Tagged: aliens

A cosmic gorilla effect could blind the detection of aliens

A well-known experiment with young people bouncing a ball showed that observers focusing on counting the passes failed to detect a man in a gorilla suit crossing the screen. According to researchers at the University of Cádiz (Spain), something similar could be happening when astronomers...

If intelligent aliens exist, why haven’t we seen them?

Thousands of planets have been discovered in the last few decades, although astronomers tell us there are probably billions. In such a large and diverse set of solar systems, it seems impossible that humans could be the only intelligent life. This contradiction – between the...

New wasps named after biscuits and Doctor Who aliens

University of Adelaide researchers were inspired by everything from chocolate biscuits and Doctor Who aliens when choosing names for 10 new species of wasps. “I named one wasp Sathon oreo as the antennae are dark brown with a thick white stripe in the middle… like...

Could invisible aliens really exist among us? An astrobiologist explains

Life is pretty easy to recognise. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym “MRSGREN” to describe it. It stands for movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition. But Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut...

Sulfur ‘spices’ alien atmospheres

They say variety is the spice of life, and now new discoveries from Johns Hopkins researchers suggest that a certain elemental ‘variety’—sulfur—is indeed a ‘spice’ that can perhaps point to signs of life. These findings from the researchers’ lab simulations reveal that sulfur can significantly...

How the world’s biggest radio telescope could be used to search for aliens

In 2016, China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope—the largest single-aperture radio telescope in the world—gathered its first light. Since then, the telescope has undergone extensive testing and commissioning and officially went online in Jan of 2020. In all that time, it has also been responsible...

Egypt invites Musk after ‘aliens built pyramids’ tweet

Egypt has invited Elon Musk to visit its famed pyramids after the SpaceX and Tesla founder posted a satirical tweet stating that clearly extra-terrestrials had built the giant monuments. “Aliens built the pyramids obv,” Musk had tweeted, picking up on a theme popular with conspiracy...