Hello, Earth calling, is there anyone else out there? A view of the Earth from space. EARTHLINGS are probably the only advanced life form in our galaxy, physicist Brian Cox has claimed. Professor Cox is that charming Pommy geezer who talks about space and stuff on the telly. His brain holds more information than the internet and he is almost single-handedly responsible for making cosmology groovy for the young generation. Stephen Hawking may have more intellectual clout, but would you rather listen to a man with a robot voice or a spunky, funky Cox, who's all enthusiasm and wonderment and like, wow? But it's a big call to say that we Earth dwellers are the only civilisation in our neighbourhood. When we look out at the night sky, we know those little twinkly bits are stars just like our sun, many of which will have planets spinning around them. Estimates say there are, give or take, about 100 billion stars in the galaxy. I tried to count the stars one night when I was a boy, but I kept losing track and this damn crazy Earth kept spinning. Besides, you're only seeing about half the sky from whichever hemisphere you're at. And not all the stars, even the ones in our puny galactic suburb, are visible to the naked eye. Beyond that lies who knows the heck what. This universe thingamajig is truly too big to imagine. Cox's statement was wildly misconstrued by many people, including certain elements of the media. Some thought he was saying we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Now, that would be frightening. To think that Lara Bingle and Shane Warne are the best that nature can do is a bit of a worry, to put it mildly. To think that our vast cosmos would reach its cultural peak in Dancing With the Stars is troubling. But what Prof Cox was saying is that it seems likely, given the odds, our galaxy would have produced only one advanced civilisation. For life to evolve in the first place is an amazing feat. Then for one wayward space rock to wipe out the dinosaurs and allow the mammals to take over and grow big brains and invent tools and discover fire and television and Twitter and nail polish and Australian Idol is astonishing. We are a miracle, a wonder. Yeah, we rock. Go humans. This is kind of a good thing and bad thing to know. It's nice to think we're probably not going to be invaded by super-intelligent beings with silver jumpsuits and ray guns from some nearby planet. But it makes me feel kind of, well, lonely. Like living in a lovely street with no neighbours in any of the other houses. Or going to the cinema alone. Or holding a barbecue for one. Hey, guys, where are you? Here's some interesting titbits about our universe. If you were to enlarge a hydrogen atom to the size of the Earth, the nucleus would be about the size of a soccer ball and the circling electron would be somewhere out in Earth's atmosphere. So what's in between? Spooky stuff, that's what. The Milky Way spins around at about 270km per second. Hang on tight, it could get bumpy. The furthest galaxies we can observe are racing away from us at almost the speed of light. Hey, was it something we said? A day on Mercury lasts about 59 Earth days. I'm not applying for a job there. If an atom were the size of the solar system, a neutrino would be the size of a golf ball. Ah, the universe, what a wacky concept. Whoever thunk it up?