Re: Alien Life
The August 2002 issue of Scientific American has a short article on the Drake Equation (the Skeptic column, page 33). The main point of the article is calculating the variable "L", which (in the Drake equation) is the lifetime of a communicating civilization. The article also mentions that, out of the 7 variables in the equation, we only have significant data on 1 variable: the rate of formation of "suitable stars". Of course, the entire equation is based on the idea that Earth-like planets are the only ones capable of sustaining intelligent life. Depending on your definition of intelligent life, that may be accurate, i.e. if "intelligent" is defined as "able to effectively communicate with humans". If "intelligent" is defined in a more philosophical context, there may be many intelligent races in the universe, but we'll never know because we (and they) can't communicate well enough to make that determination.
Just my 2 cents...
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