Intelligent civilizations are out there and there could be thousands of them, according to an Edinburgh scientist. The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist.The research done in the Edinburgh lab estimates that there are 361 intelligent civilizations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000. “It’s a process of quantifying our ignorance,” said Duncan Forgan, the University of Edinburgh researcher who carried out the work.