Mr. Wickramasinghe is saying that, " . . . the probability of discovering this set of conditions crucial to life by random shuffling is one in 10^40,000, a number that exceeds by many powers of 10, the number of all atoms in the entire observable Universe." (Therefore, he is,) " . . . compelled to seek a non-mechanistic 'creator' for life."
Both scientists have testified in a court of law, on behalf of Arkansas, in defense of creation science. U.S. District Judge William Overton has, "In his opinion of the case issued Jan. 5, [1982] concluded, 'creation science is not science'."
The research mentioned by Mr. Wickramasinghe has been undertaken by H. D. Pfulg of the University of Giessen in West Germany. At the time of the article, the results, " . . . are to be published soon."

     The data are quite valid and will serve to introduce us to our third group, the scientists. They have a lot of circumstantial evidence and well thought out theories but, so far, no direct data on the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. The line of approach pursued by science is based on the premise that, this kind of life would have to mimic the development of life on Earth; this is mainly because of the fact that Earth life is the only kind of life discovered so far and therefore, the only measuring stick available. Thus, one of the first necessities for our kind of life is a planet. "We have to assume . . . that complex life must grow and evolve to intelligence on planets orbiting stable stars." The detection of planets orbiting other solar systems, is a very difficult task however, in the words of David C. Black, "We now possess the technological capability to mount a comprehensive search for other planetary systems." Such searches have been going on for a while on a smaller scale, and of all the stars investigated to date, the most promising one seems to be Barnard's Star; A study of the shift in the star's center of mass conducted by Mr. Black together with G. C. J. Suffolk, " . . . assumes three planets for Barnard's Star." And so, it seems that even though no planets have been observed outside of our solar system, their probable existence is a generally accepted scientific fact.