You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science

a richer, more rewarding life.

Hey, welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Contas. This is a podcast that explores the space

where science and society collide. We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover,

and why it matters. This week, joining me in studio is our correspondent Adam Bristol. Welcome back.

Hi, Andrei. Thanks for having me.

And it's been a while since we've done an episode bringing you all up to date on the latest

science news that isn't related to COVID-19. So we thought we'd do that again this week. And, well,

shall I start? Sure. Go ahead. So one of the stories that cut my eye was published in the astrophysical journal, not one that I read regularly.

So I caught this one through Science Daily.

It's by Tom Westby and Christopher Consolice, not sure if I'm pronouncing that surname correctly.

But what I thought was interesting was that they came up with a new

calculation of the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets within our own galaxy.

Okay, so kind of like the Drake equation? Yes, exactly. But in this case, they took into account

galactic star formation histories, the distribution of metals, and the likelihood of stars

hosting planets that are earth-like in their habitable zones. So they made assumptions based

on a situation in which an intelligent communicative life form is known to exist. I see. Okay.

That's us on Earth.

That's us.

Like, for example, that you need a metal-rich planet

and that it takes about five billion years

to evolve an intelligent life form.

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