LIFE IN THE STARS

Evening Star, Issue 19762, 12 January 1928, Page 2

LIFE IN THE STARS

SOME ABSORBING SPECULATIONS In a volume remarkable from many aspects, entitled ‘Life in the Stars,’ -published recently by John Murray, London, Sir Francis Younghusband, British soldier, administrator and author of .various entertaining books of travel, deals with the subject of life on bodies beyond the solar system. The title is amplified by the definition, “An exposition of the view that on some planets of some stars exist beings Higher than ourselves, and on one a world leader, the supremo embodiment of the eternal spirit which animates the whole.”

In the preface the author refers to his qualifications for attacking the problem, bristling as it does with difficulties., “ There is room for much speculation as to the possibility of life on some of the planets attending some of the stars; and in spirit we must explore the whole universe. On the wings of well-controlled imagination we must speed through the heavens. And, while I am well aware that I am but ill-equipped for so great an adventure, I also know that if we always waited for the perfectly equipped expert much would remain for ever undiscovered, and much more would remain unexplored through needlessly long periods of time. The venturesome explorer may bo able to penetrate where others, weighted down by bulky scientific equipment, would be unable to venture. And through sheer ignorance of the dangers he may bo running, lie may triumph over difficulties which would affright the more seasoned traveller.” The probability, or even possibility, of the existence of life in other worlds is a subject upon which, beyond a certain stage, science is, and must necessarily be, silent. Science is essentially systematic or organised , knowledge. Matter beyond this domain, such as conjecture, , surmising, guessing, or speculation is not science. Many astronomers have considered the subject of life in other worlds, but simply by way of speculation. Certain knowledge is available as to the planets of the solar system, from which conjecture or speculation may be brought closely to the border lino of science; it cannot become part of it. But knowledge, even approximating to that of the planets of the solar system, as to systems of the stars, is, and must, on account of their immense distances away, be denied us; they are far beyond powers of observation. It has indeed been suggested that probably the sun is the only star with a family of planets, or, at most, that stars with such families are rare exceptions to the general rule. If we reason by anology, assuming other planetary bodies, we have to show as part of the argument and as a matter of fact that on such bodies the conditions of temperature, atmosphere climate, and very many others is identical from time to time with those which have existed on the earth, not only when life first manifested itself, but during the various later stages._ With this is involved the problem which probably presents the greatest difficulties of all, the creation or evolution of life, its nature and essentials, the conditions under which its conditions became manifest, conditions narrowed down to a mere particle of time, as time runs in stellar evolution, and generally to an extremely complicated connection of circumstances. Life, such as we know it, can only exist under certain very limited conditions of temperature; we do not know whether it came into existence on the earth spontaneously or evolved at a critical period, from elementary atoms or a combination of them: or if it came, as has been suggested, from outside the earth. Arrhenius suggests that the peculiar molecular complication winch displays the phenomena of life may bo co-existent in time with the universe itself. these factors indicate the extraordinary difficulties which must be faced in attempting to deal with the problem from a scientific or quasi-scientmc standpoint. The author treats the matter, as he admits, from the point of view of speculation. Here science cannot help. The views of the writer may bo accurate; science cannot contradict them; they may be travesties of the truth; science cannot contradict them. Dealing with the astronomical aspect, tho author adopts a recent estimate that the number of stars m existence is of tho order, of 5,000 millions; of these our sun is one of a group ,or some two or three million stars, which originally evolved out of the same nebultc; reference is made to the 95 known globular clusters, and especially to tho great cluster in Hercules, distant 33,000 light years (a light year is equivalent to six millions of millions of miles), long exposure photographs of which show at least 35,000 stars, with indications that the actual number probably runs into millions; to the hundreds of thousands of nebulas, numbers of which have been resolved in part to stars; and to the theory that there exist in the universe as many invisible dark stars as there are emitting light. The author assumes it to have been proved that the stars generally are formed of the same chemical elements as are the sun and earth; that the variety of conditions as to size, density, temperature, and age of the stars is immense, and the range so wide that there is room for conditions that may be suitable for forms of life as known on earth, or even for forms unknown to us, and for combinations of atoms different to the combinations known to us; and that even taking one in a million as having an earthlike planet, there would be 5,000 bodies in a fit condition for propagation of life at some time during the millions of millions of years of the existence of the planet. He claims that we are, therefore, justified in assuming the existence of life on that planet. . Summarising his propositions, the author states: “From science we gathered that 5,000 stars might bo attended by bodies which would form possible abodes of life; from philosophy we gathered that the, universe in its, essential nature is spiritual, and is driven by creative activity under the direction of the Genius of the whole. And now we infer that living beings must exist on those 5,000 bodies, and that some of those beings must he of a higher order than ourselves.” The author proceeds to assert that “both science and philosophy are of tho view that mind and matter, spirit and body do not exist independently of one another. There is no spirit, without matter, or matter without spirit. The one is an aspect of the other.” Beyond challenging its, accuracy, space will not permit a criticism of this startling statement, further than to ask a question pertinent to an aspect which the author appears to have overlooked: What becomes of the soul after death? The logical consequence of the views quoted involves annihilation of the soul when the body dies. The author draws a fanciful picture of the forms of life on the distant planets; some of tho beings have higher intelligence and knowledge than we can attain on earth because they are “ completer and more perfect, manifestations of the spirit which drives the universe as a whole ”; from these being “ world leaders ” would have been born, grown up and developed; the holder of this position would he constantly changing; there would be, always a world leader, but the individual would vary. Regarding the work merely as one of fiction, the reader will find matter for entertainment as well as for serious contemplation; and it contains many interesting references to astronomy, biology, and systems of philosophy. 1 The printing, and general “ get up ” of the volume is on the high standard customary with the published.—The ‘ Age.’