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SCIENCE STORYTELLING
FERMI’S PARADOX by gabrIeLLe chOng
Illustration by Charis Loke
Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe. Sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. - Arthur C. Clarke We are living in a significant era in the history of mankind. As I am writing this article in late May 2012, almost 800 exoplanets (planets beyond our own solar system) have been discovered. given that exoplanet detection had only begun in earnest since the past decade and detection techniques will continue to improve greatly, we are poised to discover many more exoplanets and start investigating their habitability in the near future. Despite advances in the search for extraterrestrial life, they aggravate one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of our times. given the age and size of the Universe, and the possibility that Earth’s habitability is not unique, it is quite likely that at least one other intelligent civilization capable of interstellar contact besides ourselves has arisen sometime in the past, and yet we have not had any evidence for its/their existence. But this question, often known as the Fermi’s Paradox, is not really contradictory at all; either extraterrestrial intelligence exists, or it does not, and the answer must lie in one of several possibilities. S C I E N T I F I C M A L AY S I A N
