poll in the 1960s asked Americans about how they would react to contact by an extraterrestrial intelligence and they said it would have no affect on their beliefs or behavior.
The search for life is one of the most important questions that science has. We should be using a range of quick, cost effective missions to a range of planets. The idea of putting an enormous budget into one manned mission to mars is absolutely the wrong approach. You are putting all your eggs in one basket and they are crazy expensive golden eggs. I also disagree that a human can do better sample gathering than a rover. A rover can cover a much bigger range of envorinments over much bigger distances than a short duration human mission can achieve. With our current technology all missions to planets should be robot missions. The complications & cost of keeping humans alive with a high safety margin just can't be justified. Dr Lau describes arguments for different types of chemical life, different types of environments & different planets. So why does he want NASA to use all it's budget getting humans to mars?
we absolutely need more robots in the solar system. The public seems fairly uninterested in what humans are doing in space. Meanwhile, the 7th floor at NASA HQ is entirely staffed by astronauts. Leave the human stuff to the private sector, and put metal on enceledaus, europa, get those mars samples, radar Venus again, more Titan action, too.
Human beings are explorers by nature. Here on Earth, the urge to constantly "go where no man has gone before", has resulted in many innovations and discoveries while pushing the upper and outer limits of known human endurance and resilience. Some of those discoveries were in unexpected areas such as medicine and food preservation. In space, medical discoveries and innovation will be (among many unknown others) in setting up and protecting the human body for prolonged space trips. This is part of why that singular push is required to open the gates of research and development, much of which is already underway. Now sadly, we don't expect to be using space jet equivalents any time soon, after all, we went thousands of years of sailing and oars to get from coast to coast until engines came along....
What happened when the Spanish found Indians? Ritual murder was accepted and worshipped by them. This practice was abhorrent and caused serious revulsion among the Spanish. Where the Spanish justified in stopping murder by using force? Would you stand asside and join in the human sacrifice culture? This is what alien contact will be like.
I think I am coming around to your thinking that we are alone. It's a little depressing but there it is. Even if there are/were/will be other civs... the time is the big factor. 100, 1000, 1 million years for the light or signals to get here... can civilization last that long? I used to think of it as a math problem and that the pure numbers would make it inevitable that life was out there, but the older I get and the more I learn the less likely it all seems to be. Even here on Earth. Let's say that Dolphins really are as intelligent as us... they still can't BUILD anything. So, finding a technological society in our timeframe close enough that it might still exist seems ridiculously optimistic,
Thing about extremophiles - did they *originate* in the extreme environment, or did they originate in gentler places, and *evolve* to tolerate the extreme environment? Because if it is the latter, they don't tell us anything about the origin of life, either here, or on other planets, and they can't be used as evidence that life could originate on extreme planets - merely that life could *survive* there, once they had originated somewhere less extreme.
We could land a man on Mars because we know that we have the technology to survive in space (ISS) or an airless world (Moon) for limited periods of time. To land on Venus with a surface pressure of 1350psi and a surface temperature of 872F is and will be impossible for as long as we can imagine.
Discovering alien intelligence would be a game changer. Discovering simple cellular life would be cool, but ultimately not life changing. Of course, there are some possibilities in between.
Hey Fraser, I am here with a question. Is it possible to cure near sightedness theoretically by placing a micro black hole in front of the eye through gravitational lensing? If yes, how big that black hole needs to be if there are any calculations.
I question the wisdom of advertizing our presence. But given that we have been radiating for over a century and a quarter, it probably doesnt much matter...
Possible to have a program about X-ray polarimetry? Normally used to study accreting Black Holes & Neutron Stars can this technique be used for the formation of stars and planetary systems? Do the current missions and telescopes have enough resolution to study these fainter accretions? Which mission would enable clearer observations? Are already being built or planned?
If Musk is allowed to land two Starships on Mars within two years (which I HIGHLY doubt, but anyway) which can't even remotely be properly prepped in line with planetary protection methods required to prevent widespread biological contamination of Mars, at least with Mars we will then no longer be able to be certain of an answer to one of the most important questions in science - did any evidence of life or past life evolve there independently.
Ok. Lets say for argument's sake, that we do discover microbial life on Mars. Does that mean humans can never go there to prevent contamination with earth life that might out-compete native life? How do we avoid contamination?
Would it make sense to build a space based radiotelescope to listen for signals equivalent to the JWST? They could "listen" without terrestrial signal interference.
Thank you for this interview. It was my favorite interview that you have ever done. It was so thought provoking and covered all of the topics that I am curious about. Graham shared so many thoughts on “life” in general and ways of thinking about what life could be in such an easy manner with all of the curiosity of a child. It also frightens me that we could possibly be alone-at least in our corner of the universe. I am going to view this interview again. I hope Graham will come back and speak on this channel again.
If there was life at Europa's Deep Sea Vents would we be able to tell from just under the ice? Or, would we have to send something deeper? I'm talking about indications of life. Not shrimp in front of the camera lens.
BEARD WARS. Two beards enter, one beard leaves.
BEARD WARS II: The Ascension of Kyle Hill
is that microphone alien technology?
That question also comes to my mind. :)
It's a Zoom Recorder, all those dials are for various mics that can get plugged into it and monitored independently. It also happens to have a built in mic which is what he's using!
It looks like something they recovered from Roswell👽
@@sithraeil I believe all the huge leaps we've made in the past 50+ years, are somehow connected to non terrestrial means...
Borg technology
Fraser C way behind with that beard 😂
No kidding.
Nailed the coloration though
That's an impressive beard 😊
I don't think Son of Anarchy have a req out for "science journalist, must ride Harley". Fraser will be fine.
Stop looking at Frazier's behind you freak
existential crisis...
extraterrestrial crisis?
.
Wherever or wherever they find it...leave it there! Don't bring it back! I always think of that movie, Andromeda Strain", 1971. Even on our own planet, plants, animals even microbes can get out of hand when taken out of their own environment. Plenty of examples past and present.
It's really unlikely it'll be a problem, pathogens on earth evolved specifically to attack life on earth, and we have massively complex immune systems that will kill anything that's not adapted to get around it. If there are microbes on mars or in the Venus atmosphere they'll probably be evolved for those environments and won't work well on earth at all. Not that we shouldn't be careful though.
Have you noticed how many small space stations and starship that are blown up due to some infection in Star Trek?
Expendable off Earth science labs. We could use a similar approach.
@@michaelpettersson4919 I agree. I also think something like Star Trek's, "Prime Directive" should be established/implemented. Due to the nature of our species tho, I doubt it will happen.
yea lets just not study anything because its scary. wow what an insightful comment
Love Crichton's Andromeda Strain (honestly the film was good, but the book is wayyy better). There are many questions that remain about whether we are ready to bring samples back to Earth that may or may not contain alien life. I personally lean toward it being likely to not be any threat at all, but that slim little possibility is enough to justify asking some serious questions and maybe being extra thoughtful in how we return such samples.
His microfone is probably of alien origin 😀
People always complain about the quality of the guest's audio, so I made sure it was as close to him as possible.
@@frasercain it sounded perfect, I think it's the shape of the thing that might've suggested an alien origin
@@frasercain too close (maybe, not a sound eng.) but I got a lot of hisssssss on his "s's". :-(
@@DrDeuteron That's good to know! I normally have the gain cranked up to 8 and keep the mic a bit further away since I mostly focus on video. Might be time to step up my game and invest in a serious audio system (though the Zoom H6 has been a decent mic for many years).
When we ask the aliens what gravity are and they do not know, we ask if the universe are infinite and they do not know, we ask what is inside black holes, and they do not know, we loose interest
Ai can answer that.
@@Forgetten55 - so the AI will soon drown in Nobel prizes I understand
And the rest of us that are interested in this, and other, you tube channels that try to answer those questions for us, wonder why you even bothered to make such an ignorant and useless comment.
@@stevenlafavor9823 - so why do we ask those questions?
You don't know humans. And I say that in the most negative way possible. We won't stop our exploitation of other civilizations with science.
Don't worry guys. We are all there is. You want alien life? I'm sure humanity will create it as we spread out and conduct biological experiments.
I for one enjoy it being just us. That means the universe is our playground.
I agree with you, one day we rule the universe
Of all the planets and the stars
There are no others quite like ours.
What worlds have life? We know of one:
Blue and white, third from the Sun;
A gleaming gem in velvet space
That circles in it’s privileged place
And dances in a grand design;
This planet Earth, this home of mine.
And as we look out at the stars
And wonder: are there worlds like ours?
I know it wouldn’t be by chance;
I’ve met the One who calls the Dance
Of planets, stars, the cosmic breeze,
The pirouetting galaxies.
My home is not a pale blue dot,
Adrift in space, that fate forgot.
It soars amid the starry stream
Suspended in a golden beam.
There’s not a chance that chance evolved
This universe, nor was involved;
Too finally tuned, too much a plan,
The stars, the Sun, this Home of Man.
I can't imagine being so up my own ass that I'm comfortable making the blanket statement that there are no aliens at all
Lol
I doubt we'll ever run into alien life. We might even be the only intelligent life in the galaxy.
The only intelligent life in the universe? The odds of that seem infinitesimal and my ego just isn't that big.
Maybe we evolved from someone emptying there septic tank here...
Amazing interview!!!! Thank you for all your hard work!!!
GAIA was "only" able to see about 2 billion stars in the milky way, but we estimate that there may be as many as 400 billion - is there any way that we can increase the number we can see with future missions? Are there any plans to do so?
$$$
Awesome interview!! I could watch you two for hours in these subjects!! Thanks fellas!! 👌💯🔥
I don't know if his mic is alien tec, but it's definitely very groovy!
Ha. Muchas gracias. It's definitely been a workhorse for me for many years. But it might be time to upgrade.
Lets say we find life on another world in our solar system. The big question then becomes whether it shares heritage with life on Earth. If it doesn't, that makes it much more likely that the great filter that causes us to not have noticed intelligent aliens around other stars is in front of us, rather than behind us.
I like how we can barely see earth strength broadcast signals from 100 light years but somehow we have shown something about ruling out other civilizations. All we have ruled out is ludicrous levels of rearranging entire galaxies which may never have been a realistic metric.
@@hugegamer5988 The galaxy is old enough that a spacefaring civilization could have colonized all of it, even with slow colony ships. If abiogenesis is so easy as to happen twice in one solar system, it means the lower limit of number of worlds with any life in the galaxy goes from one, to at least tens of billions, more likely hundreds of billions. That means the liklihood that we're facing an extinction level threat we don't know about also increases billions of times.
Life with an independent origin says nothing about whether or not there is a filter, as it says nothing about the number of dead civilisations out there. It could be that the filter is between microbial life and complex life. We just can’t tell.
@@sjzara Yes, those also get far more likely if abiogenesis is easy.
@@sleepib what gets far more likely if abiogenesis is common?
This interview was intellectually delicious. I feel like my mind and imagination have just finished dessert and I'm happily full. Thank you Fraser for this amazing guest.
A while back you asked a poll what are our favorite videos.
This
This is my favorite type of video. A really interesting interview
Magnificent. Thanks, gentlemen
Deep conversations. Life is out there. Somewhere.
lol, Dr Graham Lau is WAY MORE optimistic about finding life, and life in general, than Fraser.
Great Interview. many thanks.
I don't expect ETL would be radically different in terms of DNA or coding. Biology is bounded by the limits of chemistry and exploitable energy. While there are many different amino acids, some are suited to being folded into a protein and others are not. That also brings another limiting factor into play which is the charge states of elements and how that produces a chiral bias in biomolecular compounds like sugars. The bounding put in place by these factors would drive life to resemble what we have already observed.
Now I want to take a class on everything groovy. Maybe even getting my doctorate in it, just so I can be "The Other Professor of Everything Groovy"
Lol at the journalist part of you taking over at the end
I loved this interview! So fun listening to you both speaking on the topic of alien life. I find it to be the most captivating topic in astronomy
That beard is epic
Ha. Thanks much! It's been on my face so long that I kind of forgot what my chin looks like.
Great content, but I feel the hair could have been more evenly distributed during this interview.
THIS IS ONE MY FAV EPS
Awesome interview
This guy is amazing. Brilliant, soulful, and a great communicator.... and yeah, I want to touch his beard.
That ending is pretty funny 😅 tell me first then you can tell everyone
Oh I you just know that Dr Graham Lau made a pact to shave his face when he discovers proof of alien life.
I love love love this channel no bull crap , brilliant thanks ❤
When the Astronauts finally reach Mars, their musculature will be so weakend that they won't be able to do much. No amount of workout has prevented muscle loss of the ISS crews. If the Mars expedition makes it back, the crew may very well never be able to recover entirely.
To go to Mars on the chemical fuel timeline, what you say is likely correct. As I see it, to go takes ample radiation shielding, a vessel large enough for spin gravity at Earth levels and so large the inner ear isn't confused and finally some sort of faster propulsion. Given how well robots are doing just send them for the foreseeable future.
Refuel a ship in orbit to allow for a longer burn. If possible add an rotating habitat. The simulated gravity do not need to reach 1G as long at it have something. And combine that with the gymn. Medical research could perhaps yield something of use like something that slows down the muscle and bone mass loss. Every little thing may only help a little but together it should hopefully be enough.
Indeed, but there are some ingenious ways around this. Robert Zubrin highlighted in The Case for Mars in 1996 the work that had been done for decades in showing that we could use a spin on the spacecraft to replicate some amount of gravity on the transit between Earth and Mars, and I think that's likely to be incorporated into whatever our first human missions to the Red Planet will look like.
finding life will not "get over" xenophobia and why should it? WHY SHOULD IT?
we should look at scrubbing methane from atmosphere by pumping solar power-formed Hydroxyl radicals out of commercial flights. patent pending. lol
we're causally alone. so. happy lonely photonic cones everyone. now let's be more alone and leave this pestilent rock for something crisper and nicer like an L2 civilization
Smash the like button
I tell you what, we find some molecules on mars, you move to liberia. deal?
What happens if there is no life other than this small ball of dirt?
People will look for it anyway. Just because you haven't found something yet, doesn't mean it isn't there somewhere.
We will NEVER be able to confirm that even if it should be true. The universe are rather big after all.
It's hard to imagine a case where we find out any time soon that we are alone. There's just so much space our there to explore. But say some thousands of years from now whatever remains of our biosphere has now gone out and settled worlds across the galaxy and still hasn't found anything, it would be compelling to think they may be the only life... until some other thing from another galaxy shows up :)
Fantastic!
Great beard.
The probability of life existing in the universe is not absolute zero.
@@charlesgibson2171Are you not counting planet earth and it's trilions of lifeforms as not part of the universe or are you trying to gaslight us to think we are not real?
@@AM-gx3dyif the chance of something is not zero, that means it's more than zero
@@hive_indicator318 like, 100% of chance still more than zero?
I mean concluding that life exist as statement is really a thought worth having?
@@AM-gx3dy what? I'm pretty sure the op was just saying how there is a possibility. I have no idea why you asked for clarification. Both of your replies seem to be arguing with people you agree with. Have a great life, it won't involve me ever again
@@hive_indicator318 Sir...read his coment again.
There is life in the universe...
We are in thw universe
We are alive
Our universe is capable of generating life, it doesnt matter you think we are made by god, or science, or both, or none.
We still alive
In the universe
This is not for debate.
i only want one thing before i die, to get under the ice of europa.
It may be some time, but at least with Europa Clipper launching next month (and JUICE already on the way) we'll start learning a lot more about Europa soon. And if things like the Icefin robot end up going under that ice in the next couple of decades, that would be exceptionally awesome!
In some places this guy is talking absolute rubbish. In what is he actually qualified?
{:o:O:}
I have question for you!
Can to black holes colide directly, without orbiting each other?
What kind of power would be made, and how would that gravitional wave look like?
Ken Nealson, who's great at answering emails, is my favorite astrobiologist. If he could send a lander to one place, it would be the hot springs of Ganymede. Reach out to him!
Why are we able to use isotope ratios to determine what body an object is from? It makes sense for extrasolar objects, but for in-system objects, everything formed from the same proto-planetary disc. Wouldn't they all have the same ratios?
Fraser, you've got a great look with your goatee, but Dr. Lau has truly an epic beard!
Great episode - thank you so much for a fascinating interview!
I've been fascinated by astronomy for 60 years and have come to the same conclusion as what you believe, that there is no other life in the universe. In fact, I concluded that 30 years ago and now I am even more convinced of it than ever. I really hope I'm proved wrong though. ;)
Actually, the big question is, "can we find extraterrestrial life and, if so, will we able to eat it?" :)
I always listen to these while running or mowing the lawn, but I had to come back just to comment, this is one of the best interviewees you’ve had on the show! Interesting and very well spoken, love his energy! Here’s to hoping we make a ground breaking discovery within the next decade or so.
Those who thought life was dead under the sea were the reason we’ve taken so long to prove life is on other planets 😢
I hope we're not alone in the universe, I find that Idea really sad
guy needs to dust his mic lol
Could the Universe be turbulent? Could expansion be a turbulent process? Good question for a cosmologist?
You need to define specifically what you mean by 'turbulent' I think.
Turbulent? Are you talking about solar wind?
Perhaps the colonisation could be a turbulent process? Countless millions of people living on space habitats slowly drifting away into space.
@@michaelpettersson4919 I'm talking about spacetime, not things in spacetime. I've always seen the assumption that expansion in the early universe is smooth because of how fast it happened. It seems to me that it could not have been very smooth due to the fact that we see galaxies very early in history. Maybe expansion wasn't very smooth, as assumed.
@@takanara7 We can see differences in spacetime from one place to another today (that's how gravitational lensing works). So, could the expansion of spacetime be non-uniform (turbulent)? It seems obvious that it can't be totally uniform, but would that cause vortexes and such? Does enthalpy cause it to try to equalize potential energy across areas with variations?
Even if we are alone we can create life on other planets.
Having the same type of DNA does not mean a shared origin. It could be that is how life works regardless of where it arises.
DNA, as we know, it could be a universal law.
@@ecocentrichomestead6783 It could be. It might be 'how it works'. Would be interesting to find out.
Great interview, thank you.
What an awesome interview and guess
He never says what MST3K episode he was watching but I'm gonna guess 'Rocketship XM'.
Correct! I totally should have said the name :)
thanks for the interview :)
I really disagree with the assumption that discovering truly advanced life wouldn't profoundly change our global civilization
I think it could have an impact but I don’t think it’s possible to determine how much of an impact it would have now. However, studies and polls going back to the 1960s have shown that the overwhelming majority of the American public couldn’t care less about the existence of extraterrestrial life. So, Fraser is right. Most people would forget about it within a month or so.
For example, a poll in the 1960s asked Americans about how they would react to contact by an extraterrestrial intelligence and they said it would have no affect on their beliefs or behavior.
We haven't seen Aliens because everyone knows Klingons use cloaking systems.
bruh, that's Romulans. wt-?
The search for life is one of the most important questions that science has. We should be using a range of quick, cost effective missions to a range of planets. The idea of putting an enormous budget into one manned mission to mars is absolutely the wrong approach. You are putting all your eggs in one basket and they are crazy expensive golden eggs. I also disagree that a human can do better sample gathering than a rover. A rover can cover a much bigger range of envorinments over much bigger distances than a short duration human mission can achieve. With our current technology all missions to planets should be robot missions. The complications & cost of keeping humans alive with a high safety margin just can't be justified. Dr Lau describes arguments for different types of chemical life, different types of environments & different planets. So why does he want NASA to use all it's budget getting humans to mars?
I couldn't agree more.
we absolutely need more robots in the solar system. The public seems fairly uninterested in what humans are doing in space. Meanwhile, the 7th floor at NASA HQ is entirely staffed by astronauts. Leave the human stuff to the private sector, and put metal on enceledaus, europa, get those mars samples, radar Venus again, more Titan action, too.
A large part of wanting to do manned missions to Mars is the sense of accomplishment and exploration.
Human beings are explorers by nature. Here on Earth, the urge to constantly "go where no man has gone before", has resulted in many innovations and discoveries while pushing the upper and outer limits of known human endurance and resilience. Some of those discoveries were in unexpected areas such as medicine and food preservation. In space, medical discoveries and innovation will be (among many unknown others) in setting up and protecting the human body for prolonged space trips. This is part of why that singular push is required to open the gates of research and development, much of which is already underway. Now sadly, we don't expect to be using space jet equivalents any time soon, after all, we went thousands of years of sailing and oars to get from coast to coast until engines came along....
@@thabzmad7265 We can do all this on the moon which is closer, easier, safer and more cost effective compared to mars
there's no life in space its all right here an there's tons of it to explore. if there are aliens will we give them a green card?
Only if the aliens are green
WARNING: meeting aliens could be a close shave! 😊
What happened when the Spanish found Indians? Ritual murder was accepted and worshipped by them. This practice was abhorrent and caused serious revulsion among the Spanish. Where the Spanish justified in stopping murder by using force? Would you stand asside and join in the human sacrifice culture? This is what alien contact will be like.
Have SpaceX send Tesla Optimus Robots to Mars and pick up the samples. Problem solved.
A lot of wishful thinking.....I hope I'm wrong
What happens if extraterrestrial life already found us?
I think I am coming around to your thinking that we are alone. It's a little depressing but there it is. Even if there are/were/will be other civs... the time is the big factor. 100, 1000, 1 million years for the light or signals to get here... can civilization last that long?
I used to think of it as a math problem and that the pure numbers would make it inevitable that life was out there, but the older I get and the more I learn the less likely it all seems to be. Even here on Earth. Let's say that Dolphins really are as intelligent as us... they still can't BUILD anything. So, finding a technological society in our timeframe close enough that it might still exist seems ridiculously optimistic,
What a wonderful interview…it made me tear up. I’d die happy if we found alien life.
Thing about extremophiles - did they *originate* in the extreme environment, or did they originate in gentler places, and *evolve* to tolerate the extreme environment?
Because if it is the latter, they don't tell us anything about the origin of life, either here, or on other planets, and they can't be used as evidence that life could originate on extreme planets - merely that life could *survive* there, once they had originated somewhere less extreme.
If we find extraterrestrial life, and they are more technologically advanced than us... we better hope they don't find us back! 🤣
Excellent guest, worth re-watching and sharing!
We could land a man on Mars because we know that we have the technology to survive in space (ISS) or an airless world (Moon) for limited periods of time. To land on Venus with a surface pressure of 1350psi and a surface temperature of 872F is and will be impossible for as long as we can imagine.
Aphosphoric life would be a pretty meaningful find
Discovering alien intelligence would be a game changer. Discovering simple cellular life would be cool, but ultimately not life changing. Of course, there are some possibilities in between.
Hey Frase, don’t you mean ‘when’ not ‘if’? ✨💫🌒
Hey Fraser,
I am here with a question. Is it possible to cure near sightedness theoretically by placing a micro black hole in front of the eye through gravitational lensing? If yes, how big that black hole needs to be if there are any calculations.
Like most other things in life, for an average citizen aliens would quickly become other people's problem.
50 years from now? Christ, I'll be over 100 by then! I hope I'll still care about astronomical discoveries...
I question the wisdom of advertizing our presence. But given that we have been radiating for over a century and a quarter, it probably doesnt much matter...
Possible to have a program about X-ray polarimetry? Normally used to study accreting Black Holes & Neutron Stars can this technique be used for the formation of stars and planetary systems? Do the current missions and telescopes have enough resolution to study these fainter accretions? Which mission would enable clearer observations? Are already being built or planned?
We humans r bzy to find Artificial intelligence this topic humans will slove later now it's Artificial intelligence boom
Alien, such a broad term. Why not; Off Planet Life, Off Planet Intelligence. OPL and OPI ?
Wonderful interview... what are your thoughts on the possibility of seeding Mars and/or Venus with life/living things?
If Musk is allowed to land two Starships on Mars within two years (which I HIGHLY doubt, but anyway) which can't even remotely be properly prepped in line with planetary protection methods required to prevent widespread biological contamination of Mars, at least with Mars we will then no longer be able to be certain of an answer to one of the most important questions in science - did any evidence of life or past life evolve there independently.
Ok. Lets say for argument's sake, that we do discover microbial life on Mars. Does that mean humans can never go there to prevent contamination with earth life that might out-compete native life? How do we avoid contamination?
I really feel like Dr. Lau and you at times were sped up... Having to listen at .75 speed, lol. I'm not going insane am I?
going to say this.....i really enjoy fraser's interviews - but it is so much better when they have an understandable accent!
What would we do if we find alien life?Typical human reaction... poke it with a stick.
Stars & stripes president in Mars Attacks: Why can´t we just be friends ? Brain under glas answers: Naht! Naht! bzzzzzz....
How would Venus and Mars be different if they had switched places in the beginning of our solar system?
Have they sent microscopes to mars like ones that can be controlled and observed remotely?> Surely that would be the way.
We aren’t alone if youve worked on your consciousness you can perform ce-5
When a beard meets a beard it's always humble and respectfully visa versa 💪🤘
Would it make sense to build a space based radiotelescope to listen for signals equivalent to the JWST? They could "listen" without terrestrial signal interference.
Thank you for this interview. It was my favorite interview that you have ever done. It was so thought provoking and covered all of the topics that I am curious about. Graham shared so many thoughts on “life” in general and ways of thinking about what life could be in such an easy manner with all of the curiosity of a child. It also frightens me that we could possibly be alone-at least in our corner of the universe. I am going to view this interview again. I hope Graham will come back and speak on this channel again.
If there was life at Europa's Deep Sea Vents would we be able to tell from just under the ice? Or, would we have to send something deeper? I'm talking about indications of life. Not shrimp in front of the camera lens.
So to be an astronomer I need to grow a beard & wear a black shirt? 😊