The recent SETIcon II conference in Santa Clara, CA had optimistic news for those hoping that there's life on other planets. In recent years, thousands of planets have been discovered by NASA's Kepler Project, and many of them show signs of containing water, considered essential for the development of life. But just because conditions are capable of supporting life doesn't mean they're capable of originating life. What does it take to get biology started? Is it enough just to have the right chemical elements on hand? Will such chemicals, floating in water, automatically combine to produce higher and higher levels of organized complexity and ultimately result in conscious living creatures? That seems a bit improbable, even leaving aside the question of how consciousness can arise from nonliving atoms, unless there's an invisible mind, or spirit, that guides this process of organizing atoms into highly complex, self replicating sentient beings and imparts a bit of its own spirit to them. If such a spirit exists, then life could occur almost anywhere the basic elements are present, and we shouldn't be surprised to find it. But if not, it would take an extraordinary set of random accidents and coincidences for life to start anywhere, and we would expect it to be extremely rare in the universe.
A recent conference at Stanford University sponsored by the Brookings Institution discussed America's energy future, including the controversial practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking". Fracking is the process of causing fractures in rocks beneath the Earth so that natural gas trapped in those rocks has more channels to escape to the surface, where it can be captured by gas wells. Since gas is one of the cheapest and cleanest burning fuels, there's huge demand for it, and the increasingly widespread use of fracking has increased the supply, brought down the price, and made our "energy crisis" seem to recede into the distance. But fracking has risks. Sometimes the released gas doesn't go where you want it to, but seeps out into other areas, such as underground water supplies. Also, it seems intuitively obvious that when you fracture large rocks under the Earth, you're tampering with the planet's structural integrity and making the ground less stable, inviting catastrophic and irreversible damage. Also, every time a fracking procedure goes well, it just adds more incentive to keep doing it. The question is, are the environmental consequences of fracking being considered carefully enough, of is the prospect of huge energy supplies at great prices making us blind to the potential dangers?
Ever think about starting an online business? Setting up a website and using it to sell your merchandise all over the world? It can be done, and it's not that hard, according to Muffi Ghadiali, adjunct professor at Stanford University who teaches courses in Internet entrepreneurship, and who is this month's guest on Future Talk. There are many software packages that enable you to easily create good looking websites, complete with shopping carts and the ability to accept credit cards, even if you have no programming background. Or you can hire a professional to do the technical part. It's still much cheaper than operating an actual physical store, and your potential reach is far greater. This of course doesn't mean that you're guaranteed to make a profit. You'll have to work just as hard to understand your customers and their needs, and make your products appealing, as you would in any brick and mortar business. You'll also have a lot of online competitors and it can be hard to get noticed, but you'll be able to use tools like Google AdSense, which posts your ads next to relevant searches, and which you only pay for when someone clicks on them. To see the complete interview with Muffi Ghadiali, click here, or to see it broken down into 3 shorter segments, click here.
