The universe expands from an unimaginably hot and Houston Astros Blooming Baseballs Shirt speck (perhaps a singularity) with all the known forces unified. In a tiny fraction of a second tremendous changes are unleased. The strong force separates from the electronuclear. The weak force then separates from the electromagnetic. ~1 microsecond into this process Quarks are confined within hadrons. 1 millisecond in hydrogen nuclei are formed. 1 second in neutrinos begin to interact with other particles. At about the 3 minute mark helium nuclei are formed. 379,000 years in, the plasma cools enough for stable atoms to form and photons are released from this veil forming the Cosmic Background Radiation we see today. It’s 100 million years before the first stars can form, many generations of stars are busy creating the heavy elements necessary for life as we know it from the process of fission (both during the life of the star and during nova, supernova, and stellar collisions including those of neutron stars). All of these things almost certainly had to happen before life could form. So that’s somewhere around 1 billion years later before there is likely to be a place that is hospitable to life as we know it. But that’s even before galaxies have formed so that may be way too early, we just don’t know for certain.
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The Oakland Athletics stay in the Bay art shirt thing here is not that we haven’t found aliens, but that we are learning so much about the universe so quickly. 20 years ago nobody knew that there are huge underground oceans on Europa and Enceladus, and methane lakes on Titan. 40 years ago there was no evidence of life at hydrothermal vents or life in deep ocean sediments—organisms that use forms of biology quite unlike that of the familiar organisms here on the surface. 25 years ago there was no evidence of even a single planet around another star! Now we know of thousands. The real number, in our galaxy alone, is probably hundreds of billions. The appropriate attitude here, I’d say, is a mix of giddiness and caution. Giddiness, because the rate of discovery right now is downright astonishing. Caution, because we still have so far to go in answering the big question: Are we alone?
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