The Fermi Paradox

Roger Basick and Gillian Woodward talk about the possibility of life on other planets.

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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Roger Basick.

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And I’m Gillian Woodward. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

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In 1950, the scientist Enrico Fermi was having lunch in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Fermi was one of the most important physicists of his time. His work led to the invention of nuclear power. But in 1950 he and his friends were talking about something even stranger: life on other planets. Fermi understood that there were countless stars in the universe. Each star probably had many planets. If even some of these planets had life, it was possible that they could have cultures like ours. But there was no sign of these otherworldly people. So, Fermi asked: “Where is everybody?”

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Fermi’s question stumped his friends. None had an answer that made any sense. After they ate their lunch and left, they all had the same feeling: that they simply did not know.

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Is there life on other planets? And if so, why have we not seen them? On today’s Spotlight, we hope to discuss these questions. Today’s Spotlight is called “The Fermi Paradox.”

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A paradox is a statement that seems impossible but may lead to something true. Fermi’s Paradox states that there are millions of planets in the universe. If conditions on Earth are not special, some of these planets must be enough like earth to support life. Some of this life could even be intelligent. But we have not communicated with any other life forms – yet.

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People from other planets show up as characters in popular culture. Some of these beings are very different from us. One of the most popular has gray skin and large, black eyes. But other, more human aliens exist as well. Superman, one of the most popular heroes from American comic books, is an alien. His powers come from the fact that he is from a different planet.

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But evidence of alien life is surprisingly rare. Part of this is because experts have limited resources. Space travel costs a lot of money. Scientists have developed long-range devices called space probes. Hundreds of these probes have visited other planets in space. But what they can do is limited. Many of these probes are too far away from earth to control them effectively. It takes days to send signals between them and their controllers.

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The planets we have searched for are all empty. Mars is one of the closest planets to Earth. It has some parts that suggest it could support life. Mars has water frozen under its surface. It is close enough to the sun that it may once have been warm enough. Experts believe there may have been a change in the planet’s atmosphere. This combination of gases around the planet is what keeps heat from the sun within. If Mars had a better atmosphere, it could have supported life.

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Some experts have even found evidence of life on Mars. Imre Friedmann is a scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. In 2021 he and his team found minerals inside a Martian rock. The minerals were organized in a way that should not be possible outside of a living thing. Friedmann believes they were once part of a bacterium, one of the smallest forms of life. He said:

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“Until now, studying alien life has been like trying to connect two points using only one point of information. That one point is life on Earth. Now we have two points to connect.”

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Unfortunately, if these bacteria did exist, they are long since gone. Today, experts believe that there could be life below Mars’ surface. But if this is true, life is simple, like our bacteria. It is very different than something like human culture.

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Other scientists believe they have found evidence of
Earth-like planets outside of our part of space. K2-18b is a planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. In 2025 experts announced they had identified something interesting in the planet’s atmosphere, a gas called dimethyl sulfide, or DMS. Normally, this chemical only comes from living things. It goes away quickly. This meant that something was creating a chemical. Could this mean life?

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Many experts remain suspicious. Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb is a researcher at the University of Chicago. She explained to Space dot com that the information discovered about K2 may be different than was first expected. Experts eager to find life finished their research too early. She said:

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“Different information methods always give somewhat different results. It is important to try many methods to see how well the results hold up. We never saw more than small bits of DMS. Even this small amount was not present in all our data.”

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Other planets like K2 are out there. But experts have yet to get enough information to prove that life exists there. Nothing like human life has been found.

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So, as Fermi asked, “Where is everybody?” There are many different explanations. One of the most interesting explanations is that the universe is simply too big. If there is complex alien life, it may not be able to reach us. Or other life may be so different that we cannot understand it. Human-level intelligence may be extremely rare. Or alien life forms may be so intelligent that they do not care about humans. We might not be thinking enough like them. Stephen Jay Gould was an American scientist. He once wrote:

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“I have enough trouble thinking about the plans and reactions of the people closest to me. I am usually amazed by the thoughts and achievements of humans in different cultures. I will never be sure what some alien form of intelligence might do.”

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There are many different reasons we have yet to find the answer to these questions. Maybe we simply have not looked long enough. Maybe it is only a matter of time before we find creatures like us. But it is also possible that there is no one out there. And we are truly alone.

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If life on Earth is the only life out there, what does that mean for us? Why is this planet special? What does this mean about our role in protecting it?

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Whatever the answer to the Fermi Paradox, it has great importance for the future of humanity. It may not matter to us today. But the question of whether there is intelligent life in the universe may one day change everything.

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Do you think there is other intelligent life in the universe? Do you think there is not? Which would be more surprising? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenlighs.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X.  You can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.

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The writer of this program was Dan Christmann.  The producer was Michio Ozaki.  The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom.  All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.  No AI or artificial intelligence was used in this program.  Spotlight programs are written, voiced, and produced by real people for real people, no matter where in the world they live.  This program is called, “The Fermi Paradox.”