Unique, you say?

Unique. Humans have been force fed this idea for the entirety of our lives. If we aren’t unique, then where is the proof of life elsewhere in the universe? It’s obvious. We have never seen aliens, so we can safely draw the conclusion that we are alone and unique in this universe, right?

Wrong.

Well known astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, explains this thought in the attached video. “That’s like going to the ocean, taking a cup of water, scooping it up [looking at the cup] and saying ‘There’s no whales in the ocean.’ Here’s my data. You need a slightly bigger sample.” I can’t agree with Tyson more. The idea of Earth being the only place to support life is a very crazy and conceited thought to me.

I can pinpoint the reason I became so interested in science, astronomy in particular. After taking astrophysics and astronomy classes, one is forced to see at how huge and vast the universe really is. The sheer number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone is intimidating, let alone the seemingly infinite amount in the whole of the universe. That’s when I realized that “unique” is the furthest from the truth when it comes to Earth’s position in the universe.

-Bryan Doyle