The Privileged Planet

    "The most habitable places in the universe also offer the best opportunity for scientific discovery. I believe this implies purpose." - Guillermo Gonzalez (astrobiologist)

    Many scientists and philosophers have claimed that Earth is an ordinary speck of dust adrift, without purpose or significance, in a vast cosmic sea. Yet current astronomical evidence seems to suggest just the opposite.

    We now know that a rare and finely tuned array of factors makes Earth suitable for complex life. We depend on our planet's oxygen-rich atmosphere, its large moon, its planetary neighbors, and its precise location within the solar system and Milky Way galaxy. But there is more. The same factors that make a planet like Earth hospitable to life also provide the best conditions for scientific discovery.

    Through stunning computer animation, interviews with leading scientists, and spectacular images of earth and the cosmos, The Privileged Planet explores a startling connection between our capacity to survive and our ability to observe and understand the universe.

    Is this correlation merely a coincidence? Or does it point to a deeper truth about purpose and intelligent design within the cosmos?

    Narrated by John Rys-Davies

  BONUS DVD FEATURES:

    • The search for Earth-like planets

    • Journey to the edge of the universe

    • Questions and answers

    • Earth from space

    • Reference library

    • Chapter selection

      ...more than 40 minutes of extras