Winston Churchill created the theory of alien life
In 1939, Winston Churchill wrote a very interesting and long
essay on the topic of alien life. Which, unfortunately, was not
published in those years. In his essay, Churchill demonstrated
an excellent understanding of the astrophysics of his time. And
also obviously a scientific mind. The politician came to the
conclusion that we, of course, are not alone in the universe.
His work first saw the light of day relatively recently thanks
to an article published by astrophysicist Mario Livio in the
journal Nature (
https://tinyurl.com/3xvzp33k).
Churchill wrote in his essay that there are hundreds of thousands
of nebulae in space. Each of them contains billions of suns.
And the likelihood that there are a huge number of planets with
conditions that make life possible must be enormous. The text
of the essay itself is quite ordinary. For our times. But these
words were written on the eve of World War II. That is, half
a century before the discovery of the first exoplanets was
announced.
Until 2016, Churchill's thoughts on alien life were consigned
to oblivion. The 11-page draft of the essay has never been
published. In 2016, Timothy Riley, director of the National
Churchill Museum in the United States, discovered the essay.
He stumbled upon it while going through old archives. And
when astrophysicist Mario Livio visited the museum, Riley
presented him with the work of the famous prime minister.
As Livio himself later reported in the journal Nature, Riley
wanted to know the astrophysicist's point of view on Churchill's
work. Livio, in turn, was not going to miss the opportunity to
become the first scientist to study the words of a politician
about alien life.
The most striking thing that Churchill wrote, according to Livio,
is not that he was interested in alien life (which is important).
And his very way of thinking. Churchill approached the question
the way any modern scientist would. To answer the question of
whether we are alone in the universe, he first defined what life is.
Later he analyzed what exactly is needed for life. And what are
the necessary conditions for its existence.
Thus, Churchill determined that liquid water is the basic
requirement for the emergence and maintenance of life. And at the
same time he understood that it is possible the existence of life
forms dependent on fluids other than water. However, I concluded
that none of our current knowledge allows us to make such an
assumption. These are the principles that modern scientists are
guided by. In the hope of finding alien life, they primarily seek
water. Of course, other liquids (like methane) could, in theory,
perform the same function as water in some bizarre biochemistry.
However, at the moment there is no evidence for this.
