We are alone in the universe: Professor Brian Cox says alien life is all but impossible and humanity is 'unique'
Presenter makes bold claim during BBC documentary
He says the spark of life on earth billions of years ago was a fluke
'We still struggle to understand what happened. It's incredibly unusual'
The biological process which lead to intelligent life on earth was a fluke that is unlikely to have been repeated anywhere else in the universe, claims Professor Brian Cox.
The presenter and scientist blames a series of 'evolutionary bottlenecks' for the lack of extraterrestrial life on other planets, despite there being a mind-bogglingly vast number of them in the galaxy.
Humanity miraculously overcame them in a chance binding of two single cells merging somewhere in the mists of time, he said.
'There is only one advanced technological civilisation in this galaxy and there has only ever been one - and that's us. We are unique.
'It's a dizzying thought. There are billions of planets out there, surely there must have been a second genesis?
'But we must be careful because the story of life on this planet shows that the transition from single-celled life to complex life may not have been inevitable.'
He made the claims in an episode of BBC's Human Universe, adding that yet another freak occurrence - the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs - allowed mammals and ultimately humanity to dominate the planet.
On the subject of the genesis of complex life, he added: 'We still struggle to understand how this happened. It's incredibly unusual.
'We're confident this only happened once in the oceans of the primordial earth. Life here did squeeze through.'
Presenter makes bold claim during BBC documentary
He says the spark of life on earth billions of years ago was a fluke
'We still struggle to understand what happened. It's incredibly unusual'
The biological process which lead to intelligent life on earth was a fluke that is unlikely to have been repeated anywhere else in the universe, claims Professor Brian Cox.
The presenter and scientist blames a series of 'evolutionary bottlenecks' for the lack of extraterrestrial life on other planets, despite there being a mind-bogglingly vast number of them in the galaxy.
Humanity miraculously overcame them in a chance binding of two single cells merging somewhere in the mists of time, he said.
'There is only one advanced technological civilisation in this galaxy and there has only ever been one - and that's us. We are unique.
'It's a dizzying thought. There are billions of planets out there, surely there must have been a second genesis?
'But we must be careful because the story of life on this planet shows that the transition from single-celled life to complex life may not have been inevitable.'
He made the claims in an episode of BBC's Human Universe, adding that yet another freak occurrence - the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs - allowed mammals and ultimately humanity to dominate the planet.
On the subject of the genesis of complex life, he added: 'We still struggle to understand how this happened. It's incredibly unusual.
'We're confident this only happened once in the oceans of the primordial earth. Life here did squeeze through.'
