Odds Of Finding Alien Life By 2010 Are 10,000/1: Bookie

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Betting on science

Paris (AFP) Aug 25, 2004
An online bookmaker is taking bets on the outcome of 10 big scientific endeavours, including the search for life on other planets and the quest to harness nuclear fusion as a substitute for oil.

British bookie Ladbrokes has set starting odds of 10,000/1 that the US-European spacecraft Cassini/Huygens will discover "intelligent life" on the Saturnian moon of Titan by 2010, the British weekly New Scientist says.

It calculates odds of a 100/1 that a fusion power station, using the same energy source that powers the Sun, will be built by 2010.

Odds of a mere six to one are being laid on the discovery by the same date of the Higgs Boson, a sub-atomic particle so elusive that frustrated physicists call it "the God particle."

Ladbroke's website is offering the odds on 10 multi-billion-dollar "monster" schemes that have been launched in space exploration and fundamental physics, identified by New Scientist in this Saturday's issue.

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Evolvability Could Be A Driving Force In Drug Resistance

Houston (SPX) Aug 10, 2004
Not only has life evolved, but life has evolved to evolve. That's the conclusion drawn by two Rice University scientists who have designed a computer simulation to test the idea that evolvability - the likelihood of genetic mutation - is a trait that can itself be favored or disfavored through the process of natural selection.