Columbia University recently published an analysis which uses Bayesian statistics to investigate how extraterrestrial life may evolve on other planets. via sputniknews: David Kipping, an assistant professor in Columbia's Department of Astronomy, on Monday published a new paper in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which relied on the use of Bayesian inference to shed light on how extraterrestrial life might evolve on far-off worlds. "The rapid emergence of life and the late evolution of humanity, in the context of the timeline of evolution, are certainly suggestive," Kipping said, as reported by Columbia University. "But in this study it's possible to actually quantify what the facts tell us." Within the study, the Columbia professor asked "how often we would expect life and intelligence to re-emerge if Earth's history were to repeat, re-running the clock over and over again." Kipping framed the problem with four possible answers: "Life is common