Scientists searching for extraterrestrial intelligence are testing a new possibility: alien civilizations might transmit ...

Complex, intelligent life in the galaxy appears vanishingly rare, with the nearest possible civilization perhaps 33,000 light-years distant. Yet despite the odds, scientists insist that continuing the ...

AI agents now help SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen to operate radio telescopes and sift through space signals in real time, even before an observation ends.

An advanced alien civilization arrives on Earth, and humanity has just 48 hours to respond. This hypothetical scenario ...

For decades, science fiction writers have tried their best to prepare us for eventual contact with aliens. Their efforts are dominated by several recurrent tropes. There's the invasion by a warlike ...

Suppose an alien civilization discovers Earth and decides to investigate. Before it chooses a landing site or considers how to introduce itself, it faces a less dramatic question: how much mass should ...

What if aliens were building a massive power plant?Last time, I talked about the "Kardashev scale," which classifies the ...

Finding a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization takes more than just pointing a telescope in the right direction. We ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...