#ICYMI: Dr. Andrew Siemion received the Drake Award Thursday night. Ahead of the awards reception, communications specialist Beth Johnson sat down at the SETI Institute offices and talked with him about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of SETI research.
Next #SETILive: TODAY, Thursday, May 16, 2:30PM PDT
The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Andrew Siemion will be honored with the prestigious 2024 Drake Award for his exceptional and pioneering contributions to SETI and radio astronomy and his leadership in the field. Ahead of tonight's awards reception, Beth Johnson talks with Dr. Siemion about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of #SETI research.
https://nautil.us/how-whales-could-help-us-speak-to-aliens-559443/
On Aug. 19, 2021, a humpback whale named Twain whupped back. Specifically, Twain made a series of humpback whale calls known as “whups” in response to playback recordings of whups from a boat of researchers off the coast of Alaska. The whale and the playback exchanged calls 36 times. In their 2023 published results, McGowan, Sharpe, and their coauthors are careful not to characterize their exchange with Twain as a conversation.
https://www.space.com/can-alien-life-exist-planet-rings
One locale that few scientists have considered for life is the set of rings that crown Jupiter, outside the gas giant's atmosphere. These rings, like those that circle all of our solar system's gas giants, are actually belts composed mainly of water-ice particles, some as small as grains of sand, others as large as mountains. Might life exist there?
We’ve never heard a peep from aliens. But improved technology is speeding up the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), so what happens if today’s silence suddenly gives way to tomorrow’s discovery of alien life? Would the world rejoice in the news that someone’s out there? Would euphoria engulf humanity, as Nobel Prizes are doled out like after-dinner mints?
Thinking about artificial general intelligence (AGI) calls to mind another poorly understood and speculative phenomenon with the potential for transformative impacts on humankind. We believe that the SETI Institute’s efforts to detect advanced extraterrestrial intelligence demonstrate several valuable concepts that can be adapted for AGI research.
In the latter half, astronomer Seth Shostak talked about his continued work in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), new ways to make contact with ETs, the importance of new planet discoveries, and all things astronomy and life in space. One intriguing new approach for SETI, beyond radio telescopes, is to piggyback onto other scientific studies in the radio part of the sky's spectrum to see if any of the sounds are not made by nature.
We're thrilled to share that undergraduate Param Joshi from NIT Rourkela, India, collaborating with Dr. Vishal Gajjar and a team of researchers at the Allen Telescope Array of the SETI Institute, has led the discovery of a Fast Radio Bursts with the widest bandwidth. After meticulously analyzing over 200 hours of observations with a specialized machine learning algorithm, Param successfully identified eight Fast Radio Bursts.
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/scientists-speak-humpback-whale-experiment.html
Scientists on the Whale-SETI team have successfully communicated with a humpback whale named Twain, having a 20-minute “conversation” with the aquatic animal. This historic experiment involved a recorded whale call that the team played into the ocean using an underwater speaker, which led Twain to circle their boat and respond using a “greeting signal.” The exchange lasted for 20 minutes, and Twain would match the interval variations from the team’s calls.
The SETI Institute invites you to the 2024 Drake Awards (May 16, 2024). Help celebrate leaders in the search for life in the Universe - the recipients of the Drake Award and the Carl Sagan Center Director's Award - and inspire the next generation of SETI scientists earning the SETI Forward Award.
“Was that E.T. or was it not E.T.? Nobody knows,” Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, tells Astronomy. “Nobody has ever found another explanation for what that might have been. It’s like you hear chains rattling in your attic and you think ‘My god, ghosts are real.’ But then you never hear them again, so what do you think?”
We've introduced several of our #notjustaliens scientists in the last few weeks, but of course, we would be remiss to leave out the people who DO participate in SETI research.
Dr. Wael Farah is a radio astronomer interested in studying the universe on short timescales. Wael is also interested in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, where he searches for signals that defy natural origins, such as narrowband emissions.
Text: Dr. Wael Farah is a radio astronomer interested in studying the universe on short timescales. Interestingly, the cosmos exhibits activity across various timescales ranging from milliseconds to seconds, hours, and days. Wael is also interested in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, where he searches for signals that defy natural origins, such as narrowband emissions. Wael is the project scientist for the Allen Telescope Array and is actively involved in upgrading the instrument and maximizing its scientific throughput. #sometimesaliens
But spoiler alert: For the chief leader of the SETI Institute, established to search for and understand life beyond Earth, there's a need to step back and cuddle up to a cup of cosmic reality.
Help celebrate leaders in the search for life in the Universe - the recipients of the Drake Award and the Carl Sagan Center Director's Award - and inspire the next generation of SETI scientists earning the SETI Forward Award.