The Search for Life: The Drake Equation (2010)

I don’t remember exactly when I learned of the Drake Equation.  It was first created by Frank Drake back in 1960 to give us an idea of how many communicating civilizations are out there in our galaxy.  We have a good idea of how many stars are out there, but back when it was first written down, much of it was guessing.  We’ve learned some things since then, but it’s still a lot of guessing.

The equation has seven different factors.  First, you take the rate at which stars form.  Then, multiply by the fraction of stars that have planets, and multiply again by the fraction of those planets that can support life.  You then multiply by the fraction of capable planets that do support life and by the fraction of life-bearing planets that develop intelligent life.  Finally, you multiply by the fraction of civilizations that develop the ability to communicate and by the length of time that the do communicate.  Drake’s original numbers gave us an estimate of 50,000 communicating civilizations.

This documentary is a very basic overview of the Drake Equation.  It starts with what the equation is and how it was used to start what eventually became SETI.  Drake wanted to use radio telescopes to find aliens, as that was the most promising avenue of exploration at the time.  (One thing I’ve always wondered is why we assume radio will be the means of communication if a civilization chooses to communicate at all.  I know it‘s really all we have, but I would think it’s not likely that they would necessarily develop or use radio to communicate.)

The Fermi Paradox is also brought up.  Enrico Fermi once asked where all the aliens were if there were supposed to be so many.  Well, life might not form that easily.  Sure, life formed quickly on our planet, but we don’t know if we just got lucky.  Even if life does form, there’s no promise of it becoming multicellular.  It does seem, however, that it is likely that multicellular life will develop intelligence.  Also, 50,000 civilizations isn’t that many when you consider that there are billions of stars in our galaxy, and there may not even be that many.  There may be something that keeps civilizations from getting that far.

It’s a pretty safe documentary.  It was produced by the BBC, which lends a fair amount of credibility.  At an hour, it’s the kind of thing that a teacher could play for a class if their normal plans got cancelled.  If the children are old enough to handle the basic concept of aliens, this should be appropriate for them.  There’s nothing about abduction or invasion or anything else that might be scary.  It seems to be meant as an introduction to the Drake Equation.  It probably won’t be of much interest to those that know more about the subject.

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Contact (1997)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.


Jodie Foster plays Dr. Elli Arroway, a radio astronomer. She was raised by her father, who gave her a strong interest in astronomy. She spends a great deal of her adult life looking for extraterrestrial life, mostly with SETI. Things are rough. Most government bureaucrats aren’t willing to finance the search for little green men, so Dr. Arroway has to spend a lot of time looking for funding. Fortunately, she’s able to secure enough to rent radio telescopes, which scan the heavens for some sort of coherent signal.

Finally, just as everyone’s about to give up hope, a signal comes in. It’s these loud, booming noises. Dr. Arroway and her team realize that the noises are grouped in prime numbers. Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible by only themselves and one, such as 2 and 5. (1 isn’t considered a prime number by many for reasons I won’t go into here.) Any intelligent civilization should know what a prime number is because primes are independent of what base we use for our numbering system. The signal is very interesting. It’s so interesting that the government wants a part of it. Dr. Arroway and her team are allowed to research it, but at the governments direction.

Some interesting things are learned about the clip. First, there’s a clip of Hitler speaking at the 1936 Olympics. The 1936 Olympics was the first TV signal strong enough to go into space. The aliens, whoever they are, apparently recorded the signal and sent it back to us. Is this an endorsement for the Nazis or is it simply a way of saying, “Hey! Look what we found!” After a little more digging, dozens of diagrams are uncovered. No one can figure out what they are. Finally, Dr. Arroway gets the nudge she needs to figure out how they work.

They’re actually blueprints. America is able to construct this big sphere that sits atop a device that can (presumably) send it through space. The scientific community is at a loss to explain how it works. No one is really sure that it will, but we decide to try anyway. After a lot of hard work and sacrifice, we finally manage to get Dr. Arroway into the sphere and through the device.

Here’s where I’m going to end the plot review. There’s still a significant portion of the movie left, and there’s really no way I can handle it without giving away too much. The movie does a good job of setting up the story and leaving us wondering what will come of the events. In a way, I’d like to see a sequel, but it’s just as well that there isn’t one. I think to try and answer the questions I have might spoil the fun.

There’s a constant theme of science vs. religion throughout the movie. Elle Arroway needs proof. She can’t fully accept religion because it offers no real proof. Then there’s Palmer Joss, who’s religious and tries to make the case for religion without trying to force it upon anyone. It almost seems that religion and science are polar opposites. The X-Files did a better job using Scully, who was both religious and a scientist, to stage the question and to show that you don’t have to be one or the other.

The movie is based on the book of the same name by Carl Sagan. In writing the book, Sagan had to deal not only with how a race would contact us but with the logistics of how a meeting would take place. The nearest star to us is 4 light years away. That means that it takes light 4 years to cover the distance to that star, and there’s no way that we can pass the speed of light with our current understanding of science.

The movie doesn’t really explain too much the science. As I said, we’re presented with an option that might turn out to be a fraud. It’s really a story that’s accessible to anyone, regardless of their understanding of physics or astronomy. I think I could recommend this movie to just about anyone.


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