How Would You React If We Discovered Alien Life?

  Experts weigh in on what the detection of other life forms might mean to humanity.

or quite a century, from George Melies’ a visit to the Moon to Stephen Spielberg’s E.T. and shut Encounters to the present summer’s blockbuster sequel to July 4, mass media, and also the general public, have pondered what's going to happen if we ever came into contact with extraterrestrial life forms. Carl Sagan’s book Contact, and Jodie Foster’s movie of the identical name, explores one possible scenario within which an exploration for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) scientist (played by Foster) discovers a sign repeating a sequence of prime numbers originating from star system Vega, the 5th brightest star visible from Earth. whether or not Contact’s version of an alien encounter is more likely than that presented in Spielberg’s E.T., the probabilities are worth pondering.

=And yet experts believe that the percentages of receiving a radio transmission composed of prime numbers or encountering intelligent extraterrestrial life within the near future are “astronomical.” even with Hillary Clinton’s promise that if elected President, she would open up the “X-files” (Area 51).

But the chances are also increasing because of continuing advances in technology and money. At a news conference held in April in big apple City, Russian billionaire and Breakthrough Prize co-founder Yuri Milner, together with a famed physicist, announced Breakthrough Starshot, a 20-year voyage to the Alpha Centauri star system. Should the existence of planets within the binary star system be confirmed, Starshot could provide us with the simplest measurements of an exoplanet atmosphere we could ever hope to urge this century. Milner will spend $100 million dollars to fund the project. Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is on the project’s board of directors.

The goal of NASA’s Kepler Mission was to search out terrestrial planets within the habitable zone of stars both near and much where liquid water and possibly life might exist. To date, Kepler has confirmed the existence of two,337 exoplanets, including 1,284 new planets announced as of this writing. in a very handout issued by NASA, chief scientist Ellen Stofan, said, “This announcement quite doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler. this offers us hope that somewhere out there, around a star very like ours, we will eventually discover another Earth.”

But what would happen if we discovered life beyond Earth?

Christof Koch, president, and chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for neuroscience, believe most people are excited to be told that there's intelligent life out there. “For some ‘contact” would be a wish come true and fill us with awe. except for others, it might raise concerns. One can’t assume that alien cultures are by definition benevolent,” Koch says. “If we glance at the history of our world, lesser civilizations were often destroyed by more advanced ones. Would the identical happen to us if we encountered a complicated alien civilization?” Hawking has warned against sending messages out into space for this very reason.

Koch has devoted his life to defining what consciousness is whether or not it's the net, robots, animals, etc. Since it's doubtful that our first contact is going to be with humans from another planet it's important for us to know what consciousness is so we are able to better understand what we do discover as we explore space. “The first discovery would probably be bacteria which could excite some scientists but not the final public. Another scenario may well be a radio wave whose origin would be questioned. Was it a deliberate signal sent to us or is it random noise that will be explained scientifically? I'm not holding my breath for a sign that has prime numbers,” Koch says.

Mary A. Voytek is that the senior scientist and head of NASA’s Astrobiology Program who started Nexus for Exoplanet System Science to go looking for all times on exoplanets. She notes that NASA scientists are currently staring at the foremost extreme conditions on Earth to raised understand what conditions can support life throughout the universe.  “If we will determine what makes a habitable planet on Earth it'll help guide us to seem for conditions within the universe,” she says. Voytek notes that NASA acknowledges that the invention of life has significance beyond science: “In order to totally understand the societal implications, we must discuss with the experts-scholars in sociology and therefore the humanities likewise as theologians.”

“When I give lectures about my work, most people are excited about the likelihood of the invention of extraterrestrial life,” Voytek says. “This is nothing new… the traditional Greek atomists within the fourth century B.C. wrote about it. there's a quote by Democritus that I favor to cite. ‘To consider the planet because the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd on assert that in a whole field sown with millet just one grain will grow.’”

Douglas Vakoch, president of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) has devoted much of his career with SETI to exploring what would happen on first contact and the way we could even initiate it through interstellar messages. He says the bulk of individuals believe that intelligent life is widespread within the cosmos.e agrees that a discovery of something sort of a radio emission would end in arguments, in addition to a fading lack of interest thanks to time. “It could take decades or maybe many years for us to urge a response from a symbol we transfer. For those that are accustomed to instant communication, this may be frustrating,” Vakoch says.

Others think we’ll have a more dramatic experience. Susan Schneider, a professor of philosophy and scientific discipline at the University of Connecticut and a fellow of the middle for Theological Inquiry, believes that if we do find intelligent life, it'll possibly be within the sort of super-intelligent computer science. “For some people, this could be hard to simply accept. Discovering a civilization that's now not biological would be scary for us,” But Schneider is optimistic that almost all people will find the invention of benevolent intelligent life exciting. “People are excited by the unknown. and therefore the discovery of a brand new civilization may need many potential benefits. Perhaps a complicated civilization will share their knowledge with us,” Schneider says. The Catholic Church has come a protracted way since the times of Galileo. Pope Francis made headlines when he said he would baptize Martians. Many were surprised at the Pope’s remarks, but the Vatican has been positive about aliens for several years. Father Jose Gabriel Funes, a priest and an astronomer, views aliens as brothers and said the Church has no problem with the concept of intelligent life within the cosmos. Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno is that the first clergyman to win the Carl Sagan Medal and also the current president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. in an exceedingly 2014 article within the Christian Post, Consolmagno said “the general public won't be too surprised when life on other planets is eventually discovered and can react in much the identical way it did when news broke within the ’90s that there are other planets orbiting distant stars.”

A similar view is held by Orthodox Jews. In an e-mail to me, Rabbi Ben Tzion Krasnianski, director of Chabad of the Upperside of Manhattan, wrote, “Jews believe other life forms. The universe is populated with an infinite amount of them. they're not physical, however, rather they're angels who are spiritually conscious beings that are beyond anything we could imagine. The Talmud says one angel’s mind is that the equivalent of a 3rd of the world’s population’s intelligence combined. For us, it’s no surprise that we aren't alone within the larger universe.”

Vakoch said people must detain mind that we are only at the start of exploration. “We have just started looking. it's only been some hundred years that we’ve been a technologically advanced society. That’s a really touch of your time in our universe.”

On Monday You'll Be Able to See The Full Moon Pass Through Earth's Shadow

 Skywatchers admiring November's phase of the moon also will get to determine another treat: a penumbral eclipse, when the Moon passes through Earth's outer shadow, on Monday, November 30, in line with NASA.

The Moon is at its fullest for less than a flash — on Monday, that happens at 4:30 am EST (9:30 UTC) — but the Moon will appear full for 3 days: from Saturday night through Tuesday morning (November 28 to December 1).  

Meanwhile, sky gazers have to remember thrice to catch the penumbral eclipse: It starts before the total moon at 2:32 am EST (7:32 UTC); reaches its maximum at 4:42 am EST (9:42 UTC) when 83 percent of the Moon are covered with Earth's faint shadow; and ends at 6:53 a.m. EST (11:53 UTC) Monday morning, consistent with timeanddate.com. 

Penumbral eclipses are different from total or partial eclipses. During a complete eclipse, Earth passes directly between the sun and moon, blocking the sun's light from reaching our natural satellite.

In contrast, during an eclipse, the Moon passes through a part of Earth's inner dark shadow, referred to as the umbra.

Finally, in an exceedingly penumbral eclipse, the Moon passes through a part of Earth's outer, fainter penumbral shadow, consistent with Space.com, a Live Science sister site. 

Unless you are a seasoned skywatcher, it should be challenging to determine November's penumbral eclipse, which is able to be visible in North America (as long as there aren't cloudy skies), because the penumbral shadow will appear as a dim veil.

"The dimming of the moon during this eclipse will probably not be noticeable without instrumentation, except for spacecraft at the moon like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the reduction in alternative energy are going to be noticeable," NASA wrote in an exceeding statement.

November's phase of the moon, known to several because the beaver moon, comes late within the month this year because October had two full moons; the second moon, years, was the primary time in 76 years that a phase of the moon was visible across the US on Halloween.

Other names for November's full-of-the-moon include the cold moon, frost moon, winter moon, oak moon, moon before Yule, and child moon.

The full moon will be celebrated during Kartik Purnima (a Hindu, Sikh, and Jain cultural festival, celebrated differently by each culture), Karthika Deepam (a festival of lights observed by some Hindus), Tazaungdaing Festival Moon (observed by Buddhists in Myanmar, formerly Burma), and Ill Poya (celebrated in Sri Lanka), NASA reported. 

The beaver moon is that the last phase of the moon before the solstice, the shortest day of sunlight within the hemisphere, which falls on December 21 this year.

Other celestial sightings to appear in late November and early December include "Jupiter and Saturn, [which] will appear to gradually shift closer to every other, appearing nearer than the apparent diameter of the Moon from December 17 to 25," NASA reported.

"They will appear at their closest, about one-fifth the diameter of the Moon, on December 21, 2020."

People with backyard telescopes should be able to see Jupiter's four bright moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, and Io, and even Saturn's brightly illuminated rings and Titan, its largest moon.

"Seeing Jupiter and Saturn so near one another should appear spectacular by telescope and with the optic," NASA said.

To people who miss November's moon, they'll always decide to see the last full phase of the moon of 2020, which can illumine the night sky at 10:28 pm EST on December 29 (3:28 UTC on December 30).

Egypt Has Unearthed 160 Ancient Coffins Since September. Some Were Sealed With a 'Curse'

 Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians were laid to rest in Saqqara, an ancient city of the dead. Priests placed them inside wooden boxes adorned with hieroglyphics, and also the sarcophagi were sealed and buried in tombs scattered above and below the sand.

Archaeologists have discovered 160 human coffins at the positioning over the last three months, which they commit to disperse to museums around Egypt. They even opened some to look at the mummies inside.

According to experts, a number of the Saqqara tombs have colorful curses inscribed on the walls to warn away intruders.

Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo, analyzed some animal mummies discovered at Saqqara last year.

She told Business Insider in an email that the inscribed warnings in human tombs mostly serve to discourage trespassers bent desecrating the mummies' resting places.

A coffin found in Saqqara in September. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

"They generally state that if the tomb is entered by an impure person (probably in body and/or intention), then may the council of the gods punish the trespasser, and wring his or her neck like that of a goose," she wrote.

'Fear of seeing ghosts'

The specific Saqqara curse Ikram quoted was found within the tomb of the vizier Ankhmahor, a pharaoh's official who lived over 4,000 years ago, during Egypt's 6th dynasty. He was buried in a very mastaba: an above-ground tomb shaped sort of a rectangular box. Similar mastabas were built everywhere in Egypt, including near the Giza pyramids.

The curse meant to safeguard Ankhmahor, roughly translated, warns that anything a trespasser "might do against this, my tomb, the identical shall be done to your property." It also warns of the vizier's knowledge of secret spells and magic, and threatens to fill "impure" intruders with a "fear of seeing ghosts."

Curses like that were meant to discourage grave robbers, Ikram said.

In the new Netflix documentary "Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb," she explains that tombs were seen as houses for the dead in their afterlife.

"You wanted to own a wonderful afterlife, so you had a wonderful tomb," she says within the film, adding that a personality's tomb would be "decorated with all types of scenes of the life they need to enjoy for eternity."

So trespassers caught trying to steal valuables buried with the dead were punished during a manner commensurate to their crime, Ikram said.

Punishment for violating a noble's tomb, meanwhile, could carry with it beatings, and potentially the removal of a robber's nose, Ikram added. they'd even be required to return the transferred property.

However, the writings on Ankhmahor's tomb welcome those of pure and peaceful intention, saying that he will protect them within the court of Osiris, Lord of the Egyptian Underworld. Ancient Egyptians believed that Osiris judges dead souls before they pass into the afterlife.

Similar curses appear in an exceedingly few other tombs across Egypt, Ikram said, "with the bulk being recorded from the Old Kingdom" - between 2575 and 2150 BCE.

Not the mummy's curse from movies

The writings found in tombs like Ankhmahor's bear little resemblance to the mummy's curses depicted in horror movies, which frequently show unwitting archaeologists get killed by the undead after opening burial chambers.

Still, some members of the general public weren't keen to determine archaeologists open coffins that had been sealed for quite two millennia.

But Ikram said there's little risk of being contaminated with, say, ancient microbes or fungi by handling the mummies.

"If people wear gloves and masks, it should be fine," she said.

The idea that mummy tombs could contain dangerous pathogens took off partially after archaeologist Egyptologist unearthed King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922.

A member of Carter's expedition, its financial backer George Herbert died an odd, extra time six weeks after they opened King Tut's sepulture.

So some researchers wondered if the tomb had contained a sort of toxic mold that might have infected and killed him. This rekindled talk about a "mummy's curse," an idea writer Louisa May Alcott had explored 50 years earlier. But further research showed Herbert died of septicemia from an infected sting on his cheek.

Plus, the walls of King Tut's tomb were curse-free.

Carter never put any stock within the myth of a mummy's curse, dismissing it as "tommyrot." He lived to the age of 64, dying over 20 years after his fateful discovery.

No more dialysis, Scientists Have Developed A Bionic Kidney!

Many of them must expect years to urge a kidney transplant and live normally, with seemingly no other solution on the horizon. However, there’s finally a light-weight within the dark tunnel – scientists from the University of California at the port of entry, USA, have developed the world’s first bionic kidney which might replace damaged kidneys easily and effectively.

 The bionic kidney could be a perfect replica of our kidneys. It consists of diverse microchips and is moved by the center. just like the normal kidneys, it's able to filter waste and toxins from the bloodstream.

The project was unveiled by Willian Vanderbilt Fissels and Shuvo Roy from the University of California, offering renewed hope for scores of kidney dialysis patients. Now, a number of you'll be wondering “But, what if the body rejects it?”, but, the scientists assure us that the probabilities of rejection are zero! Incredible, right?

This is because the bionic kidney is formed from renal cells. the primary prototype is the size of a cup and might balance the amount of sodium and potassium within the body while regulating pressure level.

 The project is wonderful news for any dialysis patient. within the beginning (November 2015), the scientists received $6 million from the Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and it’s safe to mention that the money was well spent.

 The scientists have high hopes for the bionic kidney, and therefore the lead researcher, Dr. Victor Gura, says that the device is going to be availably purchasable in just 2 years.

Hydroxychloroquine Hype Is Dangerous, Experts Warn

 Many different drugs found to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus within the lab are now being tested to determine if they're effective in humans. One, however, has attracted way more attention than all the remainder, leading some people to act in dangerous ways.

Hydroxychloroquine and therefore the closely related chloroquine are drugs known to be effective against malaria and lupus, but they also carry serious risks. Its potential against a variety of other diseases is under investigation, including as a promising candidate for Covid-19. After one small, flawed study created a buzz and reached President Trump, things began to get wrong.

Trump praised a mixture of hydroxychloroquine and also the antibiotic azithromycin in tweets and at press conferences. Initially, this led to some people buying all the hydroxychloroquine they may obtain to require themselves, resulting in a shortage for those with lupus.

Not only that but NPR reports that Dr. Robin Armstrong in Texas has started giving patients hydroxychloroquine in an unregistered trial. Worse still, there's considerable doubt about whether the patients involved gave consent. Dr. Armstrong admitted to not telling families he was giving the drug to their relatives when patients couldn't consent. Having played down the drug's risks in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, it seems unlikely those given the drug were alerted to the complete list of side-effects. NIH-registered trials require extensive paperwork precisely so everyone can see what patients are being told. By using his political contacts to form an “observational study”, Armstrong appears to possess avoided these.

Meanwhile, several trials of hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine are abandoned due to the intense side effects, including potentially fatal irregular heart rates. Other trials didn't find any benefits from the drug. Many physicians remain cautious about the drug.

"There is also a task for it for a few people,” Dr. Megan L. Ranney of the university told The the big apple Times, “but to inform Americans ‘you don’t have anything to lose,’ that’s not true. People certainly have something to lose by taking it indiscriminately.”

Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers are spreading the claim hydroxychloroquine is such a miracle cure that we do not need vaccines in the slightest degree. Ridiculous because the idea is, it's going to sound credible to those immersed within the hydroxychloroquine hype. it's indeed possible hydroxychloroquine, perhaps together with other drugs, will prove helpful for a few people, which is why several proper trials continue. However, its supporters, including Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have gone beyond claiming it works to describing it as a silver-bullet, capable of saving everyone infected with the virus. We already know this can be not true.

Hydroxychloroquine is reportedly being widely employed in Italy and Spain, and it's not stopped the toll there, leading experts to conclude that if it works in the slightest degree the advantages are modest. In March, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and therefore the president's leading advisor on Covid-19 described the reported benefits of hyroxychloroquine as "anecdotal" and there aren't any signs his position has changed.

Gates Foundation Says We'll Need to Work Together to Vaccinate 7 Billion People

 The wealthy Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called Wednesday for global cooperation to ready COVID-19 vaccines for 7 billion people, while offering an extra US$150 million toward developing therapeutics and coverings for the virus. While it's likely to require as many as 18 months to develop and fully test a secure coronavirus vaccine, global authorities and businesses must start now on plans to manufacture it, said foundation chief executive Mark Suzman.

"It's normal to own, at maximum, many a lot of doses manufactured," he said.

"When you're addressing a completely unique pathogen like COVID-19, as and after we get to identifying a successful vaccine, we are visiting need billions of doses."

"There are 7 billion people on the earth," he said. "We are visiting have to vaccinate nearly all. there's no manufacturing capacity to try to do that."

Suzman announced the muse, started and controlled by mega-billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, is adding US$150 million to the $100 million it announced in February to assist in international efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Much of the money is to support the event of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, therapeutic treatments, and vaccines, and to create them globally available, he said.

Some are additionally for helping the poorest countries in South Asia and the geographical area, which lack supplies, equipment, and infrastructure to counter the new epidemic.

But the muse has concentrated on preparing for the creation of a vaccine that might effectively halt the spread of coronavirus.

Some 100 potential vaccines are being developed and tested by scientists around the world, Suzman said.

Many might appear hopeful in initial, small tests, he said, but most will fail in larger trials.

"A successful vaccine must be available for 7 billion people. you wish to check if there are unexpected side effects, or side effects within cohorts or groups, whether it's pregnant women or the elderly or the very young," said Suzman.

"The overwhelming majority of vaccine candidates fail in those larger trials, the so-called phase-three trials."

Fastest vaccine ever

But while those trials happen, he said, there must be a world group of experts, countries, and corporations honing in on those with the foremost promise and preparing previous time to manufacture them.

He said both China and also us should be a part of the joint effort, yet because of the World Health Organization. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was setting apart US funds for the WHO.

"Clearly for us, the globe Health Organization could be a very strong, reliable partner," Suzman said, noting the Gates Foundation is WHO's second-largest source of funding after the US.

Earlier Wednesday, European Commissioner chief Ursula von der Leyen called a donors conference for May 4 to fund the creation and global deployment of a vaccine, calling it "our collective best shot at beating the virus."

Suzman said the Gates Foundation is "reasonably optimistic" that one or more successful vaccines may be proven within 12 to 18 months.

"This is the fastest vaccine ever developed in human history," he said.

Yet getting the assembly going, he estimated, will cost several billion dollars.

Each vaccine finally approved would require its own manufacturing process, and if people don't begin to arrange within months, lots of your time are lost, he warned.

"There is no return to 'normal' until there's a vaccine," Suzman said. "But there are not any dramatic ways to short-cut it."

The Direct Fusion Drive That Could Get Us to Saturn in Just 2 Years

  Experts say the proper reasonable system could carry spacecraft to Saturn in only two years. The direct fusion drive (DFD), an idea being developed by Princeton physical science Laboratory, would make extremely fast work of the nearly billion miles between Earth and Saturn.

Researchers there say the Princeton field reversed configuration-2 (PFRC-2) drive might be the key to feasible travel within our scheme.

The research team chose Saturn’s moon Titan as a perfect, well, moonshot. The #1 moon in our system encompasses plenty of scientific interest thanks to its surface liquids, and therefore the indisputable fact that they’re hydrocarbons means Titan could even become a refueling waystation in some far-future space transportation system.

Universe Today reports:

“[T]he engine itself exploits many of the benefits of aneutronic fusion, most notably a very high power-to-weight ratio,” an announcement reads. “The fuel for a DFD drive can vary slightly in mass and contains deuterium and a helium-3 isotope. Essentially, the DFD takes the superb specific impulse of electrical propulsion systems and combines it with the superb thrust of chemical rockets, for a mix that melds the most effective of both flight systems.”

In a way, this is often lots like how hybrid consumer vehicles are designed. There are times when electricity provides the simplest, most effective push, and there are times when fossil fuels are still the foremost logical choice.

The PPPL direct fusion drive is being studied in two modes: one where it thrusts the whole time, and another where, sort of a Prius, it thrusts to induce up to hurry at the start only. The trip to Titan changes from about 2 years to about 2.5 reckonings on the mode.

the reactor itself is comparatively small because even a bigger spacecraft for our current imagination is much smaller than family homes or businesses on the bottom.

“DFD employs a singular plasma heating to supply fusion engines within the range of 1 to 10 MW, ideal for human solar-system exploration, robotic solar-system missions, and interstellar missions,” PPPL researchers wrote in 2019.

The plasma inside is heated to performance temperatures by radio waves, and like other rocket engines broadly, the look is open on one end so as to come up with thrust as energy pushes out extremely rapidly.

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For now, this design, as Universe Today jokes about all of the fusion, is about 30 years away. That’s because the subsequent good window to jaunt Saturn’s satellites is in 2046, giving scientists at PPPL a concrete timeframe further as a particular goal to figure toward.

And their DFD design has another major advantage: it also can power the ship’s internal systems.

That means propulsion and steering likewise as life support and research aboard the ship will all run on the identical energy-efficient drive.

It will still be decades before anyone travels to the moons of Saturn. But after they do, the achievement are going to be . . . Titanic.