New Mars rover, Curiosity (credit: NASA)

A recent article published by Space Daily contained the wonderful quote, “Most scientists think that we are not alone in the universe.” Many of NASA’s missions involve searching for signs of life in space. NASA released a publication in September 2011 titled The Global Exploration Roadmap, which outlined plans to explore our solar system, and the first objective listed on this road map is “Search for Life.” NASA also recently launched their latest Mars rover, the world’s biggest extraterrestrial explorer, that will comb the planet’s surface looking for signs of life.

But aside from NASA, scientists at universities and major research institutions are actively participating in the extraterrestrial search. An article published today in Harvard University’s daily newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, accurately states, “Discovering extraterrestrial life is not a new goal on mankind’s to-do list.” The field of astrobiology (the study of, and search for, life in the universe) has gained momentum in recent years, and new academic programs in the field are appearing at universities around the country. And just this week, NASA and the Library of Congress announced the establishment the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, housed within the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Paul Horowitz (credit: seti.harvard.edu)

Another Harvard professor, David Charbonneau, is one of the world’s leading experts on exoplanets, according to the Harvard Crimson. He believes that “within three years, man will likely discover habitable planets on which life could thrive.”

Harvard is just one example illustrating the reality that leading scientists are participating in the search for extraterrestrial life.

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.

Professor Richard Taylor (credit: University of Oregon)

Some crop circle formations are found to have unusual properties such as collapsed stalks and the presence of radiation–characteristics not found in crop circles made by pranksters using wooden planks. But following the study conducted by Professor Taylor and his team with the magnetron, he theorizes that crop circles with unusual characteristics could be explained by his research. Professor Taylor explains, “[T]he radiation waves that are capable of heating food when utilised in an oven – cause crop stalks to fall over and cool in a horizontal position.”

Professor Taylor’s report is in this month’s edition of Physics World.

The efficiency and capabilities of future Mars rovers could be greatly improved by efforts being made by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News explains:

The ExoMars Rover will be powered by solar energy. Hence all its instrument components will have to be very low-power. INL’s new technology guides ions using versatile, complex electric fields that reduce the need for pumps. It could potentially make ExoMars’ life-detecting tools cheaper and more sensitive.

Illustration of the ExoMars rover (credit: ESA - AOES Medialab)

A professor of genetics at Harvard who is involved with the SETG project explains that, through the efforts of the project, they will be able to “maximize our chances of detecting life that is divergent from life on Earth.”

Mars has been getting more attention lately as NASA has hopes of launching a manned mission to Mars in the not-to-distant future. NASA recently announced that a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is being developed in cooperation with the Lockheed Martin Corporation that could be the next spacecraft to take humans into space, and enable deep space exploration.

Supposed fossilized alien bacteria (credit: Riccardo Guerrero / Richard B. Hoover / Journal of Cosmolog)

According to Wired UK, Dr. Paul Hertz, chief scientist of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, stated, “NASA cannot stand behind or support a scientific claim unless it has been peer-reviewed or thoroughly examined by other qualified experts.” Further, Carl Pilcher, head of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute told the Associated Press, “I am not aware of any support from other meteorite researchers for this rather extraordinary claim.”

Hoover’s paper was apparently sent to the International Journal of Astrobiology in 2007, but failed to make it through the peer review process. As mentioned yesterday, 100 scientists have been invited to review the paper that was published in the Journal of Cosmology.

Jaime Maussan

Mexican ufologist Jaime Maussan will be speaking at the event, and will also be making a brief Skype address on Saturday afternoon from Chicago to the International UFO Congress taking place in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Cover of the Space Policy journal

Establishing an extraterrestrial communication protocol would improve the likelihood of messages being understood by alien lifeforms, say postgraduate astrophysicists Dimitra Atri, Julia DeMarines and Jacob Haqq-Misra. They state in their Space Policy paper, “By carefully constructing a framework by which to write and send messages, we will optimize the quality of messages as they are broadcast and increase the probability that we are understood.”

The authors suggest that such a protocol should include “constraints and guidelines for signal encoding, message length, [and] information content.” Additionally, they say a transmission strategy should be clearly laid out in this protocol, and they suggest “a simple physical or mathematical language with the signal repeated regularly to avoid being overlooked as noise.”

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.