Third Angel: 600 people

Third Angel’s Alexander Kelly knows a lot about space, the history of the species, and a fair bit about aliens – exactly the sort of chap you would like to have on your side in a pub quiz. In this animated whirlwind of facts, figures and scientific know-how, Kelly conjures up the presence of Dr Simon Goodwin, an astrophysicist at Sheffield University, with whom he shares meetings and beers to discuss space, the universe and everything in between.

Is there anybody out there? Turns out that there isn’t. Dr Goodwin is sure – at least 95 % sure (100% when trying to achieve dramatic effect). There are a whole lot of questions and equations to back this up. In addition to the spaceships sent out – Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, bearing human offers of peace and friendship – to explore the galaxy, both of which have returned no evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Kelly sits at a table with his cup of tea and three spherical, planet-like looking objects to illustrate and map out his galactic musings. He has a fiercely sharp grasp of the facts, his mind and mouth work at a breakneck speed, and the enthusiasm for his subject is contagious.

In a consideration of other beings in our solar system, we are brought back to our own species: the Homo Sapiens, one of seven human species and the only one that survived, although there is evidence of cross-pollination. Kelly shares the results of the DNA test that himself and Dr Goodwin did in a fit of scientific fervour; they are respectively 2.8 % and 3.1% Neanderthal. Apparently we all have a similar dose. That’s exciting. Possibly a bit more exotic than being a sixteenth Welsh.

We also learn that each of us are directly descended from one of 600 Homo Sapiens living in the rift valley hundreds of thousands of years ago. Only 600 people – an almost extinct species: an astonishing fact, and its magnitude is almost impossible to comprehend. The 100 or so people sitting in that room are the result of those 600 people – us, the thousands of folk sitting in various states of amusement, wonder, confusion and excitement in the numerous sites across the city, and beyond that, the population of the UK, then Europe, then the world. The mind zooms and boggles, then comes back to our fellow humans and to the invisible links we have to each and every one of them. It is a humbling, beautifully live and communal moment.

Whether or not aliens exist, the fact that we do is extraordinary enough. It makes you want to do something more than think about how much it is raining. Though the passion with which Kelly talks about his subject is engaging, the piece remains at a slight distance. The facts sometimes feel fairly impenetrable and the lecture-style delivery, whilst never dry, is occasionally slightly stilted. Nevertheless, we leave knowing more than we did when we arrived, with a fresh galactic twinkle in our eyes and over seven billion new relatives.