Midweek Podcast, The Drake Equation By The Man Himself

Get to grips with the possibility of alien civilisations by listening to a lecture by Dr. Frank Drake of the SETI institute.

Dr Frank Drake famous for the creation of the Drake Equation.

Each element of the equation is explained by reference to modern day discoverys  (the lecture was given a couple of years ago though).

Lecture By Drake (Podcast)

Just in case-

The Drake equation states that:

where:

N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy in which communication might be possible,

and

R^* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy

f_p is the fraction of those stars that have planets

n_e is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets

f_ℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point

f_i is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life

f_c is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space

L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.