Poll Has a Human Being Ever Met/Encountered An Alien?

Has Human and Alien Contact Already Taken Place?

  • Yes

    Votes: 4 44.4%
  • No

    Votes: 4 44.4%
  • I'm uncertain.

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Total voters
    9

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
A controversial study has a new spin on the otherworldliness of the octopus


https://qz.com/1281064/a-controversial-study-has-a-new-spin-on-the-otherworldliness-of-the-octopus/


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“It is plausible then to suggest they [octopuses] seem to be borrowed from a far distant ‘future’ in terms of terrestrial evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large.”

To make matters even more strange, the paper posits that octopuses could have arrived on Earth in “an already coherent group of functioning genes within (say) cryopreserved and matrix protected fertilized octopus eggs.” And these eggs might have “arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago.” The authors admit, though, that “such an extraterrestrial origin…of course, runs counter to the prevailing dominant paradigm.”

Indeed, few in the scientific community would agree that octopuses come from outer space. But the paper is not just about the provenance of cephalopods. Its proposal that octopuses could be extraterrestrials is just a small part of a much more extensive discussion of a theory called “panspermia,” which has its roots in the ideas of ancient Greece.


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The word “panspermia” translates to “seeds everywhere.” The idea is that the seeds of life are everywhere in the universe, including space, and life on Earth may originate from “seeds” of some kind in space. In this paper, the authors argue that the “seeds,” or alien life forms invading Earth, come in multiple forms, including “space-resistant and space-hardy” viruses and bacteria. It supports this argument by pointing to organic matter found in comets, as well as various medical studies on the inexplicably intelligent self-replicating abilities and super-strength of viruses. The paper reviews 60 years of experiments and observations from a range of scientific fields to support its unusual conclusions.

Virologist Karin Moelling of the Max Planck Institute Molecular Genetics in Berlin isn’t convinced, although she says that the paper is worth contemplating because there’s still so much we don’t know about the origins of life on Earth. She writes in in a commentary(paywall) in the same publication, “So this article is useful, calling for attention, and it is worth thinking about, yet the main statement about viruses, microbes and even animals coming to us from space, cannot be taken seriously.”

Evolutionary scientist Keith Baverstock from the University of Eastern Finland, in his commentary on the paper (paywall), is equally wary. The proposed theories “would support an extra-terrestrial origin of life,” he writes. Still, they don’t necessarily lead to that conclusion; there are other plausible explanations for the evidence the paper offers.

The authors are well aware of the intellectual resistance to their ideas, writing:

We certainly do not want this paper to read, as one reviewer has put it, ‘somewhat like a last-ditch and exasperated attempt to convince the main stream of the scientific community that…life has been carried to this planet from elsewhere in the universe on comets/meteorites.’

The researchers acknowledge that some forms of life originated on Earth. But they still say that other, perhaps earlier, forms originated elsewhere, like outer space. In other words, they argue that the two ideas aren’t mutually exclusive, and, taken together, they would help fill in some gaps in the current scientific understanding that the classic evolutionary theory cannot.

The paper is intended to be provocative. That said, it did withstand a year of intense peer-review before publication. As Steele told Cosmos, “It has thus passed some severe and tortuous tests already.”

If for no other reason, the ideas proposed in this rather radical paper are worthy of our attention because we always tend to agree withwhat we already believe. Yet the history of science is full of theories that were mocked and rejected out of hand, only to finally be accepted as truth. Or, in Steele’s words, “The situation is reminiscent to the problem Galileo had with the Catholic priests of his time—most refused to look through his telescope to observe the moons of Jupiter.”

Consider these scientists intellectual troublemakers. You don’t have to agree with their theories about octopuses from outer space to appreciate their contribution to the great conversation about the origins of life. Society and science need people to articulate unconventional ideas and shake up the status quo. They provoke us to rethink what we imagine we know.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Am not sure about this Octopus' from space thing. Although I have read before the the octopus is the one type of life form most likely to emerge as the dominant species on a planet. (All those useful extra arms or something.)

To me it would actually be a major anti-climax to realise that, not only have the aliens been with us all along, but that we have been eating them and making them star in films such as KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, without residuals. (In fact, I gather the octopus in this scene got eaten by one of the crew at the end of the shoot.)


King Kong vs Godzilla ,1962 ,King Kong vs Giant Octopus





What a bastard the human species is. :emoji_disappointed:





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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Having said that, I do like the taste of Cally Mara (or however it's pronounced)


CdkhgkEVIAAy_C4.jpg kinda 6 (1).jpg






, or is that squid's rings, rather than octopus?


Have never been much of a chef........




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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
_107894744_alien976.jpg



Area 51 is back in the news......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-48989949




It started as a bit of a joke, but now the US Air Force has told people not to go near Area 51.

More than a million people have RSVP'd to an event on Facebook, threatening to storm the top-secret base in Nevada, which some believe is home to aliens.
Thousands have commented on the page, which reads: "We can move faster than their bullets. Let's see them aliens."

A spokeswoman for the Air Force has told The Washington Post it is "ready to protect America and its assets".
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10




It's all over the news today......


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49648746


Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star.

The finding makes the world - which is called K2-18b - a plausible candidate in the search for alien life.

Within 10 years, new space telescopes might be able to determine whether K2-18b's atmosphere contains gases that could be produced by living organisms.


 
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