The BBC recently reported that news of extraterrestrial contact “may reach most people via a tweet from a Seti astronomer.” And according to the Daily Mail, because of the instant nature of social media, you might know about ET contact before a government agency does.

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) astronomers recently explained that they “have no obligation to report [contact] to an official body, and can simply inform people what they have discovered and they do not know of any formal procedure of how to deal with it.” Once an extraterrestrial signal is detected, it will be up to the man who heads up SETI’s Post-detection Teskgroup, Arizona State University professor Paul Davies, to respond. What type of response does Davies have in mind? He told the BBC that a response “would have to be something aliens and humans could both understand . . . at a mathematics and physics level.”

Hopefully the extraterrestrials who do make contact are better at those subjects than I, because I am not very good with math or physics.

You can read more about the power of social media as an information/news tool in the December/January issue of Open Minds magazine.

To stay up-to-date with breaking UFO news follow us:

Twitter:

@OpenMindstv
@iufoc
@acecentric
@maureenelsberry

Facebook:

Open Minds Magazine
International UFO Congress
Open Minds Radio
Jason OpenMinds
Maureen OpenMinds

Paul Davies (credit: ASU)

Astrobiologist, physicist, and cosmologist Paul Davies has cooperated with SETI for thirty years, but believes scientists might have better luck finding evidence of extraterrestrial life here on Earth. According to Astrobiology Magazine, “Davies wants scientists to broaden their

The Allen Telescope Array (credit: SETI Institute)

The evidence could be on our very own planet. We just have to find it. That is, if any traces of extraterrestrial visitation have survived for “hundreds of millions or billions of years for humans to still find them today.”

Davies feels that the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life here on Earth would complement SETI’s skyward efforts, even though he acknowledges that using radio telescopes to listen for alien signals is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Left: Mariastella Gelmini, Italian Minister of Education Right: Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister (Credit: Forza Italia)

On June 22^nd, 2010, for the first time in the history of the Italian educational system, UFOs and extraterrestrials became the topic of an essay requirement for hundreds of thousands students of Italy, asked to express their thoughts on this controversial subject.

The “Maturity Exam” (also known as “Esame di Stato”, State Exam) is the final goal of every student, who wants to continue to study and enter the university world. The Maturity diploma is equivalent to the ACTs or SATs in the U.S., where the students have to pass written and oral tests. The first written exam (“Italian test”) pertains to humanistic culture and the second pertains to scientific culture. The Italian written test is identical nation-wide, regardless of the type of school the student had attended.

Usually, among the humanistic topics proposed by the Italian Educators, the test requires the students to choose from literary, sociological, historical and current life subjects. Last Tuesday 500,694 young candidates were utterly surprised to see the humanistic test dedicated to the subject of extraterrestrial life and UFOs. The test allowed students to choose which topic they wanted to write about among five choices. Each topic begins with introductory references for the students to use to help guide them on their topic.

Four of them considered the possibility of life in the Cosmos, the philosophical implications of such existence and the consequences of a possible Alien/Human contact. These four introductory references were writings of American science historian and astrobiologist Steven J. Dick, great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and contemporary famous scientists, Stephen Hawking and Paul Davies. British astrophysicist, Hawking, focused on the importance of intelligence and of tolerance. He argues that an intelligent human being has to accept the idea of the existence of many different intelligences. Arizona based astrophysicist, Davies, sees the search for extraterrestrial intelligence as a fundamental challenge for our minds and our consciousness.

Remarkably, the fifth choice referred to UFOs, its introduction was written by two experts, scientific journalist Pippo Battaglia, well known author and documentary writer and Walter Ferreri, of the Turin Astronomic Observatory also a science writer. Here is the Battaglia and Ferreri text chosen by the Ministry of Public Education to direct the Italian students:

Italian students taking the exam (Credit: blogosfere.it).

Subject: Are We Alone?

“UFOs: uninvited guests? In the past years, as a result of public pressure, several studies were conducted primarily by the U.S Air Force to establish the nature of the UFO phenomenon… At the present state of our knowledge, the percentage of the alleged sightings found unexplainable is very low, around 1.5 to 2%. This small percentage could be attributed largely to suggestions and visions, which certainly exist… There are numerous hypotheses that may explain the nature of UFOs. For example, one hypothesis suggests that the origin of a number of sightings is in fact little known geophysical phenomena, another suggests secret experimental aircraft, yet the extraterrestrial origin is not completely excluded. The truth is that we cannot explain it with rationality and knowledge… Apparently, logic and scientific method do not seem effective in the study of UFOs for which any explanation is unsatisfactory and/or too risky”.

According to Televideo (RAI News on-line service) an unexpected 19%, almost one out of five of this young population, has chosen the UFO topic. What could be more refreshing when you are 20 and full of hope than to have a Maturity test about UFOs and life in the Universe. This is unprecedented for the Italian educational system and probably is still unseen worldwide.

Even though the Italian and European educational systems are still lacking when it comes to the UFO/ET life question as part of normal curriculum, something is changing and this initiative will certainly help to open and grow thousands of young minds.

What a difference from forty years ago when it was my turn to deal with the infamous and scary Italian Maturity test. I remember the topic I had to cover, It was the fascinating life of Ugo Foscolo, 18th century revolutionary, writer and poet, whose dark style I actually loved. My essay barely passed the scrutiny of the judging commission. I narrowly made it to university afterwards, although I soon quit. Rock Music and journalism were calling me.

Arriving at the Phoenix convention center I had to take a breath and muster my strength to wrestle my way through a humongous crowd of Comic book, science fiction, and anime fans; a good portion of them in costume. It was overwhelming to see the incredible turn out, filling the huge convention center as people milled around, shoulder to shoulder to see their favorite comic book artists, actors, voice artists, or in some cases, scientists.

Astronomer, Seth Shostak, Director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Astrobiologist, Cosmologist, and Theoretical Physicist at the University of Arizona, Paul Davies headed up the Super-Sized SETI panel. Shostak is often seen on television talking about his organization, and Davies is all over the news these days, having recently address the UK’s Royal Society, and the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Science. Each gave a thirty minute lecture prior to opening up for questions and answers.

Shostak spoke about the SETI institute and the overwhelming odds for the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. In fact he went so far as to say that if you believe there aren’t ET’s out there, then you believe in miracles. He went on to explain SETI’s project of listening for radio waves, in hopes that an intelligent civilization would send us a message. When asked if he thought people would panic if SETI did find a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, he replied that 1/3 of the American public believe in abduction, and another 1/3 believes that ETs are buzzing around in UFOs, and people aren’t freaking out right now, so he doesn’t think the public would have any trouble handling the news.

From left: Seth Shostak, Paul Davies, David Williams

Davies acknowledged that the SETI program was a “needle in a haystack with a vengeance.” His focus is looking for ET down here. He believes that perhaps there is another string of life on earth started by micro-organisms that have hitched a ride on asteroids from another planet. While Shostak is skeptical of this idea, Davies says ET could be right under, or in our nose.

Davies also made another interesting observation. He has seen the change in attitude regarding the idea of extraterrestrial life in the scientific community. It used to be shunned, but now the idea is looked upon more positively. However, he says that the science hasn’t changed, there is no new evidence, and it is the scientists that have changed. He believes this is evidence that scientists are clueless.

Davies has a positive perspective in our quest for extraterrestrial brotherhood. He believes that advanced civilizations that may be out there have most likely already faced the challenges we face today, and that they would be able to help guide us through some of our turmoil. One attendee asked if he thought it was dangerous to try to contact ETs, like Steven hawking suggested. Davies replied that first, he doesn’t believe that it is harmful, because they would detect us long before they would receive any kind of transmission from us. He also pointed out that whether we like it or not, we have been sending our presence into space by means of light for a long time. That even before they detected any radio waves, they would see that our planet is lit up by non-natural lighting, so if we wanted to hide our presence, we already have a problem.

Prior to their talk I was able to meet with Shostak for a one on one interview. I asked him questions more directed toward UFO research. I asked about how he feels about some of the great cases that have credible witnesses. In particular I mentioned the sighting that Astronaut Gordon Cooper had at Edwards Air Force Base, when a silver saucer shaped object was filmed landing on a lake bed and then flying off. Cooper says he was instructed to send the film ti his superiors, and didn’t know where it went after that. Shostak replied, “I have talked to Edgar Mitchell, I have talked to a lot of people, Story Musgrave and other astronauts, these are credible people. That isn’t really the issue. The issue isn’t whether they are credible, if Edgar Mitchell said I think I saw my neighbor commit a murder, that is eye witness testimony, and the fact that he had film of this thing and then had to send it away just means that it is a secret. It doesn’t tell anything about whether it is extraterrestrial or not. So I am not going to believe just because the witness is credible.” He went on to point out, “I assume that all witnesses are credible, actually. The ones that call me up are probably credible. I have never heard from anybody that sounds like they are making stories up, never.”

I then asked that if there was a case like this was to happen now, whether the SETI institute would be able to lend a hand with the investigation. He told me that this wasn’t really SETI’s area of expertise, that instead “What you want is someone that is an expert in forensic techniques.” Shostak acknowledged that the majority of scientists at the SETI institute are astrobiologist, but “they are looking for life on Mars, under the sands of Mars.”

Our time was cut short, so I asked what advice he would give UFO researchers. He answered, “I don’t know that I could give any good advice, but simply to say, I am waiting to see [a UFO] stacked up on display at the Smithsonian. It requires something that is incontrovertible. The difference between UFO research and SETI is that SETI doesn’t claim to have found anything. In fact, quite the opposite, we are quite candid about the fact that no signal, we have found lots of signals, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of signals, but none of them is clearly, clearly in a way that can be quickly checked extraterrestrial in origin. Now the UFO community claims that yes, they have success, they are here. That’s the claim. They are not saying, maybe they are here, maybe we should look around. They are saying they are here, and for that… I am looking for the really good evidence”

Wait. The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs? Reading that one caught me off guard. I’ve certainly never heard of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. It sounds fascinating, so I had to visit their website to see what this office does.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is the UN office responsible for “promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space,” according to their website. They also maintain the UN Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space. I wonder if they also keep a register of objects from outer space that come to Earth . . .

Anyway, back to the Royal Society’s assembly.

Leading Cambridge scientist Conway Morris presented claims that, when aliens are discovered, they will look and talk like humans. The evolutionary paleobiologist bases his theory around Darwinism. Morris doesn’t mean that aliens look exactly like humans, but rather than being vapor or shapeless blobs, they will have features similar to humans like limbs and eyes.

Paul Davies

Arizona State University (my alma mater) professor, Paul Davies, was a key participant at the event. He concluded the event with a lecture entitled “The Eerie Silence: are we alone in the universe?” Davies believes that the search for alien life should get more attention here on Earth. He believes that microbes of extra-terrestrial origin are here on our planet.

There is a common misconception that only crazy people take the idea of UFOs and extra-terrestrial life seriously. The Royal Society’s recent gathering of leading academic and scientific minds shows that there is interest in UFOs and aliens in the scientific community.