Canadian astronomers have recently performed an analysis of 2.5 million stars and found 234 of them producing pulsed signals that they claim may be of alien origin. The scientific community is skeptical.
There will be many instances of astronomers finding apparent anomalies, and we will just have to wait and watch the process unfold. Sure, aliens are on the list of possible explanations for any new astronomical anomaly, but only for thoroughness. History has shown that aliens being the explanation is statistically unlikely.
Right now there are two astronomical anomalies where aliens have not yet been ruled out, which does not mean I am holding my breath. The first, and actually more intriguing, anomaly is the star KIC 8462852, which experiences dips in light as great as 20%. Astronomers currently have no idea what is causing this unusual pattern of light dips. It probably isn’t alien megastructures, but it is fun to speculate about that. Right now we are in the genuine anomaly phase.
Now we have a new putative anomaly – Canadian astronomers EF Borra and E Trottier hypothesized that aliens may be trying to signal their presence with pulsed lasers. They examined data from 2.5 million stars, and found 234 of them producing light curves with a pattern similar to what they predicted.
We may even need to build new instruments to analyze the signal in more detail. Then perhaps features will emerge that are highly suggestive of an intelligent origin. Eventually the evidence will become overwhelming. It will just be a slow process.
Subir Sarkar is right… but he’s also wrong in a colossal way. If the only thing you knew about the Universe was that we had this supernova data, we wouldn’t be able to get this far. But we also assume that General Relativity is correct, that Hubble’s Law is valid and that these supernovae are good distance indicators for how the Universe expands. Nielsen, Guffanti and Sarkar have no problems with those assumptions. So why not use the other basic pieces of information that we know, like the fact that the Universe contains matter.
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In addition, as soon as the first WMAP data came back, of the Cosmic Microwave Background, we recognized that the Universe was almost perfectly spatially flat.
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There actually is a nice result from this paper: it perhaps will cause a rethink of the standard likelihood analysis used by teams analyzing supernova data. It also shows just how incredible our data is: even with using none of our knowledge about the matter in the Universe or the flatness of space, we can still arrive at a better-than-3σ result supporting an accelerating Universe. But it also underscores something else that’s far more important. Even if all of the supernova data were thrown out and ignored, we have more than enough evidence at present to be extremely confident that the Universe is accelerating, and made of about 2/3 dark energy.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
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Seems like humans, without a big step forward, are stuck with a ceiling of about 115 years old. Average lifespan is increasing though.
So. we would need a mechanism to completely replace our cells in our body. Except the brain cells being replaced would create a different human completely. So in reality, it is probably not achievable without being able download our consciousness into a computer system, which is far off.
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Seems like humans, without a big step forward, are stuck with a ceiling of about 115 years old. Average lifespan is increasing though.
So. we would need a mechanism to completely replace our cells in our body. Except the brain cells being replaced would create a different human completely. So in reality, it is probably not achievable without being able download our consciousness into a computer system, which is far off.
I think that's the only way. Download our core data from old skin suit and transfer to new skin suit.
Keep in mind that this process requires the input of energy, the article even says so.
There is certainly potential here, as if the only energy input can be electricity, then it could be a useful tool to convert wind/solar/hydro into a more useful transportation fuel.
But to be clear, this isn't a magic bullet that lets you turn CO2 into fuel with no cost.
I'm not so interested in the converting to fuel part - getting a useful byproduct is a bonus - I'm interested in whether this can be a viable carbon capture/scrubbing approach for industry. If I burn a barrel of oil how much of that energy would need to diverted to this carbon capture? If it's a reasonably small fraction this could be interesting.
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It's CFI Calgary's 4th Annual Carl Sagan Day Celebration. Join us at Dickens Pub. Although Carl Sagan's birthday is really November 9th, our celebration will be on Thursday, November 17th.
“Alberta’s Cosmic Calendar”
Chapters in Earth history that we can see in the rocks here, and
Cosmic history in the stars above us.
Our speaker, Graham Christensen is a Mars Colonist round two candidate, and a paleontological interpreter from Drumheller, Alberta..
There will be time to socialize at Dickens Pub before and after Graham speaks. Catch up with some old friends and meet some new friends too.
Funny, I thought of going as Carl to an 80's Halloween Party.
LOL. I was looking at that trying to figure out why someone would photoshop a TIE fighter crossing the moon, and why it was important science news. Thanks for the caption.
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Looks like tie fighters heading towards a moon... wait a minute, that's no moon!!
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
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