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From the August 2002 Scientific American Magazine | 0 comments

Why ET Hasn't Called ( Preview )

The lifetime of civilizations in the Drake equation for estimating extraterrestrial intelligences is greatly exaggerated

By Michael Shermer   

 
Michael Shermer
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The lifetime of civilizations in the Drake equation for estimating extraterrestrial intelligences is greatly exaggerated By Michael Shermer

In science there is arguably no more suppositional formula than that proposed in 1961 by radio astronomer Frank Drake for estimating the number of technological civilizations that reside in our galaxy: N = R fp ne fl fi fc L

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