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systems. Evolution, as human scientists see it, is a chancy affair. Although scientists generally agree that life must be fairly abundant in this and other galaxies, not all are confident that something like man has evolved elsewhere. The basics of life may well be the same in all parts of the universe, as there are good reasons for believing that carbon is the foundation element of life in the farthest as well as the nearest planetary But intelligent, man-like life may not necessarily be an inevitable product of evolution everywhere. It was not, for example, on our own planet. Nothing resembling man evolved in either North or South America or Australia. Man migrated to those continents but did not develop there. There may be thousands of planets, therefore, that may be rich in life but dominated by non-intelligent creatures, such as giant insects, that have the necessary "survival value" to evolve into planetary masters but which lack the cerebral machinery to trade messages with beings from other planets. The beings that are capable of spanning the universe, whatever their physical shape, must be possessed of a high degree of technological sophistication of the kind possessed on earth only by beings who have mastered the techniques of extending their own limited senses into the electro-magnetic ranges of invisible radio waves, x-rays, and gamma rays. Dr. Charles S. Sheldon II of the National Aeronautics and Space Council said recently that earth will have made its "first contacts with worlds outside" by the 22nd century. It seems obvious to astronomers that there are habitable planets that formed, perhaps billions of years earlier than the earth, somewhere within a few thousand or a few billion light years from earth. If even one of these habitable planets developed on an evolutionary schedule similar to our own, it would seem quite possible to conclude that our "first contact with worlds outside" has already been achieved - by the "worlds outside." 21. Portugal's Flying Cardinal's Hat