“The flipside of contagious gum disease is an infectious smile.”
Frank DrakeBorn 28 May 1930. Frank Donald Drake is an American astronomer who formulated the Drake Equation (1961) to estimate the number of technological civilizations that may exist in the Milky Way galaxy, N = R* × fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L. Using plausible guesses for the parameters, Drake concluded perhaps 10 planets in our galaxy may have life originating detectable signals. In 1960, Drake led the first search, the two-month Project Ozma to listen for patterns in radio waves with a complex, ordered pattern that might be assumed to represent messages from some extraterrestrial intelligence. Carl Sagan and Drake designed the plaques on Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 for the purpose of greeting and informing any extraterrestrial life that might find the vessels after they left the solar system. |
