Privileged Planet: Dartmouth Physicist on the Surprising Fact of Complex Life, on Earth or Anywhere

A theoretical physicist at Dartmouth, Marcelo Gleiser, observes in an NPR commentary just how unlikely it is, even under Darwinian assumptions, that complex life exists other than on Earth:

A very clear distinction must be made between simple, unicellular life and more complex life forms. It's hard not to doubt that Earth is the only planet where life took hold. After all, we have seen how resilient it is here, with extremophiles defying our previously held assumptions of where life can...