TED Talk: What a planet needs to sustain life

TED is devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading that started out as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. With two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil each summer, TED includes: the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

Check out this 13-minute video:

Watch the TED Talk.

I loved how Dave Brain (with that name, what a rough childhood) points out that to have life, you need 3 things:

• Energy (solar or chemical-reaction-based)
• Food
• Water (liquid form, not trapped below an icy surface)

Given that, our solar system has:

• Venus (too hot)
• Mars (too cold)
• Earth (just right)

I am thrilled that the Earth's magnetic field makes us the Goldilocks of our solar system.

Planetary appreciation is alive in the lab.