Scientists: "Aliens might not have radio"

QMI AGENCY

Toronto SUN

A new theory has stargazers thinking maybe we haven't found signs of extra-terrestrial life yet because we're going about it the wrong way. Right now, a scientific project known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is leading the way in the search for life beyond Earth.

Their method is to scan outer space for radio transmissions, new or old. They've been doing it for 50 years, and so far, it hasn't really worked out.Physicists interviewed in the Economist say that's not necessarily because there are no aliens. But maybe aliens just don't use radio technology, they propose,

Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona State University, pointed out thatradio-communications are likely to be a short-lived technology, even on Earth, where people are increasingly using fibre optics to communicate.Instead, Dick Carrigan, a retired particle physicist, suggested looking for other signs, like evidence of tampering with the energy output or pollution.The basic idea is to think outside the box and not focus on modern Earth technologies, which could easily become obsolete.Instead of looking for the earliest signs of industrialization, then, perhaps the thing to do is to let the imagination run riot and ask what technology might do to a solar system if it had tens or hundreds of thousands of years to work its magic,” reads the Economist article, Signs of Life.