Is there life on Mars?

Captain's log, Stardate 13112006.2128

David Bowie once pondered on this, and I have too. Or more specifically I've been wondering about sentient and intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Current thinking puts our Universe at 80 billion light years across so in the countless galaxies, solar systems and planets it is hard to believe that life has not evolved in the 18 billion years since the "Big Bang" kicked everything off.

One question that interests me more than most is what form might this life take, and I suppose that very much depends on the conditions in which it is to survive. On our own planet life takes many different forms, although the dominant ones are land-based and the superior one is bipedal leaving two limbs free to manipulate its environment. On other worlds is life structured in much the same way that we are, all muscles and tendons stretched over a supporting skeleton, or may it have evolved in the air or in liquid? What might it look like, how might it communicate, reproduce, eat, sleep and move? These are all questions that we are unlikely to ever know, since the distances required to travel find out are so vast that, I suspect, nothing has been able to cross it yet.

Is there life on Mars? If there is it is probably nothing more than primitive bacteria or other single celled creatures but proof of its existence would be a key milestone in man's evolution. Is there life in the Universe? How can there not be. I don't believe human kind could be arrogant enough to believe that the happy coincidences that have led to our existence cannot have occurred elsewhere in the vast and mysterious Universe that we inhabit.

Migraines and me

I didn't feel all that well on Monday, and by about lunchtime I could feel the familiar symptoms of a migraine starting. I started to lose concentration on my work and what people were telling me. I developed an aching behind my eyes and started yawning more than usual. Then the worst part of a migraine started - the headache, it's a kind of pain that you never forget, and on that day it started in earnest at about 6pm. Before too long the pain throbbing behind my right temple was unbearable almost to the point of madness, the only thing that I can do to ease it is to take some painkillers (ibuprofen seem to work best for me) and lay down in a quiet and very dark room. Eventually I had to go to bed and try to sleep as this sometimes stops the pain, but on this occasion it only seemed to make it worse. I awoke at about 1am in worse pain than before and, upset and a little frightened, it took a further 2 hours before I was able to get back to sleep. When I woke in the morning thankfully the pain was gone, but it has taken another 48 hours at least for me to start feeling more like my normal self. I am extremely lucky in that my wonderful wife Ana understands what I am going through and does everything possible to help me and look after me until I am recovered.

This month's BBC Focus magazine has an article in it about migraine and I hoped it might give me some insight into understanding my own condition a little better. Described as frightening, disabling and unpredictable (all of which I agree with) migraine is more common than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined. In fact 6% of men and as many as 18% of women in the UK are affected. The trigger for these attacks is not well understood, I have certainly never been able to predict when an attack might occur or do anything much to prevent it. My attacks are infrequent, perhaps one or two per month, but can cause me to miss work if their timing is bad. I was quite shocked to read some people might suffer one or two attacks every week, life for someone like that must be difficult especially if those attacks are severe. It is generally thought that migraine is an inherited tendency, and may be related to a defect in genes responsible for ion transfer essential to the correct functioning of the nervous system. It can be triggered by many factors either singly or in combination, such as lack of food, sleep, certain foods, stress or even the weather. The brain doesn't like change and this also seems to be a trigger. I don't know what might be triggering mine but that is not for want of investigation.

I think migraines are misunderstood by people who don't have first hand experience of them, or experience caring for a sufferer. Imagine if you will the worst headache you've ever had, then concentrate it into a pulsating, one-sided severe pain, then multiply that by 10, add sensitivity to light, sound and touch until experiencing them are also painful, then add nausea, sweating and shivering. Now you're in my migraine country, but even that description doesn't make it sound as bad as it can be. I think there is a stigma attached to migraine and that is very unfair because it is an illness like any other, but perhaps not so well understood. Migraine suffers don't just have a headache that a couple of paracetamol will take away, but are often affected by pain so disabling that they can't move for fear of making it worse. So next time someone you know gets has an attack do all you can to help them because they are about to enter a world of pain that you probably didn't realise existed.

Latest iTunes purchases

My mum sent me some codes for free iTunes tracks that she got off of six-packs of coke. Now I don't know what she's doing drinking all that coke, we were never allowed any as kids, but as I've got 4 free tunes out of it I won't complain. These are the tunes I decided to buy and, I think, reflect my reasonably varied and eclectic taste in music.

• Sophia (unplugged) - Nerina Pallot
• Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens
• Massacre - Iron Maiden
• Take 5 - Dave Brubeck

Sophia is an amazingly haunting song which I first heard on TOTP2 a couple of weeks ago. You can view the video of this performanace on YouTube. Once heard it is never forgotten and I have to say I prefer this unplugged version to the standard radio version I heard the other day.

Tea for the Tillerman is the song used for the credits of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Extras series. It always makes me smile to hear it as that was such a good tv series, better even than the incredible The Office.

Massacre is a cover of a Thin Lizzy song, if you don't own a copy of Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous then you don't know classic rock. Iron Maiden perform a true rock cover, not messed about with, but the Maiden sound is there. Myself and Mrs Williams are off to see the Maiden at Earl's Court in December, can't wait!

Take 5, I love this song by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Although everyone knows the saxophone melody and piano intro it is also famous for its drum solo. Mmmmm, nice.

So much good music in the world, my mum better keep drinking the coke!