11 April 2015 - life in the universe 2

Do you remember the golden age of planetary system formation models, the 1980’s before extrasolar planets were discovered? We all knew that any other planetary systems that might exist were mostly like ours, because the models said so, and we knew the models were good because they were validated against all the available evidence. Well, they turned out completely wrong, and that is a valuable lesson for science: It’s great to be wrong in the face of ignorance, because surprises get you more funding.