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The Fermi Paradox (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Basseck and.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Jillian Woodward. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
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  Speaker 2: It is easier for people to understand no matter where
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  Speaker 2: in the world they live.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty, the scientist Enrico Fermi was having lunch
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  Speaker 1: in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Fermi was one of the
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  Speaker 1: most important physicists of his time. His work led to
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  Speaker 1: the invention of nuclear power, But in nineteen fifty he
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  Speaker 1: and his friends were talking about something even stranger, life
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  Speaker 1: on other planets. Fermi understood that there were countless stars
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  Speaker 1: in the universe. Each star probably had many play planets.
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  Speaker 1: If even some of these planets had life, it was
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  Speaker 1: possible that they could have cultures like ours. But there
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  Speaker 1: was no sign of these other worldly people, so Fermi asked,
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  Speaker 1: where is everybody?
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  Speaker 2: Fermi's question stumped his friends. None had an answer that
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  Speaker 2: made any sense. After they ate their lunch and left,
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  Speaker 2: they all had the same feeling that they simply did
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  Speaker 2: not know.
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  Speaker 1: Is their life on other planets? And if so, why
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  Speaker 1: have we not seen them? On Today's Spotlight, we hope
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  Speaker 1: to discuss these questions. Today's Spotlight advanced is called the
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  Speaker 1: Fermi paradox.
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  Speaker 2: A paradox is a statement that seems impossible but may
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  Speaker 2: lead to something true. Fermi's paradox states that there are
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  Speaker 2: millions of planets in the universe. If conditions on Earth
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  Speaker 2: are not special, some of these planets must be enough
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  Speaker 2: like Earth to support life. Some of this life could
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  Speaker 2: even be intelligent, but we have not communicated with any
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  Speaker 2: other life forms yet.
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  Speaker 1: People from other planets show up as characters in popular culture.
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  Speaker 1: Some of these beings are very different from us. One
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  Speaker 1: of the most popular has gray skin and large black eyes,
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  Speaker 1: but other more human aliens exist as well. Superman, one
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  Speaker 1: of the most popular heroes from American comic books, is
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  Speaker 1: an alien. His powers come from the fact that he
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  Speaker 1: is from a different planet, but.
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  Speaker 2: Evidence of alien life is surprisingly rare. Part of this
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  Speaker 2: is because experts have limited resources. Space travel costs a
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  Speaker 2: lot of money. Scientists have developed long range devices called
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  Speaker 2: space probes. Hundreds of these probes have visited other planets
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  Speaker 2: in space, but what they can do is limited. Many
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  Speaker 2: of these probes are too far away from Earth to
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  Speaker 2: control them effectively. It takes days to send signals between
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  Speaker 2: them and their controllers.
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  Speaker 1: The planets we have searched for are all empty. Mars
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  Speaker 1: is one of the closest planets to Earth. It has
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  Speaker 1: some parts that suggest it could support life. Mars has
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  Speaker 1: water frozen under its surface. It is close enough to
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  Speaker 1: the Sun that it may once have been warm enough.
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  Speaker 1: Experts believe there may have been a change in the
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  Speaker 1: planet's atmosphere. This combination of gases around the planet is
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  Speaker 1: what keeps heat from the Sun within. If Mars had
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  Speaker 1: a better atmosphere, it could have supported life.
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  Speaker 2: Some experts have even found evidence of life on Mars.
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  Speaker 2: Mroe Friedman is a scientist with the National Aeronautics and
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  Speaker 2: Space Administration OR. In twenty twenty one, he and his
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  Speaker 2: team found minerals inside a Martian rock. The minerals were
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  Speaker 2: organized in a way that should not be possible outside
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  Speaker 2: of a living thing. Friedman believes they were once part
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  Speaker 2: of a bacterium, one of the smallest forms of life.
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  Speaker 3: He said, until now, studying alien life has been like
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  Speaker 3: trying to connect two points using only one point of information.
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  Speaker 3: That one point is life on Earth. Now we have
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  Speaker 3: two points to connect.
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  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, if these bacteria did exist, they are long since gone. Today,
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  Speaker 1: experts believe that there could be life below Mars's surface.
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  Speaker 1: But if this is true, life is simple like our bacteria.
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  Speaker 1: It is very different than something like human culture.
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  Speaker 2: Other scientists believe they have found evidence of Earth like
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  Speaker 2: planets outside of our part of space. K two eighteen
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  Speaker 2: B is a planet in the Milky Way galaxy. In
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, experts announced they had identified something interesting
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  Speaker 2: in the planet's atmosphere, a gas called dimethyl sulfide or DNS. Normally,
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  Speaker 2: this chemical only comes from living things. It goes away quickly.
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  Speaker 2: This meant that something was creating a chemical. Could this mean.
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  Speaker 1: Life, Many experts remain suspicious. Caroline Puleas Gorrayeb is a
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  Speaker 1: researcher at the University of Chicago. She explained to space
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  Speaker 1: dot Com that the information discovered about K two may
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  Speaker 1: be different than what was first expected. Experts eager to
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  Speaker 1: find life finish their research too early.
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  Speaker 4: She said, different information methods always give somewhat different results.
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  Speaker 4: It is important to try many methods to see how
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  Speaker 4: well the results hold up. We never saw more than
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  Speaker 4: small bits of DMS, and even this small amount was
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  Speaker 4: not present in all our data.
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  Speaker 2: Other planets like K two are out there, but experts
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  Speaker 2: have yet to get enough information to prove that life
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  Speaker 2: exists there. Nothing like human life has been found.
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  Speaker 1: So as feeder may asked, where is everybody? There are
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  Speaker 1: many different explanations. One of the most interesting explanations is
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  Speaker 1: that the universe is simply too big. If there is
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  Speaker 1: complex alien life, it may not be able to reach us,
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  Speaker 1: or other life may be so different that we cannot
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  Speaker 1: understand it. Human level intelligence may be extremely rare, or
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  Speaker 1: alien life forms may be so intelligent that they do
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  Speaker 1: not care about humans. We might not be thinking enough
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  Speaker 1: like them. Stephen J. Gould was an American scientist.
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  Speaker 5: He once wrote, I have enough trouble thinking about the
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  Speaker 5: plans and reactions of the people closest to me. I
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  Speaker 5: am usually amazed by the thoughts and achievements of humans
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  Speaker 5: in different cultures. I will never be sure what some
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  Speaker 5: alien form of intelligence might do.
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  Speaker 2: There are many different reasons we have yet to find
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  Speaker 2: the answer to these questions. Maybe we simply have not
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  Speaker 2: looked long enough. Maybe it is only a matter of
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  Speaker 2: time before we find creatures like us. But it is
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  Speaker 2: also possible that there is no one out there and
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  Speaker 2: we are truly alone.
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  Speaker 1: If life on Earth is the only life out there.
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  Speaker 1: What does that mean for us? Why is this planet
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  Speaker 1: so special? What does this mean about our role in
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  Speaker 1: protecting it?
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  Speaker 2: Whatever the answer to the Fermi Paradox, it has great
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  Speaker 2: importance for the future of humanity. It may not matter
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  Speaker 2: to us today, but the question of whether there is
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  Speaker 2: intelligent life in the universe may one day change everything.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think there is other intelligent life in the universe?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think there is not? Which would be more surprising?
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  Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website at www
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  Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
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  Speaker 2: was Mitcheo Osarki. The voice this is you heard were
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  Speaker 2: from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes
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  Speaker 2: were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. No
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  Speaker 2: AI or artificial intelligence was used in this program. Spotlight
• 9:14
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• 9:19
  Speaker 2: real people, no matter where in the world they live.
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  Speaker 2: This program is called The Fermi Paradox.
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  Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
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  Speaker 1: Spotlight Advanced Program. Goodbye,