From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 18:58:43 MDT
On Wed, 8 May 2002 Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> The odds are that any planet in our galaxy would be affected about once
> every one hundred million years. "It is a certainty; the timescales
> are comparable to mass extinctions seen in Earth's geological
> record," Dr Dar told BBC News Online.
I'd want to see a greater body of evidence than a matching of
timescales. This sounds like the FTL communication thread.
What isn't said is that over time there is a decrease in the
probability of forming stars that will produce hypernovas.
So the galaxy becomes increasingly safe -- the question becomes
when it is "safe enough" for life to evolve. The article also
ignores that nature has the capability to evolve much more radiation
tolerant genomes that we mere humans have. Selection pressure
can compensate for the hazard function to a limited extent.
Robert
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