Distant Ruins: How Scientists Hunt Space for Dead Alien Civilizations

‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ says Ozymandias’s ruined statue in the desert of Shelley’s imagination. Shelley’s sonnet is often interpreted as a sober warning that human works are fleeting, but when I read it as a young boy it kindled a sense of adventure; it suggested a wonderfully mysterious past… » 9/11/13 1:00pm 9/11/13 1:00pm

The Lie Is Out There: Three Types of Alien Encounters

Nearly everyone who's looked up at the night sky has asked him or herself at least some form of the very same question: Are we really, truly alone in the universe? The only thing that's certain is that we definitely don't want to be. Maybe that explains why we keep seeing UFOs in the sky... and why they're always one… » 7/26/13 12:59pm 7/26/13 12:59pm

Prepare to be Anal Probed Along America's Extraterrestrial Highway


Why Have We Stopped Seeing UFOs in the Skies?

One late evening in the early summer of 1981, lying sleepless in my student bedsit at the top of a house in Manchester, I became aware of a pattern of bright flashing lights on the wall. All I could see through the curtainless window on the opposite side of the room was a strip of rather cloudy night sky. The vivid… » 4/08/13 11:20am 4/08/13 11:20am