Ep. 13 — The Exoplanet Revolution, Technosignatures, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence / Adam Frank, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Rochester.
Jun 30, 2021•43 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
After decades of secrecy, the US Government last week shared a new report about unidentified flying objects or UFOs and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. The bottom line: more studies are needed, the report said, raising more questions than it answered.
Renowned astrophysicist Adam Frank says there’s little evidence to show a correlation between UFO sightings and extraterrestrial intelligence.
In May, Frank wrote a guest essay in the New York Times titled, “I’m a Physicist Who Searches for Aliens. UFOs Don’t Impress Me.”
But he argues that the groundbreaking work done over the past thirty years in identifying exoplanets, combined with clues from astrobiology and technosignatures, could help us find signs of life if they exist outside our solar system.
A professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester and a leading expert on the final stages of evolution for stars like the sun, Frank won a NASA Grant a year ago to fund his study of so-called “technosignatures.” Technosignatures are clues of past or present technology used on other planets. This is the first NASA non-radio technosignature grant ever awarded and represents an exciting new phase in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
A self-described “evangelist of science,” Frank is a frequent commentator on NPR. He also is the co-founder of NPR’s blog 13.8 Cosmos and Culture. His most recent book is called, Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and The Fate of the Earth.
Read the Transcript
Download the PDF
Chitra Ragavan:
After decades of secrecy, the US government has shared a new report revealing what it knows and doesn't know about unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. But renowned astrophysicist, Adam Frank, says, "There's little evidence to show a relation between UFO sightings and extraterrestrial life and intelligence." In May, Frank wrote a guest essay in the New York Times titled, I'm A Physicist Who Searches For Aliens. UFOs Don't Impress Me. Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is Techtopia. Joining me now to talk about his search for life on other planets is Adam Frank. He's a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester and a leading expert on the final stages of evolution for stars like the sun.
Chitra Ragavan:
Last June, Frank won a NASA grant to fund his study of so-called technosignatures. Technosignatures are clues of past or present technology used on other planets. This is the first NASA non-radio technosignatures grant ever awarded and represents an exciting new phase in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A self-described evangelist of science, Frank is a frequent commentator on NPR. He also is the co-founder of NPR's blog, 13.8: Cosmos and Culture, and his most recent book is called Light Of The Stars: Alien Worlds And The Fate Of The Earth. Adam, welcome to Techtopia.
Adam Frank:
Thank you so much for having me.
Chitra Ragavan:
In your recent New York Times guest essay you write, "There are excellent reasons to search for extraterrestrial life, but there are equally excellent reasons not to conclude that we have found evidence of it with UFO sightings." What's wrong with our current thinking in linking UFOs with extraterrestrial life?
Adam Frank:
Well, the biggest problem is that with a UFO by definition is something that's unidentified. Then the question is how do you go from something you don't know, you don't know what it is, you don't understand what it is, to then making conclusions about what it is. The point I was making in that article was as interesting as these things are, and they are interesting, there's just nothing close to the kind of data a scientist would need to be able to reliably and verifiably conclude that these were ... this extraordinary conclusion these were actually alien spacecraft that had ventured across the vast distances between the stars and were showing up here to investigate us,
