According to the Royal Society’s announcement, Professor Uta Frith FRS, Chair of the Royal Society library committee, stated, “The release of these papers opens a fascinating window on the history of scientific progress over the last few centuries and will be of interest to anybody who wants to understand how science has evolved since the days of the Royal Society’s foundation.” The society’s first publication appeared in 1665. Yes, you can read articles from 1665 in the archive.

The Royal Society’s website explains that the society is a “fellowship of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.” The society was founded in 1660 and serves as the UK’s national academy of science. The Royal Society proudly identifies itself as the world’s oldest scientific publisher, and currently publishes nine peer-reviewed journals.

Stephen Hawking (credit: Telegraph)

Paul Davies (credit: ASU)

UFOs and extraterrestrials have been the topic of several papers published in the various Royal Society journals. One example is a study conducted by Dr. Stephen Hughes, an astrophysicist at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, in which he suggests ball lightning and meteor showers could explain some UFO sightings.

Cover of the January 2011 issue. (credit: The Royal Society)

Other examples of UFO/extraterrestrial-related content published by the Royal Society include a paper by Ted Peters titled “The implications of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life for religion,” a paper by Carl Sagan titled “The Recognition of Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” and a cynical article by Simon Conway Morris titled “Predicting what extra-terrestrials will be like: and preparing for the worst.”

And while these and other articles, like SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) pioneer Frank Drake’s article titled “The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence,” might interest you, be aware that not all of the Royal Society’s content is currently available for free. Only content that was published more than 70 years ago is freely available. Newer content still requires a fee to view. So while you’re certainly welcome to browse writings by Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Ben Franklin, you still have to pay for most of the articles about extraterrestrials and UFOs.

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.