Wonder.

I caught that 'The Planets' thing on Beeb 3 the other night. I love all that. The one thing that I missed when I moved out of my parents' home all those years ago was the old man's New Scientist subscription.

The prog mentioned the latest estimates re the number of stars in the universe. Our galaxy contains a hundred billion stars. And there are maybe fifty billion galaxies. They said that this is as many stars as there are grains of sand on every beach on Earth.

Imagine, if you will, going down to your favourite beach - wherever it is in the world - digging a little hole in the sand with your hand, pulling your hand out, looking closely at your index finger, and choosing one particular grain of sand sticking to your finger. Pick a pretty-coloured or shiny one if you want. That's our sun. Life is here.

Now look at your hand, at all the other grains stuck there. And now look around, slowly, at the grains on your feet, on the beach beneath your feet, the wet ones down by the water, blowing around up by the car park, in the distance, close to, at the bottom of the kids' hole, under the crisp packet, washing about in the little waves, stuck to the dog turd.

Imagine how many beaches there are in whatever country you're in. Repeat. Imagine how many countries there are in the world. Cote d'Azur, Cote d'Ivoire, Corfu, Cork, Coromandel. Cornwall. Cook Islands. Repeat.

Now tell me we're the only life in the universe.