Episode 444
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[00:00:00] Eric Ward: You know, it's a topic that is of interest to everyone. This idea of is there life beyond earth? It's, um, you know, there are a lot of movies about it, a lot of books, and it's, it's become so much part of our culture that, and it's a fascinating topic to think about. We hope that they will, they enjoy their experience.

[00:00:24] Eric Ward: Hopefully they learn. Little something and our programs, our exhibitions, our [00:00:30] collections, we just hope that it sparks some curiosity.

[00:00:35] President John F. Kennedy: For the eyes of the world. Now look into space to the moon and to the planets beyond.

[00:00:43] John Mulnix: This is the Space Shot, episode 444 Life Beyond Earth, a Linda Hall Library Exhibition.

[00:00:51] John Mulnix: I'm John Mulnix. Today we're headed to the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri to chat with Eric [00:01:00] Ward about an exhibition that explores a topic which has fascinated humanity since our earliest ancestors looked up at the sky. Unfortunately, this exhibit will be on display for just a few more weeks, but there will be a digital version available at the Linda Hall Library website.

[00:01:15] John Mulnix: In the future, I'll be sure to update the show notes with that information once it becomes available. On a personal note, I'm gonna have to get back to the library at some point here soon. There's just so many books to read and so little time, so. Hopefully I [00:01:30] can make it happen. Anyways, I sat down with Eric to explore how humans have asked these big questions.

[00:01:36] John Mulnix: Since the dawn of our time are we alone from centuries old rare books to Percival, Lowells, Martian canals and sketches of those canals to today's discoveries of strange new worlds, Eric and I dig into how culture, science, and imagination come together in the search for life beyond earth.[00:02:00] 

[00:02:18] John Mulnix: When you first walk into the exhibition, one of the first things that you see is a giant question on one of the walls. The question is, where is everybody? That's the fury paradox. If the [00:02:30] universe is so vast, why haven't we found any signs of extraterrestrial civilizations? Way back in episode 29 of the podcast, I talked about this very topic.

[00:02:40] John Mulnix: So here's a quick primer on the subject. During the 1950s while working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Enrico Fermi laid out this paradox. First, there's billions of stars in our galaxy that are similar in age and older than our son. Second, there's a high probability that a [00:03:00] percentage of these stars will have earth-like planets that could eventually be capable of developing intelligent life.

[00:03:06] John Mulnix: Even more we're, we're finding today. Third, some intelligent life forms could develop the ability to travel across the galaxy. Finally, even at near relativistic speeds, the speed of light, the Milky Way could be crossed in millions of years compared to the billions of years that planets have been around.

[00:03:25] John Mulnix: With these arguments laid out. Fermi's reasoning is that the earth should have already been contacted by [00:03:30] alien visitors, but there's a lack of evidence to show that we've ever met with extraterrestrial visitors, and that's what led Fermi to ask. Where is everybody?

[00:03:42] Eric Ward: I'm Eric Ward, vice President for Programs in Education here at Delinda Hall Library.

[00:03:47] Eric Ward: I've been here 19 years. Now, and I'm co-curator of the Life Beyond Earth Exhibition, and my main job is planning our public programs and [00:04:00] our education initiatives here at the library. But over the years, I've also curated or co-curated several exhibitions on a variety of topics from building of the Panama Canal to a history of early aviation.

[00:04:16] Eric Ward: And the science of Apollo in 2019. For the, for the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing, 

[00:04:28] John Mulnix: long before advanced [00:04:30] telescopes and robotic spacecraft. Philosophers and scientists have already been asking these big questions, and the idea that countless planets might exist, maybe even with their own civilizations, was known as the plurality of worlds.

[00:04:47] Eric Ward: And that was an interesting thing. That's, that was one thing, uh, that I learned a great deal about. That, this idea of, you know, sciences, thinking about life. Beyond Earth, the possibility of life beyond Earth [00:05:00] has been around for centuries. It's, um, it's known in the history of science as the plurality of worlds, but, you know, we have, yeah.

[00:05:08] Eric Ward: 16th, 17th century books on display in the exhibit that, that talk about that very subject, the about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. 

[00:05:19] John Mulnix: And just tell us what we're looking at right now. And 

[00:05:21] Eric Ward: this Fonta Nail book from 1686, it's in French and the title of it is, uh, the Plurality of Worlds.

[00:05:29] Eric Ward: [00:05:30] And there's a wonderful front as piece fold out illustration of the known universe at that time. And it has the planets for Mercury up to Saturn, and that's what was known. And the illustration depicts the Cartesian view. Of the universe. Uh, Descartes believed that the universe was filled with, uh, swirling Boise sea.

[00:05:58] Eric Ward: And I always give the example, [00:06:00] at least for people in the Midwest here in the fall when the leaves are falling and sometimes you see the wind pick up some leaves and swirl 'em around. It was kind of similar to what believed was, uh, that made up the universe. Okay. And it's one of my favorite, if not the favorite illustration.

[00:06:23] Eric Ward: Yeah, it's beautiful exhibition and it's just re, it's a, it's in remarkable condition again from [00:06:30] 1686. And of course, paper back then was made from Lenin, usually, so it wasn't until the mid 19th century that they started making paper from wood pulp, and of course wood pulps, a city. You know, acidic, and we do that from newspapers.

[00:06:50] Eric Ward: How quickly they turn you, right? Yeah. Down and the grade. And, but this paper, uh, if you come here to library to look at our rare books, uh, you'll, you'll notice that the [00:07:00] paper's in remarkable shape for 400. Uh, some of our books, 500 years old. 

[00:07:08] John Mulnix: That curiosity carried into the modern era when astronomer Frank Drake proposed an equation to estimate the number of civilizations in our galaxy that might be broadcasting signals.

[00:07:20] John Mulnix: What began as imagination was slowly becoming science. 

[00:07:25] Eric Ward: Uh, you know, so we have those rare books, uh, from our history of science collection. [00:07:30] We have the first publication of the Drake Equation. Where Frank Drake first published, uh, his now famous equation on to determine how many civilizations are out there, universe that could possibly be transmitting signals.

[00:07:50] Eric Ward: And he presented that first at a conference and then a few years later it was published. It's, it's not much to look at just little nuggets like that that [00:08:00] are here in our collection.

[00:08:04] John Mulnix: The Drake equation is one tool that's been used in thought experiments for decades to estimate the number of potential civilizations in our galaxy and in the universe. More recently, other researchers have proposed updates to this now famous equation. And I'm not gonna read the equation here because math was never my strong suit, but I'll link to it in some of the articles in the show notes.

[00:08:29] John Mulnix: What stands out to [00:08:30] me about this first edition and other books generally, and a lot of the collection at the Linda Hall Library is the importance of literature, especially physical copies in our culture. In building a bridge to the 18th century author, Neil Postman writes. Quote, the act of reading a book is the best example of distance learning possible for reading.

[00:08:54] John Mulnix: Not only triumphs over the limitations of space and co-presence, but of time as [00:09:00] well. That's why I love places like the Linda Hall Library. Books can help us transcend the limits of time and space in a way that can't be altered, like a website or a blog, or a news post, or even a podcast. And that's enough meta analysis for this episode.

[00:09:17] John Mulnix: Um, so let's get back to exoplanets. For decades, we listened to the stars and search the stars without finding proof of other worlds. But in [00:09:30] 1995, everything changed when astronomers discovered the first confirmed planet orbiting another star. Since then, NASA just announced last week, actually at the time of recording this here.

[00:09:42] John Mulnix: That there are more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets and thousands more candidates. I went back to my episode notes from 2017 when I released episode 29 of the Space Shot, and at that point there were only 3,492 confirmed exoplanets. So we've nearly [00:10:00] doubled the number of known exoplanets in the last eight years, and the frontiers of what we're finding out about our place in the solar system continue to spread.

[00:10:10] Eric Ward: You know, news about life beyond Earth, it was kind of in the air. Mm-hmm. Uh, it has been recently, it's, it's always a news topic, but you know, with the UAPs, the new name for UFOs, you know, that was going on. With NASA and the NASA study team, and so we just thought [00:10:30] it'd be a great topic to explore. 

[00:10:32] John Mulnix: Yeah.

[00:10:32] John Mulnix: Well, like kind of fortuitously last week, the, the news 

[00:10:35] Eric Ward: from Mars there might be, yeah. Uh, life on Mars. Yeah. So it's, uh, it is incredible to think about, you know, for so long it's all we've known is. Just about us here on earth. And you know, it's, uh, it's incredible to think about even microbial life on another planet that's, it's still life.

[00:10:58] Eric Ward: That's big news. It's still [00:11:00] life, you know, as, uh, you know, there's the, there Carl Sagan quote or is in the movie contact, you know, if, if, uh, if it's just us, I'll, I'll paraphrase it. If it's just us in the universe. It'll be an awful, it's just an awful big waste of space. And, uh, that's true. So, and, and it's, you know, also it's been a scientific topic of study for centuries really.

[00:11:28] Eric Ward: And we have a lot of material in our [00:11:30] collection to, um, talk about it and interpret from, for the exhibition. 

[00:11:37] John Mulnix: And Eric's right. Finding microbes on Mars would be transformative. It's incredible how many discoveries we're making right now that are often even stranger than we could have imagined. The James Webb Space Telescope directly imaged, TWA seven BA Saturn Mass Planet, and this is the smallest world ever captured this way, which is incredible [00:12:00] to think about the advancements in telescopes and how.

[00:12:03] John Mulnix: We are going to be able to peer into these worlds or at these worlds in the coming decades. Another planet BD oh 5 48 68. AB is a planet that's disintegrating into a trail of dust, kind of like a comet. In that recent article announcing that there has been 6,000 exoplanets confirmed NASA's, the notes that quote, this milestone comes 30 years after the first [00:12:30] exoplanet was discovered around a star similar to our son in 1995.

[00:12:35] John Mulnix: Although researchers think that there are billions of planets in the Milky Way, finding them remains a challenge. In addition to discovering many individual planets with fascinating characteristics, as the total number of known exoplanets climbs, scientists are able to see how the general planet population compares to the planets of our own solar system.

[00:12:58] John Mulnix: I think it's incredible that we live in a [00:13:00] time where we're finding things about exoplanets. That show that they're more diverse and unexpected than even Percival Lowell could have imagined with his Martian canals. Speaking of Martians, 

[00:13:15] Eric Ward: one of the inspirations, uh, for putting this exhibition on Life Beyond Earth was a conversation we had with some folks at the Truman Presidential Library who mentioned that they had some [00:13:30] material in their collection related to.

[00:13:32] Eric Ward: Roswell and the kind of the modern UFO Okay. Uh, phenomenon, which we have a section about that in the exhibition, but, and it just got us to thinking that, you know, it's a topic that. Is of interest to everyone. You know, this idea of is there life beyond earth? It's, um, you know, there were a lot of movies about it, a lot of [00:14:00] books, and it's, it's become so much part of our culture that, and it's a fascinating topic to think about.

[00:14:05] Eric Ward: Mm-hmm. So we thought, why this is a great time to, uh, to do something like this. We had never, uh. Done this topic before for an exhibition, and we thought now was a great time 

[00:14:21] John Mulnix: from Roswell to UFOs or now UAPs. Our fascination with the unknown has always run alongside scientific research. [00:14:30] This exhibit embraces that history from written works on flying saucers to Project Blue Book case files.

[00:14:38] Eric Ward: My favorite, uh, things that we have on display in the exhibition are the items related to the Percival Low's belief in. Life on Mars and what he thought were canals, purposely built canals, [00:15:00] uh, on a drying planet that the martians built the canals to draw water from the poles as, as the planet was drying up, uh, for their survival.

[00:15:13] Eric Ward: And we have just some wonderful items in the collection from Lowell, uh, that are on display. We don't have a digital version of the exhibition online yet, okay. But we will have, uh, very soon. And [00:15:30] all of our, uh, rare books and material on display are, uh, have been digitized. If you go to the library catalog, linda hall.org, you search for Personal Low, you'll see many of his works freely available, uh, in a digitized version.

[00:15:47] Eric Ward: Okay. 

[00:15:48] John Mulnix: Per Lowell believe those dark lines on Mars were canals built by an advanced civilization fighting to survive. Today we know better, but his maps and books on display at the Linda Hall Library [00:16:00] are physical reminders of how deeply people have longed to not be alone. 

[00:16:05] Eric Ward: If you are a curious person interested in science, science broadly defined, then this is a place for you.

[00:16:15] Eric Ward: We are, uh, you mentioned we're. Tucked into into campus, we, we are an independent research library, so although the University of Missouri, Kansas City campus surrounds us, we're independent from the [00:16:30] university, we're great neighbors with University of the faculty students. We collaborate on a lot of events.

[00:16:38] Eric Ward: I point out the distinction that we're not part of UMKC because we are open to the public. You don't want to be a student or professor or work for the university to use this. We are open to the public. Linda Hall and her husband Herbert left their property and some money to create the library. And one thing they both [00:17:00] put in their wills was that we were to be freely available to the public so anyone can come through our doors.

[00:17:07] Eric Ward: Our exhibitions are free. Almost all of our public programs are free as well. And. It is free to use the collection. If you live in the Kansas City Metro, you can get a library card. We operate much like a public library that you'd be familiar with, that you could check out books and come here and study and just use the collection.

[00:17:29] Eric Ward: And [00:17:30] we have over a million and a half. Volumes. We're the world's largest independent science library. I think we do. We have a little something for everybody. And you mentioned the arboretum. We're on a 14 acre urban arboretum. It's just a great place to take a stroll. Yeah. Through nature. And all of our trees and plants are labeled so you can learn a little something, uh, about identifying trees and plants out there as well.

[00:17:54] Eric Ward: But if you don't wanna do that, it's just a great place to. Uh, reconnect with nature. [00:18:00] You may not be a scientist or engineer, but you know, science touches everybody's lives daily, and I think the more people are exposed to that, they, uh, they'll learn a little something. Broadly speaking, our exhibitions, public programs, really everything we do, our, our collection is to deepen human's understanding and appreciation of science and its integral role in shaping our [00:18:30] world.

[00:18:31] John Mulnix: The Linda Hall Library is more than just a place with rare books and exhibitions. It's a place open to everyone, free of charge and dedicated to curiosity. While my wife and daughter explored the arboretum outside, I was interviewing Eric. After that, we were able to stroll around together and we both just were kind of staggered at the extent of the collection and just the incredible campus where the Linda Hall Library is at.[00:19:00] 

[00:19:01] John Mulnix: I know while I was looking through the collection, I found about a dozen books or so that I'm gonna have to read over the coming months. So thank you to the Linda Hall Library for the hat.

[00:19:13] Eric Ward: In our collections, our exhibitions, programming, and other public engagement initiatives are, are meant to inspire curiosity, innovation, and cultural engagement with science. We would just love to be in a world in [00:19:30] which science is celebrated as a vital part of our histories. Our lives and, and our future.

[00:19:35] Eric Ward: It's, it's certainly becoming more and more important in the world that that science is celebrated. So our exhibitions, our Life Beyond Earth and our future exhibitions are meant to, you know, certainly attract an audience, but also to just deepen that appreciation. Of science and spark that curiosity and maybe they'll come and check out a book.

[00:19:59] Eric Ward: [00:20:00] You mentioned you have some books you'd like to like to see and uh, and that's what we're looking for. You know, we you, whether you come here for a program to look through the exhibition or to study or whatever the reason, we just hope that people continue to be engaged with the library.

[00:20:22] Eric Ward: Well, we have Life Beyond Earth ending October 11th, we'll have a new acquisitions exhibition in our main [00:20:30] gallery, and that will display material from our collection that's been acquired in the past year or so. Okay. That'll include some wonderful rare books, uh, and then other material from our collection.

[00:20:45] Eric Ward: Our next major exhibition is titled Alchemy of Knowledge, and that will open in March, 2026. There's a subtitle to it. Uh, I think it's from Shakespeare to ai. The, the Exact Wording May [00:21:00] Change. The Exhibition will start in the 16th and 17th Centuries when you know people believed in the Supernatural Dragons, mermaids, unicorns.

[00:21:13] Eric Ward: And then there was a shift with, you know, Francis Bacon and the rise of empiricism and the scientific method, and Shakespeare will be kind of the un the unifying theme throughout [00:21:30] the exhibition. Shakespeare was writing his plays and producing his plays around this same timeframe and. And then we're also going to bring it up to date with AI and how AI today is kind of looked at like a supernatural thing and do we trust it?

[00:21:55] Eric Ward: Is it gonna take our jobs? Is, you know, where's it going? [00:22:00] So we see some connections between. Kind of the, the angst that was going on in the world in the 16th, 17th centuries, and, and today with, with a lot of the, the fear and worry about ai. And so we wanna cover both spectrums, you know, 16th, 17th, centuries, and then kind of what we're dealing with today with ai.

[00:22:26] John Mulnix: If you ever get the chance to go to Kansas City, I [00:22:30] strongly recommend that you check out the Linda Hall Library. There's always something new there for exhibits, so please do yourself a favor and check it out.

[00:22:42] John Mulnix: As we end, take a moment to think about that. Carl Sagan quote from contact that Eric had mentioned, the universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space. I don't know about you, but I definitely think [00:23:00] there's something out there.

[00:23:15] John Mulnix: That's it for this episode. Coming up soon, I've got a five part series called the Lunar Era, which explores humanity's relationship with our closest celestial neighbor, the moon. I'd love it if you could leave a review or rating for this [00:23:30] episode in your podcast app of choice. Please tell your friends, family, coworkers, enemies, anyone who likes podcasts about the show.

[00:23:37] John Mulnix: I've got some incredible episodes coming up, and I hope to share these stories with as many people as possible. If you've got questions, send a message to john@thespaceshot.com or text or call the podcast hotline, seven two zero seven seven two. 7, 9, 8, 8. Please ping me if you'd like to ask or [00:24:00] record a question for a future episode once this upcoming five part series wraps up.

[00:24:05] John Mulnix: I'm thinking about recording a listener request and question show, but I need questions and requests to do that. Thanks for listening. I'm John Mulnix and I'll catch you on the flip [00:24:30] side.