Origins: Where Are the Aliens?

1. What is the problem with the way Hollywood portrays aliens?

2. What would really happen to giant insects?

3. Where did the design for faces come from on Earth?

4. Why does Hollywood give faces to aliens?

5. Is there any credible evidence for aliens?
6. What do scientists say about the chances for life beyond Earth?

7. What was Frank Drake looking for with radio telescopes?

8. How fast are our radio transmissions traveling into Space?

9. What is SETI?

10. What does N stand for in the Drake equation?

11. How many intelligent civilizations does Drake predict with his equation?

12. What are Butler and Marcy looking for (and finding!)?

13. What does a star’s wobble tell them?

14. The first exo-planet discovered looked like which planet in our Solar System?

15. Are these “monster” planets hospitable for life?

16. How does Jupiter protect Earth?

17. How many “Earth-like” planets does Jeff Marcy estimate are in our Galaxy?

18. What kind of life existed on Earth over 600 million years ago?

19. How old are the earliest fossils (found in sedimentary rock)?

20. What element is the most versatile and important for life (builds the molecules of living things)?

21. Where is life found on Earth?

22. What is the most important requirement for life?

23. What clear signs does Mars have on its surface and in its rocks?

24. Which Moon (around Jupiter) is the “back-up plan” for finding life in our Solar System?

25. How often does Drake predict intelligence evolves as a percentage of all life in the Galaxy?

26. What does DNA carry?

27. What do mistakes in the replication (copying) of DNA allow for in evolving life?

28. Why is a long period of time essential for the evolution of intelligent life?

29. What happened to the Dinosaurs 65 million yeas ago?

30. How did the extinction of the Dinosaurs benefit Mammals (including humans)?

31. What sea creature has a complex brain but took a very different evolutionary route than humans?

32. Does Peter Ward think intelligent civilization is common in our Galaxy?

33. What did SETI find when they thought they had found intelligent life?

34. Why does Frank Drake think intelligent civilization must exist even tough we haven’t yet found it?

35. What is the problem with the vastness of Space when trying to find a radio signal from another civilization?

36. What is Jeff Marcy’s ultimate motivation for his search for planets?