Einstein quote: Peace cannot be kept by…

About The Author

Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Franzi Schneider-Krumpus is the creator of The Thinking Muse. She is an inquisitive and straight-talking homemaker. Her favorite things include museums, astronomy, dance team, and food -both making and eating it. She is a lyrics search engine and is often baited by her family with lines from a song to get her to sing and dance around the house.

The wonder of Einstein's mind didn't stop at science

The wonder of Einstein’s mind didn’t stop at science

I have always had a hypothesis that we are all given a set number of “gifts.”

Some are born with great creative talent that others could never dream of matching. Others are skilled with insightful mathematical aptitude. Others still with charisma and grace. In the end, it all works out because everyone has their special gifts as well as their shortcomings.

According to my hypothesis, because the number of gifts is fixed if you were unusually strong in one area you will fall short in most other areas. The notion of a crazy professor aligns perfectly with this theory. Greatly gifted in the sciences, but can’t quite get the whole matching socks and combed hair concept down.

Seemingly, Einstein fits completely in this scenario. Consider the stories of him being a late talker and doing poorly in school as a child, which is false by the way. However, upon closer inspection he doesn’t fit the theory at all. It turns out that in addition to being one of the greatest scientific minds in history, he had a number of other exemplary traits.

There goes my hypotheses. He just shattered it. I guess he is also known for that, shattering current beliefs.

(See Related: Do you really know what E=mc² means?)

So, you ask, what else was Einstein’s mind attributed with? Let’s take a look at the less-well-known admirable qualities of Albert Einstein.

Musical talent

Einstein’s mind was musical. As a child he learned both the piano and the violin from his mother, who was also a musician.

He was opinionated about composers. He preferred more conservative composers. It was when he discovered Mozart in his early teens that he developed his passion. He felt the music was in harmony with the universe. Conversely, he didn’t care for Wagner or Debussy.

As an adult, he became quite proficient at the violin with listeners appreciating his passionate and sincere playing. He was known to use his playing as inspiration for his thoughts and theories.

He played the violin throughout his entire life and credits most of the joy in his life to his beloved violin which he nicknamed Lina.

Peace advocate

Initially, Einstein wrote to Roosevelt discussing the danger of Germans developing an atomic bomb. He discussed and encouraged the American President to develop it first. He later said he regretted those communications.

The bombing of Hiroshima changed his philosophies on the matter of weapons.

To kill in war time, it seems to me, is in no ways better than common murder. -Albert Einstein

He wrote an article for The Atlantic Monthly discussing that the use of weapons should only be used as deterrents to conflict. He eventually advocated for nuclear disarmament and controls on weapons testing.

Civil Rights advocate

He learned about discrimination from first-hand experience. He became an outspoken civil rights activist. As a jewish man during WWII, he saw the ugliness of anti-semitism. After coming to America, he witnessed segregation and referred to the racist behavior as America’s “worst disease.”

He spoke and wrote publicly about his support for the NAACP. He also offered to appear as a character witness for W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder of the NAACP, which eventually led to the judge dropping an unfounded case against him.

Dying with dignity

At the end of his life, Einstein suffered from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. When at the hospital, he refused surgery. In Einstein’s mind it was tasteless to prolong life artificially and wanted to die elegantly.

He claimed he had done his share and it was time to go. I’ld definitely say that he did more than share for humanity.

Extraordinarily gifted

Well, it appears that Einstein was exceptionally scientifically smart, but was wise in other significant matters of humanity. Not only was he wise, but he used his fame as a platform to advocate for important matters despite not enjoying the limelight. He was brave and selfless.

Einstein’s mind was truly supernatural. This world can use more brilliant people like this.

(See Related: Discover the Possibilities)

It is humbling to consider my own accomplishments when looking at people who contribute so greatly to the knowledge of mankind. I just need to focus on being the best cog that I can in the machine of this world. Using my particular skills and talents and looking to the great minds as my inspiration. We can all do our share.

If you like what you read, let me a note or follow me on Twitter. Until the next time, be inspired by how great the gifts of humans can be.

Resources

6 Ways Albert Einstein Fought for Civil Rights from Live Science

9 Things You May Not Know About Albert Einstein from History

Albert Einstein Biography from biography.com

Biographical information from enstein.biz

Six Interesting Musical Facts About Albert Einstein from cmuse.org

The amazing life of Albert Einstein, an underestimated genius whose childhood nickname was ‘the dopey one’ from Business Insider

The Musical Mind of Albert Einstein: Great Physicist, Amateur Violinist and Devotee of Mozart from Open Culture

About The Author

Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Do you really know what E=mc² means?

This month is inspired by one of the greatest minds to ever exist, Einstein.

Thinking of Einstein, I imagine a crazy-haired genius leaning back with a pipe in hand surrounded by books and contemplating how the universe works. I can’t explain how cool I think that is. My true fangirl fascination. And for once in all of fandom, the obsession is warranted. What an amazing mind!

I believe when most people think of Einstein, their mind goes to his most well-known equation. Yes, you know the one…

Everyone can recite it, but do you understand it?

If not, or if you just want a refresher, that is what this article covers. So, let’s take a look at this famous equation and what it actually means.

What does E=mc² mean?

In a nutshell, it means that energy and mass are interchangeable. They are the same thing, but in different forms.

Not only is mass equivalent to energy, it equals a lot of energy. If fully converted, the mass of a paper clip is equivalent to 18 kilotons of TNT. That is about the size of the Hiroshima bomb. However, humans are currently unable to fully convert mass to energy. That requires black holes, quantum theory, and a whole lot of science that is far beyond my comprehension.

The equation does manifest itself in everyday life. From x-rays to batteries, the release of energy reduces the mass of an object albeit on a very small scale. While this happens, it does not break the laws of energy or mass conservation because you have to consider to entire system for those laws (the heat loss, the environment, etc.).

As a side note, the version of the equation is a simplified version of a more complex equation. The equation discussed is only appropriate for a mass at rest. For a moving mass, the equation changes to include the variable of momentum (p). If you must know this equation, it is: E² = (pc)² + (mc²)².

The website E=mc² Explained has an mp3 audio file with Einstein himself explaining the equation. What a fantastic treasure! It is only 54 seconds and I recommend you listen to it so you can tell all your friends that you literally heard Einstein explain E=mc² to you. They have a transcript for you on the bottom of this page to help you follow along through the accent and recording noise.

What is E?

E stands for energy. There are 2 main types of energy: potential and kinetic. Potential is stored energy. Kinetic energy is in motion and can be broken into more types such as electrical, gravitational, etc. Energy is measured in the unit of joules (J).

An important scientist in the field of energy was Faraday who lived in the early 1800s. He was a bookbinder whose interest in science led to a job as a lab assistant. Despite jealousy and accusations of plagiarism from his employer, he was the first to demonstrate the relationship between electricity and magnetism. At that time, people believed that different forms of energy were all unrelated.

What about “=” ?

This symbol that is read as “equals” was developed by Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde. This sign has so many applications even the of youngest students understand and use it.

Recorde suggested using 2 parallel lines to display when 2 things were equivalent. This was because no 2 things could be more equal, in his words. There were other conventions in contention for this symbol, but eventually our 2 short horizontal parallel lines won out.

What is m?

m represents mass. Technically, mass is defined as a measure of a body’s inertia. To the layman for everyday use, it can be considered the total amount of matter in an object. It is measured in kilograms (kg). This is not to be confused with weight which is the force gravity puts on an object.

The concept of mass was developed by French tax collector Lavoisier, whose hobby was science. After conducting experiments, he found that everything in our universe was made up of stuff that couldn’t be destroyed, it only combines or recombines to different forms.

Lavoisier was tried, falsely convicted of being a traitor, and guillotined in a single day by a judge that stated that “the Republic has no need of geniuses.” Well, France certainly had no genius in that judge!

What is c²?

c represents the speed of light. The c comes from the latin word celeritas which means speed or swift. c is approximately 90 billion kilometers² per second².

In the equation, the value of c is “squared” or has the superscript 2 (above the line). That simply means c is multiplied by itself. It can also be represented as c x c or c • c or cc. It is all the same thing.

Smarty-pants note: You may see the equation written E=mc2. That is incorrect because that implies m times c times 2. If they can’t, for whatever reason, write the 2 in superscript then they should write the equation E=mcc.

Galileo Galilei was the scientist who first conceived of measuring the speed of light. It was often assumed that the speed of light was infinite, as in you would see it instantaneously when it was emitted. Danish astronomer named Ole Roemer was the first to actually measure it in the 17th century, although people didn’t believe him even though they saw the results of his experiment themselves.

Simple, not easy

It is a true sign of genius to be able to boil a complex concept down to something simple and elegant. It is beautiful and a gift to humanity.

Exposure to things like this can ignite passion in kids, our future scientists and engineers. There is so much talk about getting kids interested in STEM. But frankly, the word engineering is confusing to most adults. How are kids supposed to know what it is, let alone decide to devote their career to it, if they don’t understand or care about it?

They need to be able to relate to it in order to have passion about it. That is why simple equations like this are a great start.

I find it interesting that so many important scientific discoveries were made by hobbiest or part-time scientists. Also, so many of them suffered terribly or died because of their scientific work and beliefs. Ugh!

If you love science geekery like I do, perhaps you will be interested in my article: Angular momentum: 10 times it’s constantly around us

If you like what you read, drop me a note and let me know or share it with a friend. Until the next time, keep contemplating about the wonders of our universe.

Resources

Ancestors of E = mc ²from Nova

E=mc2 from the American Museum of Natural History

E = mc² Explained from Nova

E=mc² Explained

The Legacy of E = mc² from Nova

What is the significance of E = mc²? And what does it mean? from Scientific American

About The Author

Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Encourage etymology

About The Author

Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Edison quote: Genius is…

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Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

How to read Egyptian hieroglyphs: 10 tips for the beginner

Tutankhamun. The Pyramids of Giza. The Valley of the Kings.

Isn’t ancient Egyptian culture fascinating?

The culture was so advanced and so rich. It is crazy how long ago it was.

The tombs, artifacts, and hieroglyphs hold so much beauty and mystery. If you are like me, you just want to solve the big puzzle and find out what it all means.

(See Related: The secrets of puzzles)

You’ve heard of the Rosetta Stone, right? It was used to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. This was possible because it contained the same content in 3 different languages: hieroglyphs, demotic, and Greek. Luckily enough, the Greek text stated that the 3 messages were all the same in the different languages. An extraordinary find.

The message helped, but the deciphering of the hieroglyphs was still a great challenge. One of the major stumbling blocks was that people very much wanted to assign meaning to the symbols. In some cases, that was correct. However, a majority of the symbols represent a sound, just like our alphabet. Finally, language expert Jean François Champollion, a Frenchman, was able to crack the code.

If you visit museums, then you have likely looked at scripts from ancient cultures and wanted to be able to read them. If you were fortunate, the museum provided a translation. If not, you had to just admire the beauty and skill without understanding the content.

To change that scenario, this article will give you a quick and dirty guide to reading Egyptian hieroglyphs. It covers 10 topics at a level just right to give you a basic understanding. Hopefully, you find this helpful next time you see hieroglyphs and you can appreciate them from more than a purely aesthetic point of view.

1. History of Egyptian hieroglyphs

Hieroglyph comes from the Greek word hieroglyphikos. The combination of hierós meaning “sacred” and glýphō meaning “I engrave or carve”. So it is a noun meaning “sacred engraving”. Hieroglyph is often used interchangeably with the adjective hieroglyphic.

(If you are interested in other “glyphs”, see related: A beginner’s guide to rock art: Petroglyphs, pictographs, and geoglyphs)

First appearing around 3250 B.C., hieroglyphs were first used to write names and labels. They were carved on walls of temples and tombs, stelae (like the Rosetta Stone), coffins, and other monumental objects. As you can tell, they are highly decorative and were often painted or covered in gold. Although hieroglyphs did evolve slightly over time, the original writings would have been legible to those using the language approximately 3,000 years later. What a written history! Amazing.

2. Written forms of the Egyptian language

Egyptian was a spoken language. Unfortunately, it is no longer spoken. Along with Sumerian, it is one of the oldest recorded languages known.

There were 3 written forms of spoken Egyptian:

• Hieroglyph

The pictorial script carved on important structures and objects.

• Hieratic

Hieratic closely resembles hieroglyphs. It was essentially a form of hieroglyphs that was easy to write quickly and easily with a pen or brush. It was initially used by priests for sacred documents as well as other written letters or documents. It was most often written with a reed brush on papyrus. See an example of hieratic below.

“Edwin Smith Papyrus v2” by Jeff Dahl – Edited version of Image:EdSmPaPlateVIandVIIPrintsx.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons

• Demotic

Demotic is a more flowing and connected script. It was used in more formal and standardized government documents. It was the latest form of ancient Egyptian and eventually evolved into coptic.

3. Dates

Dates were recorded relative to the year the current king took the throne. This makes sense based on what their daily life must have been like. The biggest events that shaped their lives was probably a new king taking power.

The dates often included the year, season, month, and day.

Because of their interest and knowledge to the Sun and stars, they quite accurately represented astronomical time. Their year was 360 days with 5 days between years. They had 10 day weeks with 3 weeks to a month. They also had three seasons: inundation, emergence, and summer.

4. Writing Egyptian

I am sure you recognize that it was an art to write Egyptian. As with learning any skill, it took training by someone who knew what they were doing. It was more common to learn the handwritten form with fewer people proficient in hieroglyphs.

Scribes were taught starting when they were children. Luckily for us, the evidence of their schooling still exists. Although the language is largely phonetic, it was often taught by the word. The existing exercises show that a word was dictated and the student attempted to write it. This is known because of what the apparent mistakes were and corresponding corrections. What a great historical find! I hope they didn’t get in trouble for bad marks.

Because hieroglyphs are largely phonetic, it is theoretically possible to write the same word different ways. However, in practice, there were often standardized “spellings.”

5. Reading direction

Hieroglyphs can be written from right-to-left, left-to-right, or top-to-bottom.

The general practice was to read from right-to-left. Just as hieratic and demotic are read from right-to-left. However, because the aesthetics was so important the entire arrangement of the symbols had to be beautiful. Therefore for balance or symmetry purposes, sometimes the message was written left-to-right or top-to-bottom.

The key to knowing how to read the message is in the characters themselves. If the humans and animals are facing left, you read from the left towards their faces. Clever, huh?

6. Hieroglyphic grammar

Are you up for a game to see how observant you are? Look at the featured image for this article and see if you notice anything about how the characters are written. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Yes, it appears the script is in columns which will need to be read from top-to-bottom. Anything else? Did you notice that the characters do not always follow each other neatly in a single line? Bonus points if you did.

Hieroglyphs are written in blocks. Each block represents a word/concept that fully utilizes the space allotted. You would read each block from top-to-bottom as well. Now I will throw a wrench into the mix, the characters/letters may be rearranged within the block to make it more aesthetically balanced. This can be confusing, but every girl knows there is a price to pay for beauty. I guess the ancient Egyptians knew this too, ha!

You may have also noticed that there is no discernible spaces between characters or punctuation. The space is consistently and cleanly filled with characters.

While the elaborate characters and aesthetic balancing sounds extremely labor intensive, and it was, there is a huge shortcut that was used. While it isn’t apparent to those ignorant in Egyptian, there are no vowels used in hieroglyphs. While this sounds a little crazy, if you know the language it is relatively easy to figure out the words. Hr s n xmpl f txt wth n vwls. See?

7. Types of characters

There are 2 categories of characters in hieroglyphs.

• Phonograms

These symbols represent a spoken sound. They may be a uniliteral, biliteral, or triliteral meaning the symbol represents the sounds of 1, 2, or 3 letter sounds. An example of a biliteral is a symbol that represents the combined sound of sh as in show.

See a chart of phonograms below.

egyptian hieroglyphics translator alphabet

Egyptian hieroglyph phonograms chart: Credit: talesalongtheway.com

• Ideograms

These symbols represent an entire word or concept. They may be a logogram or a determinative.

› Logograms are pictures of what the word means. An example is a picture of a mouth and it means mouth.

› Determinatives are symbols that identify how to read an associated character. They are placed after the character. Since many characters are similar and can have various forms it helps to determine the intended meaning. An example would be a vertical line following a character identifying it as a logogram. Another example is a pair of legs identifying the previous character as a motion.

8. Transliteration, transcription, and translation

Okay, so this gets a little confusing. At least, it was to me. Hieroglyphs are transliterated.

• Transliteration

The conversion of one language to another word-for-word, letter-for-letter, or sound-for-sound. The transliteration of Egyptian hieroglyphs is for the most part a sound-for-sound transliteration.

• Transcription

The conversion of spoken language into written language or from one written source to another written source. For example, names may have alternate spellings in other languages.

• Translation

The interpretation of meaning/intent of a text or spoken word and communicating that in another language.

Here is an explanation of the image below:

The first line is hieroglyphs.

The second line is the transliteration. (Note the lack of vowels.)

The third line is another transliteration in Manuel de Codage (MdC).

The fourth and fifth lines are the English translation.

hieroglyph-transliteration-MdC-Translation

Credit: www.tetisheri.co.uk

Because Egyptian is a dead language, no one knows how it truly sounded. Especially given that vowels are not included in hieroglyphs. The answer lies in Coptic, the Egyptian language of the Greco-Roman period. It preserved a large number of words from Egyptian hieroglyphs. It confirmed meaning of words and grammatical forms. It also helped greatly with missing vowels in terms of vocalization.

9. Names and titles

You may already know that royal names from the Old Kingdom and on are enclosed in an oval or cartouche. It is thought that this symbol stands for the “girdle of Isis.” This cord was worn around the waist and tied with a mystical protective knot meaning the circle of fulfilled life or the circle of the sun.

Earlier pharaoh’s names were inside a serekh, a rectangle with a falcon (Horus) on the top.

Beginning with the Old Kingdom, Kings were given 5 names.

• The Horus name. This designates the king as the god Horus, the son and successor of Osiris.

• The Two Ladies name. This name is used less often.

• The golden Horus name. This name is used less often, as well.

• The throne name (prenomen). This name is given when they become king. It is included inside the cartouche.

• The birth name (nomen). The name given at birth. It can be a name common to other members of the dynasty. It often includes the title “son of …”. It is included inside the cartouche as well.

Many names, royal and non-royal, had religious symbolism and a reference to a particular god. For example, Tutankhamen is translated as “living symbol of Amon” and Amenhotep translates as “Amon is in peace.” To be respectful of those gods regardless of where the god’s name fell in the name, it always appeared first in the placement of the symbols.

The image below shows how this works with the cartouche of Tutankhamun. The image is also nice because it displays character by character what it all means.

Tutankamun Cartouche. Credit: Thomas K. Wukitsch at http://www.mmdtkw.org/EGtkw0300-Unit3EgyptianWriting.html

10. Numbers and plurals

Being the science geek that I am, this guide wouldn’t be complete without information on their numerical system. They used a base 10 system which I think is natural for humans given that we have 10 fingers. They had a different symbol to represent different powers of ten.

To represent multiples of that power they just multiplied the symbol. Example: a coiled rope symbolizes 100, so 3 coiled ropes is equal to 300. This is also one of the ways they would represent plurals of a noun. To mean 3 fish they would literally have 3 fish symbols.

Here are the symbols for each power of ten.

1 represented by a single vertical stroke.

10 represented by a hobble for cattle.

100 represented by a coiled rope.

1,000 represented by a lotus plant.

10,000 represented by a bent finger.

100,000 represented by a tadpole or frog.

1,000,000 represented by the god Heh supporting the sky.

Credit: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Lost in translation

What do you think? Did you learn anything? If you didn’t, then you must love ancient Egyptian culture and done studying on your own. I learned a lot.

The most surprising fact I learned is the same one that prevented translation for many for so long. The symbols should be interpreted phonetically. I also enjoyed learning that they were intentional about making their script beautiful. So sophisticated and cultured, yet so long ago.

What did you find more surprising or interesting? Did you already know a lot of this information? Please let me know in the comments.

Resources

Bonewitz, Ra. Hieroglyphics. Lincolnwood, IL: Contemporary, 2001. Print.

Budge, E. A. Wallis. First Steps in Egyptian Hieroglyphics: A Book for Beginners. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003. Print.

Collier, Mark, and Bill Manley. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-step Guide to Teach Yourself. Berkeley: U of California, 1998. Print.

Egyptian transliteration: will it survive the digital era, or will it be replaced by Manuel de Codage? from Tetisheri: My love affair with ancient Egypt

“Hieroglyph.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2015. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/hieroglyph/images-videos>.

Kamrin, Janice. Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2004. Print.

Read And Write Like An Egyptian from Tales Along The Way

What Is Transcription, Transliteration And Translation? from lipikaar.com

Wikipedia contributors. “Egyptian hieroglyphs.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Sep. 2015. Web. 30 Sep. 2015.

About The Author

Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Einstein quote: In the middle…

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Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Dizzy etymology

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Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Do you wonder if there is life beyond Earth? Consider the Drake equation

Little gray men with big black eyes.

They are able to communicate telepathically. They like to abduct humans and perform examinations on them.

You know what I am talking about, right? Maybe you imagine the ones with multiple appendages. Or better yet, suckers and slime and they want to eat you. Those are creepy!

Perhaps you just prefer the cute kind that uses toys to communicate and just wants to go home like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?

Aliens. We are all familiar with the concept and even imagery, thanks to Hollywood. They make a great story lighting up our imaginations with spacecraft, unimaginable technology, and exotic worlds. But, have you ever stopped to think about what alien life would really be like?

We are still learning so much about our planet, the earth beneath our very own feet. Consider the diversity of life on Earth. Plants. Bacteria. Jellyfish. Now, consider the definition of life. Even scientists can’t agree on a common definition. Can a computer program be alive? It is a complicated question.

Regardless of these complex issues, it hasn’t stopped us curious humans from wondering if life, as we are familiar with, exists elsewhere. Looking up at the night sky and knowing that it goes on far beyond what we can see or even understand, the mind tends to imagine great things. At least that’s what my mind does!

Imagination is great for the human experience. The arts, great entertainment, revolutionary thinking, everything really is inspired through imagination. But what if we want concrete answers to the ponderings of our minds? That is where science comes in.

That is also what Frank Drake wanted to do, bring science to the table when talking about life outside of Earth. To do this, he created what has come to be known as the Drake Equation.

What is the Drake equation?

Dr. Frank Drake presented this formula in 1961. At the time, he was a young radio astronomer interested in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He called a meeting to discuss the topic and how to approach it scientifically. He wanted to figure out what we need to know to discover extraterrestrial life. Once that has been answered, the next step is to figure out how to get that data.

He developed what became known as the Drake equation to guide the discussion. Now, many years later, the equation and its many variables are still hot topics for debate.

The Drake equation

The equation is intended to solve for the product N. N is the number of civilizations in the Milky Way from which we could receive communication. The right side of the equation consists of factors pertinent to potential extraterrestrial communicators. Each subsequent variable assumes the previous variable is satisfied. In example: A life form must exist before it can have intelligence. See the next section for a detailed description of each variable.

Explain, in English please?

This term represents the number of civilizations in our the Milky Way whose technological communications are detectable.

Comments: There is obviously a higher likelihood of extraterrestrial life than there is of communicating with that life form. Is that what is interests us? Are there other ways to know if life exists aside from literally getting a message or visit from them? Does it matter if life is out there if we aren’t able to communicate with them? If we do get communications from some other life form, what are the odds that they still exist? It takes a long time to travel great distances. So. Many. Questions.

This term represents the rate of star formation in our galaxy.

Comments: Scientists have some information to help make estimates. The estimated number of stars divided by the age of our galaxy. However, the rate of star formation has changed over time. More stars were formed during the earlier years of our galaxy and that has slowed over time. If you consider the type of stars that are suitable for life, the number is also smaller.
Drake’s estimate: 5
Range of estimates: around 0-20, but scientists believe it to be around 1.

This term represents the percentage of those stars that have planets.

Comments: In recent years, scientists have started to find many exoplanets(a planet outside of our solar system). As of 6/4/2015, there have been 1852 confirmed exoplanets with many other potential candidates waiting for confirmation. How are scientists able to find exoplanets? Looking at the gravitational effects, scientists can detect tiny wobbles in a star due to planet orbits. Scientists also can notice tiny differences in star brightness because the planets block some of the light as they pass in front of the star.
Drake’s estimate: 50%
Range of estimates: 0-100%, scientists now believe it to be around 60-100%

This term represents the number of planets that can support life.

Comments: Typically, scientists have considered water to be essential to support life, life as we know it anyways. However, other factors also need to be considered such as atmosphere, orbit stability, and age/stage of life of the star.
Drake’s estimate: 2
Range of estimates: 0 to around 5, scientists believe it to be around 0.5-3

The next variables are more difficult. We don’t have data to help with estimates. All we know is our Earthly experience. This is where personal views come into play.

How do you perceive humans? Are we special? Are we the norm? Given the approximately 13.7 billion years our galaxy has existed, is it likely for life, intelligence, and technology to evolve in many places in our galaxy?

Let’s go ahead and entertain the thought and throw some darts at the board.

This term represents the percentage of those planets that actually develop life.

Comments: Again, the question of what is considered life comes up. If we take what we know from our own solar system, it seems that life does evolve given the chance. Scientists are split on this, but most believe that given the right conditions life will emerge.
Drake’s estimate: 100%
Range of estimates: 0-100%, on the higher side? possibly over 50%?

This term represents the percentage of the life that is intelligent.

Comments: How do you define intelligence? It is relative. Frankly, sometimes I question whether humans are intelligent. *wink* Considering the many kinds of life there have been on Earth, an exceedingly low number are considered intelligent. Biologists tend to believe it is rare to develop intelligence, while astronomers believe intelligence is so useful it is inevitable. I am going to place my bets with the biologists on this one, it is their field after all.
Drake’s estimate: 20%
Range of estimates: 0-100%, on the lower side? possibly less than 50%?

This term represents the percentage of the intelligent life that transmit technology communications in space.

Comments: If we assumed intelligence to include the ability to create things, then this seems more likely based solely on our experience. If your assumptions are less than this, than it looks far less likely. Perhaps, other life forms use/have used/will use a communication process much different than anything we recognize.
Drake’s estimate: 100%
Range of estimates: 0-100%, throw a dart on this one

This term represents the length of time the communications are operating.

Comments: The Milky Way is around 13.6 billion years old. The Earth is around 4.55 billion years old. We have been transmitting for about 100 years. That is minuscule considering the context of our planet in our galaxy. Whether it is leaking communications unintentionally through technology like radio or intentionally sending communications like the Golden Record. Discussions tend to turn dark quickly raising issues like gamma-ray bursts, asteroids, and self-destruction of species or environment (atmospheric changes, disease, famine, and nuclear destruction). Ugh!
Drake’s estimate: 10,000
Range of estimates: 1-many billion, I would image closer to 1 than many billion

Plugging in the values for Drake’s original estimates, we have…

N = (5)(50%)(2)(100%)(20%)(100%)(10,000)

N = 10,000 civilizations in the Milky Way whose communications we could receive

Plugging in pessimistic/low estimates, we have…

N = (1)(60%)(0.5)(0.1%)(0.1%)(1%)(100)

N = 0.0000003 civilizations

Plugging in optimistic/high estimates, we have…

N = (7)(99%)(3)(100%)(100%)(100%)(1,000,000,000)

N = 20,790,000,000 civilizations

Comments:

Range from pessimistic and optimistic estimate: 0.0000003 – 20,790,000,000, obviously a huge disparity
Pessimistic approach. We know that the pessimistic estimate is too low because we exist and therefore N should be at least 1 to account for us. As we can remember from math class, anything multiplied by 0 is 0. So, even if only one of the variables is 0 or close to 0 we all know what that means, N=0 or is really really close to it. So, pessimistic estimates on the life, intelligence, and communication variables will render an extremely low N.
Optimistic approach. The estimate is likely too high otherwise a civilization would be approximately 3.6 light years away. If that were the case, we may have heard from them by now. For optimists, the equation roughly boils down to N=L. Unfortunately, L is a HUGE unknown. But with 200 billion stars in our galaxy, that is a lot of possibilities for life. I am certainly happy to avoid the suggestions of masses of self-destruction for intelligent beings.
There are online calculators available where you can plug in your guesses. The calculator at NOVA is nice because it gives you some context for your estimates. The calculator at University of Texas, Austin is fun because it tells you how close the average distance is to the nearest civilization.

Stirring up the Drake debate

Here are some items that add fuel to the heated discussions of the Drake equation. I present a quick synopsis to give you something to mentally chew on. If you want to learn more, you can visit my resources.

The Wow! Signal. Have you heard about this? Back in 1977, Jerry Ehman, a radio astronomy researcher noticed something unusual on the data from the Big Ear radio observatory at Ohio State University. There was a 72 second signal at a peculiar frequency that was exceptionally strong. It was the loudest and longest signal the observatory ever recorded. He circled the data and wrote “Wow!” next to it, thus the name the Wow! signal. He brought it to the attention of the other observatory staff and they were amazed as well. After investigating, there is still no explanation or repeated signal after all these years. This just goes to show that IF (and that is a really big if) it was a communication from another life form, we apparently don’t meet the intelligence criteria on their version of the Drake equation.
Fermi paradox. This theory is named after Enrico Fermi. Talking with his friends, he decided that if there were beings in the galaxy that had the technology and initiative, they could have easily colonized the galaxy during the time since its creation. He asked, “Where is everybody?” A lot of people support his argument. There aren’t any extraterrestrial beings here because there are none.
Rare Earth Hypothesis. This theory has its own equation(the Rare Earth equation) to rival the Drake equation. Essentially, the theory believes that complex, multi-cellular life is rare. It suggests there has to be very special circumstances for intelligent life to evolve. In addition to the Drake identified variables, other variables address factors such as metal-rich stars, galactic zone, complex metazoans, planet lifetime, large moon, large outer planets, extinctions, and more. I won’t pretend to know about this and you can follow the link in the resources to learn more.
Copernican principle/Mediocrity principle. Remember learning about Copernicus? He is the mathematician and astronomer who declared that the Sun was the center of the Universe and not the Earth. This theory takes its name from him. It basically uses the rules of statistics and the laws of nature to look at the likelihood of something occurring. Everyone used to believe that humans and Earth was the center of everything, literally. Then the cold and cruel reality hit home, we aren’t special. Earth isn’t special. Our solar system isn’t special. We are all just following the laws of the universe. If we aren’t special, then there must be others just like us in the galaxy that aren’t special either.
Seager equation. This equation doesn’t dispute the Drake equation, it is simply another way of looking at the issue of life on other planets. The equation looks at the chances of detecting any kind of extraterrestrial life by their biosignature gases. Using spectroscopic imaging, scientists can look at the light and determine what gases are present. If the gases identified don’t really seem to fit, there is a reason for it. That reason could possibly be life. This is a practical approach because scientists can realistically pursue gathering data using today’s technology.

Where does that leave us?

Obviously, there are some variables in the Drake equation that scientists don’t have any answers or even any data on which to make an educated guess. Our technology or understanding of the galaxy needs to catch up with our questioning minds.

How can we even begin to address such enormous questions, especially when we have such little data to go on? You break it down into smaller, more manageable questions. Then you may have to break those questions down again.

The great thing about the equation is really the question or rather questions that it raises. It starts the conversation. It also grounds the discussions to data and facts. Even if they are currently unknown it can tell us where science needs to go. This is what inspires the great scientists of tomorrow.

Are we alone?

So, what do you think? Have you ever spent much time seriously considering life outside of our planet. If you really get into the space stuff like I do, I would encourage you to participate in Zooniverse. You can participate in scientific study from the comfort of your own phone or computer for only minutes at a time. Learn about it by reading my article Have some time? Volunteer online.

Have you come up with any opinions on life in our galaxy or even beyond? What were your results for N in the online calculators? What are your thoughts on how to approach the search for intelligent life outside of Earth?

Let me know in the poll and comments!