Out There Quotes

“As scientists and other logically minded people often point out, absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence.”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“if the chief drivers are the desire to put a human imprint on another world and our innate needs to see over the next hill and stick it to everybody in high school who thought we’d never amount to anything, then maybe we should put lots of cash into nuclear fusion research.”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“(Yes, photons impart momentum despite having less mass than a lapsed Catholic.)”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“spaceships will soon be zooming back and forth from Earth to Mars11 in huge waves, each one loaded up with about 100 people and all their Furbies and fidget spinners and whatever else Red Planet settlers are into.”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“Maybe ET will use math to get our attention—a string of prime numbers, perhaps, or the apparently omnipresent, omni-important Pythagorean theorem. High school trig teachers should rebrand it the alien communication formula. That would’ve kept you from daydreaming in class, right?”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“life’s business in a fundamentally different way—using a molecule other than DNA or RNA as genetic material, for example, or a different set of amino acids to build proteins.”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“we became truly modern only in 1999, with the launch of LiveJournal.”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“(Not with your carbon, though, unless you like skin burns, convulsions, and liver damage.)”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“This doesn’t necessarily mean that ET will use DNA as its genetic material, or rely on the same 20 amino acids that Earth life does. Other carbon molecules could conceivably get the relevant jobs done, and it might actually be quite surprising if two different life systems came up with the exact same solutions”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“(Note to creationists: life and evolution are as inseparable as Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.)”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel

“(which would be the most serious littering offense ever, way worse than sneaking away after your dog drops a deuce on someone’s lawn)”
― Michael Wall, Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel