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: âWhere is everybody?â To answer the tantalizing question, scientists in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been scouring exoplanets for âbiosignatures,â 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 Marsâ âlifelikeâ microbes, as it identified a wide array of chemical processes taking place on the Red Planetâs rocks; these may have produced structures resembling bacterial cells and carbon-based molecules, giving the illusion of âlife.â Maybe weâve been looking for aliens all wrong. And thatâs precisely why researchers have been warming up to another type of signature in their hunt for extraterrestrial life: the so-called âtechnosignatures.â [View in Browser]( [Popular Mechanics]( [SHOP]( [EXCLUSIVE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [Weâve Been Hunting For Aliens All Wrong, Scientists Say. We Must Pin Down Their âTechnosignaturesâ]( [Weâve Been Hunting For Aliens All Wrong, Scientists Say. We Must Pin Down Their âTechnosignaturesâ]( [Weâve Been Hunting For Aliens All Wrong, Scientists Say. We Must Pin Down Their âTechnosignaturesâ]( 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: âWhere is everybody?â To answer the tantalizing question, scientists in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been scouring exoplanets for âbiosignatures,â 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 Marsâ âlifelikeâ microbes, as it identified a wide array of chemical processes taking place on the Red Planetâs rocks; these may have produced structures resembling bacterial cells and carbon-based molecules, giving the illusion of âlife.â Maybe weâve been looking for aliens all wrong. And thatâs precisely why researchers have been warming up to another type of signature in their hunt for extraterrestrial life: the so-called âtechnosignatures.â 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: âWhere is everybody?â To answer the tantalizing question, scientists in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been scouring exoplanets for âbiosignatures,â 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 Marsâ âlifelikeâ microbes, as it identified a wide array of chemical processes taking place on the Red Planetâs rocks; these may have produced structures resembling bacterial cells and carbon-based molecules, giving the illusion of âlife.â Maybe weâve been looking for aliens all wrong. And thatâs precisely why researchers have been warming up to another type of signature in their hunt for extraterrestrial life: the so-called âtechnosignatures.â [Read More]( [Read More]( [Game-Changer: The First Synthetic Human Embryos Now Exist]( [Game-Changer: The First Synthetic Human Embryos Now Exist]( But they immediately raise serious ethical questions. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Alternate text] [These Hammock Tents Will Elevate Your Camping Experience]( [These Hammock Tents Will Elevate Your Camping Experience]( Elevate your outdoor slumbers with a lightweight, packable, and protective shelter. [Read More]( [The 8 Best Sandboxes Your Kids Will Dig]( The 8 Best Sandboxes Your Kids Will Dig]( Bring the playground to your backyard. [Read More]( [Alternate text]
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