The Odds of Finding Life and Love | It's Okay to be Smart | PBS Digital Studios

Love is a complicated combination of brain chemicals and behavior that scientists are only just beginning to figure out. And it's remarkable that in every society that we have looked at on Earth, romantic love exists. So if love is so universal, and there are 7 billion other people out there looking for it, why can it seem like it's so hard to find?

In this episode, we'll look at what we can learn about the search for love from the search for extraterrestrial life. We'll start with Enrico Fermi's paradox of why we haven't been contacted by any extraterrestrials yet, and then at Frank Drake's equation to estimate the number of civilizations that might exist in our galaxy (updated with current numbers). Finally, we'll meet a young lady named Ann and see if we can calculate how many special someones there might be out there for her. It's a cosmic love story!

References for this episode: http://dft.ba/-4bBW

Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment below!

Tweet at me: @jtotheizzoe
Email me: itsokaytobesmart [at] gmail [dot] com
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For more awesome science, check out: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com

Written and hosted by Joe Hanson
Produced by Painted On Productions (http://www.paintedon.com/)

Clips from this episode:
Carl Sagan - All the -illions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmafy...

Music from this episode:
Johnny Ripper's "Family." http://freemusicarchive.org/music/joh...

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Want some more great science?

Here's last week's episode: "Life By The Numbers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWc46N...

• Category

  Education

[mls94mls94]

one of my x factors? doesn't eat food with his mouth open. hah.

[itsokaytobesmart]

I just really love chocolate. I hope you can forgive me.

[eplepaiulveunge]

Hi, where did you get the information that people are attracted to 13% of the population?

[itsokaytobesmart]

I took a poll on Facebook and Twitter and averaged the responses. Some people were super picky (2%) and some weren't (50%), so it's pretty variable

[Zane Christenson]

I've never seen a F sub L for the length of time that a civilization exists before it destroys itself? am i crazy or is that actually part of drakes original equation?

very curious...

[itsokaytobesmart]

He termed it "length of time such civilizations release signals into space" but that has been reworded many different ways

[itsokaytobesmart]

I don't mean to imply that someone needs a college degree to love science, because anyone can! It just happens to be a demographic stat I could easily identify. No harm intended!

[Missa M. Williams]

Fuck you Niclas

[Missa M. Williams]

Ann Druyan married Carl Sagan...

[Niclas Jannßen]

fuck you, carl.

[theinvisiblepantha]

I thought the rule was half age +8 since this would (if applied to both partners) ensure no illegal pairings (assumming 16 years as age of consent)

[El Mpsebastian]

You ask for too much ann, not wondering why you are still single

[Connor sniples]

That was per average galaxy. There are a lot of galaxies. like, 10,000,000,000,000 a lot.

[trippyyyyyy]

Lol we are gonna destroy ourselves

[chance jones]

I CAN LOVE CARL.... LOVVVVVVEEEEEE MEEEE CARRRRLLLLLL!

[clevella]

"Creepy Old Guy' rule? Right, because every 'old guy' is creepy. Apparently it is okay to be 'ageist' as well.

You'll be there one day, and then we'll see how creepy you turn out to be.

[Korok Chatterjee]

I seem to unintentionally run into people I already know, in London, about 5 times a year. Probably that high because we're not randomly distributed over the city's entire area. So, what would be the probability over the course of the year that 1 out of N was within "striking up a conversation distance?"