By Erik Sofge
The scientific impact of confirming the presence of water on Mars is hard to overstate. Forget the occasional discovery of a new, earthbound species—the so-called “hobbits” of Indonesia, or the recent, mysterious “monster” that supposedly washed up in Montauk. If the chain of evidence on Mars bears out, and NASA's ongoing robotic experiments on the Red Planet eventually yield proof of life, it could open an entirely new field of research for biologists.
What would Martian DNA look like? Would the “red” equivalent of a paramecium have flagella, or some bizarre new organic structure? And if there is one species, it's safe to say there are many more—their fossilized remains buried in the frigid world, or maybe even teeming silently in the layers below the florid surface.
It's exciting stuff if you're a scientist, or a fan of all things scientific and sci-fi. But if you're along for the larger ride—the implication that biology on Mars would be a breakthrough in the search for intelligent alien life—NASA's announcement today is something of a red herring. The evolutionary journey from microscopic organisms to little green men is a long march, and it's one usually littered with Darwinian debris.
In their marathon of unmanned exploration on Mars, neither NASA's Spirit nor Opportunity missions have stumbled upon the ruins of a dead city—or even the skeleton of a hut. As the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter stitches together high-resolution images captured from orbit, it has yet to spot the Martian equivalent of Stonehenge—or a crumbling pyramid. If there are living, thinking aliens on Mars, they are not only hiding somewhere within the planet—they're shy to a fault.
NASA's job, however, has little to do with tracking down overly modest civilizations. Although millions have been spent on the search for extraterrestrial life, no one in the government is tasked with finding extraterrestrial intelligence. That's not an oversight. Expanding our scientific knowledge base reasonably takes budgetary priority over the more philosophical urge to interact with aliens. Because with the absence of any verifiable evidence, there is nothing scientific about looking for nonhuman intelligence. It's a logic game—a kind of self-sustaining, open-source, user-generated thought experiment.
Here's an example: With trillions of worlds dotting the universe, it is mathematically possible that enough of those planets were seeded with the same type of biological building blocks as Earth. And considering the advanced age of the universe, it's at least hypothetically possible that an extraterrestrial civilization had enough of a head start on humans—or could be smart enough—to develop some relativity-defying spacecraft. It's reasonable for a futurist to imagine, then, that these starfaring aliens would want at least a sneak peek at life on Earth. With all of those relatively logical assumptions in place, the unexplained blob of light that shows up on the occasional digital photo or video clip must be an alien craft. Right?
More often than not in the world of alien chasing, it only feeds the ungainly “what if” scenario to point out that a single piece of (highly questionable) evidence doesn't retroactively support a sequence of assumptions. Exposing the captured blob of light as a digital artifact—or replicating it with the right light source and lens angle—implies membership in a sprawling cover up. Suddenly, new logical equations are grafted on in rapid succession. If aliens are here, the government must know about them, believers say. That means the powers that be are either undertaking a secret war with the visitors, or working out some arcane, Faustian deal. This is exciting stuff, and probably more exciting to to space and sci-fi geeks alike than any potential breeding ground for Martian bacteria. But it's the scientific equivalent of online fan fiction—no more legitimate or authoritative than arguing that the Starship Enterprise could beat the Millennium Falcon in a faster-than-light drag race.
“Are there ETs in the cosmos? Probably,” says Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society, which publishes Skeptic magazine, and investigates claims of extraterrestrial contact. “It's a big place. There are lots of opportunities for life. But that's a separate question from, ‘Have they come here?'”
In the search for alien intelligence so far, all of the supposed evidence is anecdotal. It could be argued (and has been) that enough witnesses should warrant an official response from the government—some well-funded, expansive investigation into these reports. But like many open-source projects, any attempt at serious, empirical analysis is inevitably drowned out by user noise.
“The witness accounts are so fraught with human and cultural baggage,” says Shermer. “Sexual probes in the middle of the night. Spacecraft that look and act a lot like our own experimental test craft, like the stealth bomber.” In fact, Shermer claims that his organization first saw reports of triangular UFOs in the years immediately preceding the wedge-shaped F-117 stealth bomber's official unveiling in 1988.
This kind of anecdote-trading and collective UFO-related brainstorming is also a distraction from the serious—albeit limited—attempt to find extraterrestrials through radio astronomy. The SETI (Searth for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Institute has been beaming signals into space—and listening for responses—for decades. SETI, which lost its own federal funding years ago, has never found even a single shred of evidence, but it represents the only truly scientific search for alien sentience.
Now, the Arecebo Observatory, a government-funded radio telescope located in Puerto Rico, is facing severe budget cuts. It's the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, and the basis for essentially all of SETI's attempts to ping distant civilizations with radio frequencies.
UFO believers in Denver attempt to force a ballot initiative to recognize the presence of the aliens among us. Reports continue to surface of spacecraft whose stealth technology is foiled by a digital camera. Photos pop up of extraterrestrials inexplicably peering into windows. But SETI is on the verge of collapse. The search for intelligent life, here or abroad, never looked so bleak.
Original here
The scientific impact of confirming the presence of water on Mars is hard to overstate. Forget the occasional discovery of a new, earthbound species—the so-called “hobbits” of Indonesia, or the recent, mysterious “monster” that supposedly washed up in Montauk. If the chain of evidence on Mars bears out, and NASA's ongoing robotic experiments on the Red Planet eventually yield proof of life, it could open an entirely new field of research for biologists. What would Martian DNA look like? Would the “red” equivalent of a paramecium have flagella, or some bizarre new organic structure? And if there is one species, it's safe to say there are many more—their fossilized remains buried in the frigid world, or maybe even teeming silently in the layers below the florid surface.
It's exciting stuff if you're a scientist, or a fan of all things scientific and sci-fi. But if you're along for the larger ride—the implication that biology on Mars would be a breakthrough in the search for intelligent alien life—NASA's announcement today is something of a red herring. The evolutionary journey from microscopic organisms to little green men is a long march, and it's one usually littered with Darwinian debris.
In their marathon of unmanned exploration on Mars, neither NASA's Spirit nor Opportunity missions have stumbled upon the ruins of a dead city—or even the skeleton of a hut. As the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter stitches together high-resolution images captured from orbit, it has yet to spot the Martian equivalent of Stonehenge—or a crumbling pyramid. If there are living, thinking aliens on Mars, they are not only hiding somewhere within the planet—they're shy to a fault.
NASA's job, however, has little to do with tracking down overly modest civilizations. Although millions have been spent on the search for extraterrestrial life, no one in the government is tasked with finding extraterrestrial intelligence. That's not an oversight. Expanding our scientific knowledge base reasonably takes budgetary priority over the more philosophical urge to interact with aliens. Because with the absence of any verifiable evidence, there is nothing scientific about looking for nonhuman intelligence. It's a logic game—a kind of self-sustaining, open-source, user-generated thought experiment.
Here's an example: With trillions of worlds dotting the universe, it is mathematically possible that enough of those planets were seeded with the same type of biological building blocks as Earth. And considering the advanced age of the universe, it's at least hypothetically possible that an extraterrestrial civilization had enough of a head start on humans—or could be smart enough—to develop some relativity-defying spacecraft. It's reasonable for a futurist to imagine, then, that these starfaring aliens would want at least a sneak peek at life on Earth. With all of those relatively logical assumptions in place, the unexplained blob of light that shows up on the occasional digital photo or video clip must be an alien craft. Right?
More often than not in the world of alien chasing, it only feeds the ungainly “what if” scenario to point out that a single piece of (highly questionable) evidence doesn't retroactively support a sequence of assumptions. Exposing the captured blob of light as a digital artifact—or replicating it with the right light source and lens angle—implies membership in a sprawling cover up. Suddenly, new logical equations are grafted on in rapid succession. If aliens are here, the government must know about them, believers say. That means the powers that be are either undertaking a secret war with the visitors, or working out some arcane, Faustian deal. This is exciting stuff, and probably more exciting to to space and sci-fi geeks alike than any potential breeding ground for Martian bacteria. But it's the scientific equivalent of online fan fiction—no more legitimate or authoritative than arguing that the Starship Enterprise could beat the Millennium Falcon in a faster-than-light drag race.
“Are there ETs in the cosmos? Probably,” says Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society, which publishes Skeptic magazine, and investigates claims of extraterrestrial contact. “It's a big place. There are lots of opportunities for life. But that's a separate question from, ‘Have they come here?'”
In the search for alien intelligence so far, all of the supposed evidence is anecdotal. It could be argued (and has been) that enough witnesses should warrant an official response from the government—some well-funded, expansive investigation into these reports. But like many open-source projects, any attempt at serious, empirical analysis is inevitably drowned out by user noise.
“The witness accounts are so fraught with human and cultural baggage,” says Shermer. “Sexual probes in the middle of the night. Spacecraft that look and act a lot like our own experimental test craft, like the stealth bomber.” In fact, Shermer claims that his organization first saw reports of triangular UFOs in the years immediately preceding the wedge-shaped F-117 stealth bomber's official unveiling in 1988.
This kind of anecdote-trading and collective UFO-related brainstorming is also a distraction from the serious—albeit limited—attempt to find extraterrestrials through radio astronomy. The SETI (Searth for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Institute has been beaming signals into space—and listening for responses—for decades. SETI, which lost its own federal funding years ago, has never found even a single shred of evidence, but it represents the only truly scientific search for alien sentience.
Now, the Arecebo Observatory, a government-funded radio telescope located in Puerto Rico, is facing severe budget cuts. It's the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, and the basis for essentially all of SETI's attempts to ping distant civilizations with radio frequencies.
UFO believers in Denver attempt to force a ballot initiative to recognize the presence of the aliens among us. Reports continue to surface of spacecraft whose stealth technology is foiled by a digital camera. Photos pop up of extraterrestrials inexplicably peering into windows. But SETI is on the verge of collapse. The search for intelligent life, here or abroad, never looked so bleak.
Original here
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