What are the chances of detecting extraterrestrial radio signals?
Although it has been running for about 60 years, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program has failed to identify even a single extraterrestrial radio signal. And we are referring here strictly to radio signals coming from some such civilization.
Why this has not happened before and what are the chances of detecting even a single radio signal from intelligent extraterrestrials, well, these are questions that Dr. Claudio Grimaldi, a Swiss researcher at the Institute of Technology decided to answer Federal from Lausanne. In his study, published in the Astronomical Journal, Dr. Grimaldi argues that we face several scenarios.
In the first of them, these signals abound in the galaxy. All we have to do is persevere. In the end we find them, just don’t be after them. The second claims that intelligent life forms are so rare in the Milky Way that possible radio signals are virtually non-existent. In which case we are agitating for absolutely nothing. A third possibility says that although there are civilizations and radio signals in the galaxy, we are in a somewhat more isolated spot, and in 60 years there is no pretense of fast results.
Analyzing the third scenario, the researcher argues that we must arm ourselves with patience. How much patience? About 100,000 years ago. In such a situation, there is a 95% chance that an intelligent radio signal will reach us. If you don’t want to wait that long, it’s good to know that there’s a 50% chance we’ll find one between 60 and 1,800 years. Only a 20% chance of spotting anything in the next 240 years.
As it turns out, you have to be beyond optimistic to think you can find something in 60 years. In short, we should probably turn to other methods of detecting intelligent aliens. Of course, but we might evolve into another species by the time we meet them.
Human body temperature has been falling for the last 160 years
From 37 degrees, people’s body temperature has been decreasing for more than a century and a half by 0.3-0.4 degrees. The problem was that there was no explanation that would clarify why such a phenomenon occurs.
More precisely, in 1851, the German doctor Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich analyzed about 25,000 patients in Leipzig and postulated that the average temperature of the human body is 37 degrees Celsius. 27 modern studies of 35,000 individuals in the UK and USA showed that the average temperature dropped to 36.6 degrees.
We pass over the fact that there might have been differences between the methods of 1851 and modern ones, and go to a recent study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, which also offers a possible explanation. More precisely, it would be about the intestinal flora and the antibiotics we use.
Microbiologists from the University of Michigan, who signed the study, say they analyzed 116 patients with various infections and disease stages, noting on this occasion that there is a correlation between variations in gut microbial diversity and body temperature.
To be sure, they did all kinds of experiments on guinea pigs and got the same result. Specifically, mice with low diversity or that had been given antibiotics had a lower body temperature. What’s even more interesting is that the same bacteria in both humans and mice appear to be responsible for temperature regulation.
So that was it! Antibiotics make us sick.
UK to introduce bee-friendly bricks
As the global bee population has been in steep decline for decades, several British biologists from the universities of Falmouth and Exeter have found a solution to ensure the survival of those that are left.
In the study recently published in the International Journal of Sustainable Design, boys and girls in England say that using friendly bricks would be an option to save something more. What are these bricks? They are bricks with special holes in which solitary bees can sleep.
As they specified, the solution takes into account solitary bees, because the rest, those who live in groups, do not venture to live separately from the colony. But solitary ones also represent about 9 out of ten species known in England, so there is someone to live in those bricks.
To make it a good job and to satisfy all the environmentalists, the bricks will be made from recyclable materials, therefore cheaper, and they would also be more resistant than the traditional ones. In conclusion, if you are planning to build a house, apartment block, something like that, look to these new building materials! You will have shelter not only for you, but also for the lonely bees who will thus give up wandering.
