I Suppose My Interest In Looking For

To A Physicist Life Looks Nothing Short Of A Miracle. It's Just Amazing What Living Things Can Do.

Many Billions Of Years Will Elapse Before The Smallest, Youngest Stars Complete Their Nuclear Burning And Shrink Into White Dwarfs. But With Slow, Agonizing Finality Perpetual Night Will Surely Fall.

No Intelligent Supervisor, No Mystic Force, No Conscious Controlling Agency Swings The Molecules Into Place At The Right Time, Chooses The Appropriate Players, Closes The Links, Uncouples The Partners, Moves Them On. The Dance Of Life Is Spontaneous, Self-sustaining, And Self-creating.

In Time, [a Martian] Colony Would Grow To The Point Of Being Self- Sustaining. When This Stage Was Reached, Humanity Would Have A Precious Insurance Policy Against Catastrophe At Home. During The Next Millennium There Is A Significant Chance That Civilization On Earth Will Be Destroyed By An Asteroid, A Killer Plague Or A Global War. A Martian Colony Could Keep The Flame Of Civilization And Culture Alive Until Earth Could Be Reverse-colonized From Mars.

Very, Very Slowly, The Dwarf Remnants Of What Was Once Our Mighty Sun Will Cool And Dim, Until It Embarks On Its Final Metamorphosis, Gradually Solidifying Into A Crystal Of Extraordinary Rigidity. Eventually It Will Fade Out Completely, Merging Quietly Into The Blackness Of Space.