MacGyver Science: Abduction + Memory + Time + Fireworks + Dispersal

I remember binge-watching the show Parks and Recreation with my youngest son. It was great. But then we got to the last episode and he said he didn’t want to watch it. If we watch it, then it will be over. That’s how I feel about this episode.

Note: don’t worry — I still have a bunch more MacGyver stuff. I’m working on my paper clip videos (building stuff using paper clips). You can see those here:

Now for the science in this episode.

The Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox

It’s not really a MacGyver-moment, but it’s an excuse to talk about it. Bozer suggests that maybe Mac and Riley were abducted by aliens (extraterrestrial aliens). So, let’s get this straight. Is there intelligent life outside of Earth? So far, we don’t have any evidence that there IS or IS NOT extraterrestrial life. However, there seems to be a very good chance that there is life — just based on the numbers.

In fact, Dr. Frank Drake put together an equation to calculate the number of other civilizations that we should find in the Milky Way Galaxy (our galaxy). Here is the equation.

N is the number of planets with life. Most of these values are most likely small fractions (like the fraction of planets that have intelligent life evolve). We don’t even know the value of these fractions — but they are probably small. However, there is one value in there that we learn more and more about every year — f_p (the fraction of stars that have planets). In the past 20 years we have been able to detect many, many extra solar planets so that it seems they are more common than first imagined. This along with the number of stars in the galaxy (at least 100 billion stars) means there are most likely planets with intelligent life.

But if there is life out there, why don’t we see it? Just to be clear, we have zero evidence that aliens have been or are coming to Earth. The lack of contact with aliens is actually called the Fermi Paradox. I’m not going to try to explain this paradox since Kurzgesagt already did a smash up job.