How Many Alien Civilizations are There in the Galaxy?

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

Are we the only intelligent, communicating civilisation in the galaxy? Tweak the statistical probabilities of the ‘Drake Equation’ and find out.

A nice little interactive visualization we did for the BBC.

(It’s only viewable to people outside the UK. Unless you’re running something like <cough>Tunnel Bear</cough>)

concept & design: David McCandless

additional design: Piero Zagami

exec creative direction: Duncan Swain

research: Marley Whiteside

Wim Van Dijck

Congrats dear sir, you did it again! :) I’d already been playing with it and thought I saw your hand in it… Keep it coming!!

The correct answer is 33750000, by the way!
Derek

Can’t you host a version here?
Al

Why on earth are people who pay the BBC a licence fee prevented from seeing something that is free for people who don’t pay the BBC anything at all?

If it’s because there’s adverts, they should just show it to people in the UK with adverts and a link, “Why are there adverts?” that explains the BBC Worldwide thing.
Alejandro

“We’re sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee.” :/
http://youtu.be/C3KpZMNYBnY Christa Herzog

Thank you for sharing this blog.They should just show it to people in the UK with adverts and a link, “Why are there adverts?” that explains the BBC Worldwide thing.
Carlos

Surely you meant to write in the last triangle “Communicating civilizations in the observable universe, right?
- Carlos
  
  …that is, in the same way I meant to put a closing quote at the end of “universe”.
James

UK (and RoW!) people can see one version of the inforgraphic here.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670795/infographic-how-many-aliens-are-there-in-our-galaxy
Ivan

Or you can see it here (full size) and no BBC bullshit.
http://i.imgur.com/OmP1s.jpg

Information Is Beautiful