Why Scientists Say We’ve Been Looking for Aliens Wrong

In the summer of 1950, while Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi was discussing the possibility of alien life with fellow physicists over lunch, he ultimately posed a question that we now associate with his eponymous Fermi paradox: “Where is everybody?” To answer the tantalizing question, scientists in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been scouring exoplanets for “biosignatures,” specific chemicals or combinations of chemicals alluding to the possibility of past or present life. Historically, biosignatures tend to produce false positives, though. For instance, a study that ran in the Journal of the Geological Society in 2022 debunked a lot of the hoopla around Mars’ “lifelike” microbes, as it identified a wide array of chemical processes taking place on the Red Planet’s rocks; these may have produced structures resembling bacterial cells and carbon-based molecules, giving the illusion of “life.” Maybe we’ve been looking for aliens all wrong. And that’s precisely why researchers have been warming up to another type of signature in their hunt for extraterrestrial life: the so-called “technosignatures.” [View in Browser]( [Popular Mechanics]( [SHOP]( [EXCLUSIVE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [Why Scientists Say We’ve Been Looking for Aliens Wrong]( [Why Scientists Say We’ve Been Looking for Aliens Wrong]( [Why Scientists Say We’ve Been Looking for Aliens Wrong]( In the summer of 1950, while Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi was discussing the possibility of alien life with fellow physicists over lunch, he ultimately posed a question that we now associate with his eponymous Fermi paradox: “Where is everybody?” To answer the tantalizing question, scientists in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been scouring exoplanets for “biosignatures,” specific chemicals or combinations of chemicals alluding to the possibility of past or present life. Historically, biosignatures tend to produce false positives, though. For instance, a study that ran in the Journal of the Geological Society in 2022 debunked a lot of the hoopla around Mars’ “lifelike” microbes, as it identified a wide array of chemical processes taking place on the Red Planet’s rocks; these may have produced structures resembling bacterial cells and carbon-based molecules, giving the illusion of “life.” Maybe we’ve been looking for aliens all wrong. And that’s precisely why researchers have been warming up to another type of signature in their hunt for extraterrestrial life: the so-called “technosignatures.” In the summer of 1950, while Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi was discussing the possibility of alien life with fellow physicists over lunch, he ultimately posed a question that we now associate with his eponymous Fermi paradox: “Where is everybody?” To answer the tantalizing question, scientists in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been scouring exoplanets for “biosignatures,” specific chemicals or combinations of chemicals alluding to the possibility of past or present life. Historically, biosignatures tend to produce false positives, though. For instance, a study that ran in the Journal of the Geological Society in 2022 debunked a lot of the hoopla around Mars’ “lifelike” microbes, as it identified a wide array of chemical processes taking place on the Red Planet’s rocks; these may have produced structures resembling bacterial cells and carbon-based molecules, giving the illusion of “life.” Maybe we’ve been looking for aliens all wrong. And that’s precisely why researchers have been warming up to another type of signature in their hunt for extraterrestrial life: the so-called “technosignatures.” [Read More]( [Read More]( [The Best Cheap Refrigerators When You’re Shopping on a Budget]( [The Best Cheap Refrigerators When You’re Shopping on a Budget]( Most of these cost $800 or less, balancing affordability with functionality. 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