The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
12-10-2025
Pope Leo's bombshell alien claims as he makes 'life on other planets' statement
Pope Leo's bombshell alien claims as he makes 'life on other planets' statement
The Vatican has, since the dawn of Vatican time, stayed away from ever officially commenting on aliens and what officials known about them . . . until now, it seems
But nothing came of it, and rumours still persists that there are secret alien files in the Vatican's much-mysterious vault.
David Grusch, a US Air Force veteran has often made claims about the US Government's involvement in covering up the truth about aliens and UFOs and last year he brought the Vatican into the fold by claiming that it knows about aliens and was involved in a cover-up as far back as 1933.
However, nobody has ever really commented in any official capacity – until now.
Pope Leo XIV, who has only been in his role for a few months, has bucked the trend of silence and gone on record to claim that it's possible life does exists in other parts of the universe.
However, nobody has ever really commented in any official capacity – until now.
Pope Leo XIV, who has only been in his role for a few months, has bucked the trend of silence and gone on record to claim that it's possible life does exists in other parts of the universe.
Speaking during a reception held for participants of a summer course at the Vatican Observatory in June – but only just surfacing now – he said: “Thanks to this remarkable instrument, we are able for the first time to peer deep into the atmosphere of planets in other solar systems, where life could develop.
He was speaking at the Specola Vaticana
(Vatican Observatory) at Castel Gandolfo(Image: Getty Images)
“The new technology also makes it possible to trace the ancient light of distant galaxies, which tells us about the origins of our universe".
He then called on the participants of the course to use new telescopes and technology at the observatory to "deepen our knowledge of the cosmos, of which we are only a small but significant part”.
Despite this, it has often been claimed that if the Vatican were to open its vault doors and be honest about what it knows, it could do irreparable damage to itself.
But for now, the truth remains out there . . . somewhere.
For the first time, physicists have simulated what objects moving near the speed of light would look like — an optical illusion called the Terrell-Penrose effect.
The Vienna team stitched together slices of light to create snapshots. At rest (left), the cube looks normal. But when simulated at 99.9% of light speed (right), a sphere still looks round but reveals parts of its far side.
Using ultra-fast laser pulses and special cameras, scientists have simulated an optical illusion that appears to defy Einstein's theory of special relativity.
One consequence of special relativity is that fast-moving objects should appear shortened in the direction of motion — a phenomenon known as Lorentz contraction. This effect has been confirmed indirectly in particle accelerator experiments.
But in 1959, mathematician Roger Penrose and physicist James Terrell pointed out that an observer with a camera wouldn't actually see a squashed object at all. Instead, because light from different parts of the object takes different times to reach the camera, it would appear rotated.
Although previous models have worked with this illusion, now called the Terrell-Penrose effect, this is the first time it has been done in a lab setting. The team described their results in the journal Communications Physics.
"What I like most is the simplicity," Dominik Hornof, a quantum physicist at the Vienna University of Technology and first author of the study, told Live Science. "With the right idea, you can recreate relativistic effects in a small lab. It shows that even century-old predictions can be brought to life in a really intuitive way."
Re-creating the illusion
In the new study, physicists used ultra-fast laser pulses and gated cameras to produce snapshots of a cube and a sphere "moving" at nearly the speed of light. The results showed snapshots of rotated objects. This proved the Terrell-Penrose effect to be true.
The researchers fired ultra-short laser pulses at their test object and then used a delay generator to tell the camera exactly when to open its shutter (for just billionths of a second). This camera captured single slices of light bouncing off the object. They repeated the process and shifted the object between shots. The team built up the illusion of an object racing at near light speed. (Image credit: Hornof et al., 2025; CC BY 4.0)
But like every study, this one also had its difficulties. Moving any object at or near the speed of light is currently impossible. "In Einstein's theory, the faster something moves, the more its effective mass increases. As you get closer to the speed of light, the energy you need grows by a lot," Hornof said. We cannot generate enough energy to accelerate something like a cube, and "that's why we need huge particle accelerators, even just to move electrons close to that speed. It would take a huge amount of energy."
So the team used a clever substitute. "What we can do is mimic the visual effect," Hornof said. They started with a cube of about 3 feet (1 meter) on each side. Then, they fired ultra-short laser pulses — each just 300 picoseconds long, or about a tenth of a billionth of a second — at the object. They captured the reflected light with a gated camera that opened only for that instant and produced a thin "slice" each time.
After each slice, they moved the cube forward about 1.9 inches (4.8 cm). That is the distance it would have traveled if it were moving at 80% the speed of light during the delay between pulses. Then, the scientists put all of these slices together into a snapshot of the cube in motion.
"When you combine all the slices, the object looks like it's racing incredibly fast, even though it never moved at all," Hornof said. "At the end of the day, it's just geometry."
They repeated the process with a sphere, shifting it by 2.4 inches (6 cm) per step to mimic 99.9% light speed. When the slices were combined, the cube appeared rotated and the sphere looked as if you could peek around its sides.
"The rotation is not physical," Hornof said. "It's an optical illusion. The geometry of how light arrives at the same time tricks our eyes."
That is why the Terrell-Penrose effect does not contradict Einstein's special relativity. A fast-moving object is physically shortened along its direction of travel, but a camera doesn't capture that directly. Because light from the back takes longer to arrive than light from the front, the snapshot shifts in a way that makes the object appear rotated.
"When we did the calculations, we were surprised how beautifully the geometry worked out," Hornof said. "Seeing it appear in the images was really exciting."
Recent archaeological discoveries at two pivotal biblical sites are transforming our understanding of early Christianity's expansion across the ancient Mediterranean world. In Turkey's ancient Lystra, excavators have uncovered a magnificent 100-foot basilica adorned with gold-gilded mosaics, while Israel's el-Araj site yields new evidence supporting its identification as biblical Bethsaida. These findings illuminate the sophisticated urban networks that supported the first Christian communities and help validate biblical accounts with tangible archaeological evidence.
The Lystra basilica, discovered near modern Hatunsaray in central Anatolia, provides concrete proof that the city mentioned eight times in the New Testament was indeed a thriving Christian center capable of supporting grand religious architecture. According to Assoc. Prof. İlker Mete Mimiroğlu of Necmettin Erbakan University, this discovery confirms biblical narratives describing Paul's miraculous healing of a lame man and the subsequent establishment of organized Christian communities in first-century Anatolia claims the Daily Mail report.
Lystra: From Miraculous Healing to Christian Center
Lystra achieved biblical fame during Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey when Paul healed a man "lame from birth" who had "never walked." This miracle, recorded in Acts 14:8-10, caused local residents to mistake the apostles for gods Hermes and Zeus, leading to dramatic religious confrontations that became foundational to early Christian history.
The newly discovered basilica spans 100 feet (30 meters) and features sophisticated late antique craftsmanship with gold-gilded ceiling mosaics and richly ornamented walls.
Archaeological evidence suggests the basilica served dual functions as both worship center and administrative hub, reflecting the organizational structure of early Christian communities in Anatolia. The site also connected to Timothy, Paul's spiritual successor, who was appointed as one of the region's first bishops. Excavations reveal continuous use from late antiquity through the early medieval period, demonstrating Christianity's lasting impact in this strategic Lycaonian city explains Arkeonews.
Beyond its Christian significance, Lystra excavations reveal remarkable cultural continuity through the Seljuk period (12th-13th centuries). Archaeologists discovered turquoise-colored beads in children's graves alongside Seljuk coins, representing early forms of the nazar boncuğu (evil-eye bead) that remains central to Turkish culture today. These artifacts demonstrate peaceful coexistence between Christian populations and incoming Turkish rulers rather than complete cultural displacement.
"It shows that when the Seljuks came, the local Christian population did not disappear," explains Mimiroğlu. "They continued their lives under Seljuk rule, within an atmosphere of tolerance."
Parts of the Byzantine basilica were repurposed into smaller chapels, with one altar incorporating a Roman funerary stele, illustrating how successive civilizations adapted sacred spaces for new religious purposes while maintaining spiritual continuity.
Turquoise-colored beads in children's graves alongside Seljuk coins discovered at the basilica.
Parallel discoveries at Israel's el-Araj site continue building the case for its identification as biblical Bethsaida, hometown of apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip. Recent excavations uncovered a Byzantine church containing a mosaic inscription referencing "the chief of the apostles" - widely interpreted as Peter. This finding, combined with geographic and stratigraphic evidence, provides the strongest archaeological support yet for locating New Testament Bethsaida at this Sea of Galilee site.
The el-Araj church inscription includes a donor named Constantine petitioning for St. Peter's intercession, demonstrating organized Christian veneration at this location by the 5th-6th centuries AD. Wildfire damage in 2025 unexpectedly revealed hundreds of small mounds across the site, potentially representing individual house foundations from the ancient fishing village where Jesus performed multiple miracles and called his first disciples.
Ruins revealed by wildfire boost Sea of Galilee site's claim as being the New Testament's Bethsaida.
These synchronized discoveries at Lystra and Bethsaida demonstrate how archaeological evidence can help bolster biblical historical accounts while revealing the sophisticated urban networks that enabled Christianity's rapid expansion across the first-century Mediterranean world. From Paul's miraculous healings to the establishment of lasting religious institutions, these ancient cities continue yielding tangible proof of Christianity's foundational period.
Top image: The archaeological excavations at the Roman Lystra site in Turkey.
Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries of modern science, because we can’t see it, touch it or feel it with our current instruments, and yet, we know it’s there because we can see how it affects galaxies, and its presence is felt through its gravity. Light bends around it as it travels across the universe, and the distribution of dark matter is known because of the way galaxies and galaxy clusters move, and the universe itself evolved differently than it would have if dark matter weren’t present.
The following 10 facts are a summary of what scientists have learned about this invisible stuff.
It outweighs the stuff we can see, because scientists have taken data from a number of missions, including the European Space Agency’s Planck mission, to show that regular atoms make up only about 5 percent of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 26 percent, and dark energy about 69 percent, which means that everything we can see and touch is only a small fraction of the universe’s mass-energy budget.
It’s invisible to light, because dark matter doesn’t emit, absorb or reflect any electromagnetic radiation, so our telescopes can’t spot it directly, but we know it’s there from the gravitational pull it exerts on stars, planets and galaxies, and stars in the outer regions of galaxies move faster than the stars closer to the center, which wouldn’t be possible if all we could see was the total amount of mass in the universe.
It’s not a new idea, since in the 1930s, Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky noticed that galaxies were moving so fast within galaxy clusters that the clusters should be flying apart, unless there was some invisible mass holding them together, which he called “dunkle Materie” — dark matter, and in the 1970s, Vera Rubin and Kent Ford made the same discovery in the rotation curves of spiral galaxies, thus turning it from a hunch to a fact of modern cosmology.
The Big Bang afterglow agrees, because dark matter affects the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang, and satellites like WMAP and Planck have mapped the tiny ripples of heat in the CMB in exquisite detail, which agree with models that include dark matter, and without it, galaxies would not have formed so quickly.
It’s not made of normal atoms, because if dark matter were made of protons, neutrons or electrons, we would see clear signatures of that in the cosmic microwave background and in the abundance of light elements created in the first few minutes after the Big Bang, but we don’t, so that means dark matter is some other kind of particle.
Top candidates for dark matter are WIMPs and axions, because weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and axions are two of the top contenders, where WIMPs would be heavy and interact via gravity and the weak force, while axions would be extremely light, and several experiments, such as XENONnT, LUX-ZEPLIN and ADMX, are currently hunting for signs of WIMPs and axions.
It molds galaxies and clusters, because dark matter provides the gravitational scaffolding that keeps galaxies and galaxy clusters together, while it also warps light across the universe, according to Einstein, where mass warps space and bends light, an effect called gravitational lensing, which has been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and other observatories, that have seen distant galaxies that are stretched and warped by massive, invisible structures, and those distortions create maps of where dark matter is.
It might only feel gravity, because no lab has yet detected dark matter interacting with anything except gravity, and the lack of signals at the Large Hadron Collider and other facilities has led some researchers to explore other ideas, such as self-interacting dark matter and sterile neutrinos.
It draws the cosmic web, because on the largest scales, galaxies are arranged into a web of filaments and galaxy clusters, which matches the distribution of dark matter in both simulations and maps of gravitational lensing, and dark matter’s gravity drew normal matter into those structures, giving the universe its large-scale architecture.
The existence of dark matter is supported by a wide range of observations, from the rotation curves of galaxies to the cosmic microwave background, therefore, whether it turns out to be a new particle, a tweak to gravity, or something we haven’t yet imagined, solving this mystery is key to understanding the universe and what it’s really made of.
Artificial intelligence is starting to appear in unexpected places, including houses of worship and spiritual communities. Around the world, religious groups, artists, and technologists are experimenting with ways AI might help people reflect on faith, ethics, and belief.
In 2024, the small chapel at the Protestant church in Lucerne, Switzerland, housed the Deus in Machina installation, where visitors could sit across from an animated “AI Jesus” and pose their questions, and the machine had texts from the Bible and writings from Christian theologians at its disposal to answer their questions. Almost 900 people tried it out over the course of two months, and some found it fascinating, while others were outraged, because, according to the organizers of the project, they did not want to encourage worship, but rather curiosity, and they were exploring what happens when ancient questions of meaning meet a machine. The parish of Poznań in Poland even went a step further and installed an AI guide for questions on Catholicism, which quotes from the Bible and official Church documents, and the priest behind the project said the machine allows people to ask things that they would not dare ask a human priest.
These are small experiments, but they show how AI is already changing how people talk about theology and belief, and a new role for algorithms is emerging, because Artificial intelligence is being used in a few corners of religious life, such as a reader of scripture, where large language models can read religious texts at a scale no human can, comparing translations and tracking patterns across centuries of commentary. Researchers are also testing how well these systems can answer questions about doctrine and ethics, but the results are mixed, because they can synthesize information quickly, but they tend to lose nuance or introduce bias, and some critics say they confuse guidance and automation. AI is also being used as a listener, as some communities are testing AI chat companions for daily reflections, prayers, or emotional support, which offer privacy and 24/7 availability that people can’t always provide, however, some critics argue that they lack the human touch.
As the source of belief itself, a handful of people have argued that AI could be worshipped as a god, because, in 2017, engineer Anthony Levandowski started a short-lived organization called Way of the Future, with the aim of preparing for a world where superintelligent machines have surpassed human intelligence, although the group never attracted more than a handful of followers, but the idea remains in the corners of the net, that intelligence, even artificial, could one day be revered as a divine force.
Moral philosophy and theology
Moreover, religious ethicists are taking up positions in AI labs, arguing that centuries of moral philosophy and theology can inform how we design intelligent systems, and at Oxford, the Collaboration on Theology and Artificial Intelligence is exploring how faith traditions understand concepts of autonomy, responsibility, and conscience, which dovetail with debates over machine decision-making.
When faith meets data, some of these problems will not be solved by better code, because bias is one of the issues, as these models learn from human language, which means they pick up our prejudices and blind spots, and a system trained to talk about religion will repeat not just the sacred texts, but the cultural biases woven through them. Agency is another problem, because a machine can recite scripture, but it cannot pray, doubt, or feel remorse, and it lacks what many people of faith would call the heart of moral experience, as some theologians have put it, AI may talk about God, but it can’t talk to God. Furthermore, there’s the danger of reduction, because boiling faith down to data points and algorithms strips the communal and emotional richness that is essential to most religious traditions, such as rituals, silence, and shared space, which are all fundamental aspects of most religions, and no chatbot can replace them.
The psychological effects are complex, too, because a study published by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business found that reading about the capabilities of AI slightly decreased people’s reported belief in God, while another study, published by Duke University, found that thinking about God made people more likely to trust recommendations from AI, and the relationship between divine and machine authority appears to be a two-way street. Consequently, AI isn’t going to replace religion, but it’s going to change how we practice it, and it’s going to change how we interpret it, because, for some, AI is a new kind of mirror, reflecting our hopes, fears, and contradictions in sharp relief, while for others, it’s a threat to the authenticity of our belief. Therefore, the real test is how our communities choose to use it, as a tool for inquiry, or as a stand-in for faith, because the machines can help us organize our texts, translate our scripture, spark us to reflection, but the heart of religion, the experience of wonder, doubt, and relationship, is something only humans can offer, and as the machines grow more capable, those lines are going to matter even more. Ultimately, the future of faith may not depend on whether the machines can find God, but it depends on whether the humans remember why they started searching.
A strange tilt in the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt has scientists wondering if the solar system is hiding another planet—a potential “Planet Y” that could soon join the family of known worlds.
The Kuiper Belt is an enormous ring of icy bodies that extends from the orbit of Neptune to a distance of close to 30 astronomical units (AU), or approximately 30 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. During recent investigations of this mysterious outer solar system region, a team of Princeton researchers uncovered a strange warpin its plane, which could mean that something is pulling on some of the icy objects beyond Neptune—possibly even an undiscovered planet.
Eying the Kuiper Belt
The Princeton team’s work began with a simple question: “Is the Kuiper Belt flat?” Despite some slight deviations, the planets in our solar system all lie on roughly the same plane, which should be reflected in the belt. However, the Kuiper Belt unexpectedly changes this orientation with a tilt of about 15 degrees. Despite the team’s best efforts, most potential explanations failed to account for the unusual warpage, save for one: the potential existence of an unknown body the researchers dub “Planet Y.”
While there has been no direct observation of this currently theoretical planet, the team believes that current data suggests the planet would be between the sizes of Earth and Mercury, positioned deep in the outer reaches of our solar system.
“This paper is not a discovery of a planet, but it’s certainly the discovery of a puzzle for which a planet is a likely solution,”the authors said when presenting their work in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.
A New Addition to the Solar System?
This isn’t the first time a theoretical planet has been suspected to lurk in the Kuiper Belt, which once held a recognized planet until one of its largest residents, Pluto, was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. The region remains mysterious due to difficulties in observing it at such great distances.
Earlier work sought what astronomer Percival Lowell dubbed “Planet X,” an attempt to explain away other anomalies by proposing a mysterious hidden planet. Those anomalies were in the orbits of the planets Neptune and Uranus, and even the 1930 discovery of Pluto didn’t prove to be enough to account for them.
However, the mystery resolved itself in a less dramatic way than expected when Voyager 2 probe data revealed Neptune’s mass to be less than speculated in the 1990s. The recognition of a less massive Neptune seemingly resolved the question of the irregularities without requiring the pull of an unknown body.
Planet Y and the Search for Planet Nine
However, the search for a mysterious planet reignited with a 2016 paper speculating on what was now being called “Planet Nine” instead of “Planet X.” However, this long-suspected outer-solar system planetary body differs considerably from what the recent Princeton University research proposes, as this planet would be much larger and farther out beyond Pluto.
There is a great deal of debate over what an undiscovered planet in our solar system might look like, but the Princeton team says that they are not mutually exclusive. In theory, a pair of undiscovered planets could coexist beyond the range of our present observations.
Pentetrating the mysteries of the Kuiper Belt may soon be on the horizon, though, as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is about to launch its decade-long survey, which the researchers believe will likely detect any such planet in the Kuiper Belt within two to three years.
Hence, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory may soon be able to finally resolve the question of whether other worlds might exist in our planetary neighborhood, as well as which planetary category the Princeton team’s suspected “Planet Y” belongs to.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
Chinese onderzoekers hebben een plastic ontwikkeld uit bamboe dat twee schijnbaar tegenstrijdige eigenschappen heeft: het materiaal is sterker dan veel kunststoffen die vandaag de dag worden gebruikt, maar breekt volledig af binnen 50 dagen wanneer het in de grond terechtkomt.
Het plastic is gemaakt uit bamboevezels die worden ontleed tot losse moleculen en vervolgens opnieuw worden samengesteld tot een nieuwe vorm van plastic. Het resultaat, volgens het onderzoek waar het materiaal in wordt beschreven, is een kunststof die sterker is dan polyethyleen en ABS. Dat zijn veelgebruikte plastics: polyethyleen zit in verpakkingen en zakjes, ABS wordt gebruikt voor speelgoed en elektronische behuizingen.
Het plastic bereikte bij testen een treksterkte van 110 megapascal. Dat is een maat voor hoeveel kracht nodig is om het materiaal kapot te trekken. Gewoon polyethyleen haalt ongeveer 30 megapascal, het populaire bioplastic PLA zit rond de 50 megapascal. Ook de stijfheid van het bamboemateriaal overtrof die van gangbare plastics fors. Het plastic bleef tijdens tests zijn vorm behouden bij temperaturen van 100 graden Celsius en zelfs bij min 30 graden, zonder te barsten of te vervormen. Deze eigenschappen zouden het materiaal geschikt moeten maken voor allerlei toepassingen, zoals onderdelen voor auto’s en meubelair.
Op 50 dagen volledig weg
Maar de belangrijkste troef is misschien wel dat het materiaal kan oplossen in de natuur, zonder dat er plasticafval achterblijft. Zodra het in contact komt met grond, beginnen schimmels en bacteriën de bamboevezels af te breken. Op 50 dagen tijd zijn ze volledig verdwenen. De onderzoekers testten dit door monsters te begraven, naast stukjes gangbare plastics zoals ABS en polystyreen. Na 50 dagen waren deze laatste nog volledig intact. Logisch, want deze materialen blijven honderden jaren aanwezig in de bodem. Belangrijk om te vermelden is dat het bamboeplastic het beter doet dan bestaande bioplastics, die vaak slechts gedeeltelijk afbreken, of die speciale industriële producten vereisen om af te breken.
Makkelijk te gebruiken
Het materiaal heeft nog een groot voordeel. Het kan net als gewone plastics makkelijk worden vervormd. Zo kan het bijvoorbeeld in mallen gegoten worden, waardoor je in feite elk soort product kan maken. De onderzoekers toonden dit aan door tandwielen, sterren en golfplaten te produceren in het laboratorium. Dit lukte met vroegere materialen uit plantenvezels moeilijk.
Volledig recyclebaar
Dat het plastic in de natuur oplost, is een troef. Natuurlijk blijft het wel handiger om het te recyclen. Volgens de onderzoekers kan dit nieuwe materiaal worden omgesmolten tot nieuw plastic. Gerecycled materiaal heeft nog altijd 90 procent van zijn sterkte, staat te lezen in de studie. Ook de gebruikte oplosmiddelen kunnen worden teruggewonnen en opnieuw worden gebruikt.
Kostenplaatje lijkt mooi
Een economische analyse van de onderzoekers toont aan dat de productie van het bamboeplastic ongeveer 2.300 dollar per ton zou kosten, omgerekend zo’n 2.000 euro. Dat ligt weliswaar hoger dan simpel polyethyleen, maar het vergelijkbaar met of zelfs lager dan andere hoogwaardige plastics. Bamboe groeit bovendien razendsnel. Per hectare kan elk jaar tot 78 ton worden gewonnen. Dat is ruim vier keer zoveel als gewoon hout.
Volgens de onderzoekers is het materiaal ten slotte bestand tegen verschillende oplosmiddelen en zuren en blijft het stabiel wanneer de luchtvochtigheid hoog is. Dat wil zeggen dat materialen die buitenshuis gebruikt worden, hiermee kunnen worden gemaakt.
Niet té optimistisch zijn
Hoewel de resultaten veelbelovend zijn, is dit nog geen reden om te juichen. Tot nu toe is het materiaal enkel in het laboratorium getest, onder gecontroleerde omstandigheden. Of het in de echte wereld even goed presteert, is nog koffiedik kijken. Ook is de economische analyse nog niet onafhankelijk onderzocht en is niet duidelijk of het proces op een betaalbare wijze kan worden opgeschaald. Ten slotte is het materiaal enkel in één soort grond getest, bij een temperatuur van 25 graden. Wat er gebeurt als het in de zee terechtkomt of hoe het zich gedraagt in extreme klimaten zoals woestijnen, blijft nog een onbeantwoorde vraag.
Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumeriancity was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.
The Tablet of Nippur: Discovering the Ancient Sumerian Texts
As one of the earliest known written creation stories, the Sumerian creation legend holds significant importance offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.
The Sumerian creation myth can be found on a tablet in Nippur, an ancient Mesopotamian city founded in approximately 5000 BC. The creation of Earth (Enuma Elish) according to the Sumerian tablets begins like this:
When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained; Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven, Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being...
The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labor.
When the gods like men Bore the work and suffered the toll The toil of the gods was great, The work was heavy, the distress was much.
The figures can be identified as gods by their pointed hats with multiple horns. The figure with streams of water and fish flowing from his shoulders is Ea (Sumerian Enki), god of subterranean waters and of wisdom. Behind him stands Usimu, his two-faced vizier (chief minister). At the centre of the scene is the sun-god, Shamash (Sumerian Utu), with rays rising from his shoulders. He is cutting his way through the mountains in order to rise at dawn. To his left is a winged goddess, Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna). The weapons rising from her shoulders symbolise her warlike characteristics.
The Unity of God and Man: How the First Human Came into Existence
Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods.
You have slaughtered a god together With his personality I have removed your heavy work I have imposed your toil on man. … In the clay, god and man Shall be bound, To a unity brought together; So that to the end of days The Flesh and the Soul Which in a god have ripened – That soul in a blood-kinship be bound.
This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Adapa, the first human being in ancient Sumerian Texts failed to answer the question of “the bread and water of life” Anu.
Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.
Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about ‘the bread and water of life’.
Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden. While Adapa was granted great wisdom and knowledge by Enki, he unknowingly rejected the gift of immortality when offered the "bread and water of life. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and instructed not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, they were tempted by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, leading to their expulsion from paradise.
Overall, the Sumerian creation myth holds significant importance as one of the earliest known written creation stories, offering valuable insights into the religious, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Mesopotamia.
Astronomers have observed stars that are accelerating through space at a shockingly rapid pace. Normally this is assumed to relate to gravitational forces in some way, or to the natural emissions of the stars that might be causing them to move at unusually fast rates.
But one researcher has a different idea about why some stars or star systems seem to be moving more rapidly than normally, presumably dragging their planets along with them as they go. According to Clement Vidal, a philosopher from Vrije University Brussels in Belgium who has an interest in astronomy, these traveling solar systems may have been converted into fast-moving “spaceships” by advanced alien civilizations looking to explore other areas of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Solar System as UFO
Assuming for a moment they developed the technology to actually accomplish such a thing, an alien civilization might have various motivations for propelling their entire solar system through space.
“Two universal evolutionary motivations will make interstellar travel a necessity to any long-lived civilization: survival and reproduction,” Vidal wrote in a non-peer-reviewed paper about his concept published through Cornell University.
Such a civilization might want to escape the vicinity of a nearby supernova that threatens their star system’s existence. Or they might be running out of resources on their home planet, and decide to move to another part of their galaxy where resources might be plentiful. Or they could simply be explorers driven by curiosity or a sense of adventure. They might even be forced to take such action as a response to attacks from other alien civilizations.
Rather than constructing ships that would carry just a few of them through space as astronauts, these aliens could take everyone along for the ride, with their solar system traveling through space on the ultimate voyage of discovery. While the journey to another solar system in a different part of the galaxy would be a long one, since the entire civilization was taking the trip together the passing of the time wouldn’t really be noticed.
Binary star system R Aquarii, located 700 light-years from Earth.
This is an astonishing proposal, but it is based on an idea that has been around for a long time. The idea of creating a “stellar engine” (a star that could be used to power space travel) was first conceived of by science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon in 1937, and the concept has always been considered sound—impractical perhaps, but not totally out of the realm of possibility.
In his theoretical study, Vidal proposes that binary star systems would make the best candidates to be converted into spaceships. The particular types of binary systems he identifies are known as spidar pulsars and redback pulsars, and each consists of a star that is smaller than our sun revolving around a dense neutron star with a powerful gravitational field.
In such systems the neutron stars create an enormous amount of energy. They do this through the combination of their rapid rotation (rapidly spinning stars are known as pulsars) and the gravitational forces they generate, the latter of which causes high-powered ejections of materials from their partner stars.
It is these forces, Vidal says, that could be controlled or redirected by an advanced alien civilization to actually propel an entire star system through space at a high rate of speed. The idea would be to take control of the pattern of ejections by the neutron’s companion star, and to point them in a specific direction. This would essentially turn that star into a massive rocket, propelling the solar system and all of its inhabitants toward the region of space they would like to explore. Making changes of direction in the material ejection patterns would allow the alien engineers to steer their moving solar systems, giving them total control over their final destination.
An alien civilization would have to be enormously advanced to have developed the technology necessary to manipulate stellar forces. But if they were, converting their entire solar system into a spaceship could be feasible and logical, Vidal argues, and in such a circumstance there would be no shortage of reasons why such a civilization might want to put this idea into practice.
Let the Investigation Begin!
It would be easy to dismiss an idea like this as 100-percent speculation, rooted in science fiction more than science reality. But it is an idea that can be investigated, which is really all that Clement Vidal is recommending that astronomers do.
In fact scientists have already looked closely at the anomalous movements of hypervelocity stars, strange objects that were apparently ejected from the center of the Milky Way after passing too close to a black hole. Astronomers have identified and analyzed 16 hypervelocity stars so far, but as Vidal readily admits none of them show movement patterns that would suggest they are under intelligent control.
Vidal is convinced, however, that binary star systems with the neutron star-small companion star arrangement would make the best stellar engines, because of their unique gravitational dynamics. In fact, he has already identified two candidates that match the characteristics of the solar systems he wants investigated. These are a “black widow” pulsar designated PSR J0610-2100, and a "redback" pulsar known as PSR J2043+1711. Both of these binary star systems are accelerating, and as of now there is no good explanation for that.
Illustration of star flying through space pulling planet along with it.
And just last year, Vidal notes, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted five more binary pulsar systems like these in the Omega Centauri globular cluster, a grouping of 10 million stars that are about 17,000 light-years from earth. Vidal’s idea is that the movement patterns of all of these binary star systems should be closely analyzed, to see if they show any signs of speeding up or slowing down, changing direction, moving faster than predicted, and so on.
“I see the highlighted spider stellar engine candidates and predictions as promising starting points and clues that require further attention, observation, modeling, and follow-up,” he wrote.
Should such evidence be observed, it would of course not prove these solar systems were being driven across the galaxy by aliens. But if any of them are, perhaps one day thousands of years in the future they will decide to park in orbit for awhile around our sun and stop in for a visit. Should this ever happen, the result would be the largest and most spectacular mass UFO sighting in world history, followed up by actual alien contact.
Top image: Illustration of binary pair of giant starts, accompanied by multiple planets.
Source: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva M. ZamaniCC BY-SA 4.0.
Rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere may trigger a series of geological and biological processes that could ensure the next ice age arrives on time instead of being delayed, researchers say.
The key to the new findings is how phosphorus moves from the land to the ocean, researchers said.
(Image credit: Qiang Zhang / 500px/Getty Images)
Earth may respond to the huge quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) that humans are pumping into the atmosphere by "overcorrecting" the imbalance, which could result in the next ice age arriving on time instead of being delayed by tens of thousands of years, as had previously been predicted.
This is due to a newfound "thermostat" that buries mountains of carbon beneath the seafloor so efficiently, it could do away with human carbon emissions within 100,000 years, researchers have discovered.
That's several times quicker than scientists assumed would happen with a previously described "lazy thermostat" that locks away carbon on timescales of 500,000 to 1 million years, the team reported in a study published Sept. 25 in the journal Science.
With both thermostats working in tandem, it's possible that the next ice age could start on time, instead of being delayed by the effects of climate change, study co-author Andy Ridgwell, a professor of geology at the University of California, Riverside, told Live Science.
The newfound thermostat does not protect humans living now from the effects of global warming, said study co-author Dominik Hülse, a mathematician and biogeochemical modeler at the University of Bremen in Germany. "It's not to say that we will be safe from global warming in the next 100 or even 1,000 years," he told Live Science.
Scientists have long suspected that Earth regulates its climate on geological timescales. Since the 1980s, researchers have theorized about a mechanism called the silicate weathering feedback, which occurs when rain captures CO2 from the air and sprays it onto silicate rocks — rocks with minerals made of oxygen and silicon that constitute about 90% of the planet's crust. CO2 reacts with these rocks, dissolving them and forming molecules that leach into the ground and eventually end up in the ocean. Once there, what was once CO2 forms limestone and chalk, meaning it is locked away for millions of years.
The silicate weathering feedback is like a thermostat because the more CO2 that is in the atmosphere, the warmer Earth gets and the more the water cycle intensifies. As precipitation increases, silicate weathering accelerates, meaning more CO2 is transferred to the ocean and atmospheric CO2 sinks to background levels again.
The feedback also works the other way around. "If you get too cold and CO2 is too low, then the thermostat is consuming too little CO2 compared with a background of constant release of CO2 from the mantle, from volcanoes and other magma features," Ridgwell said. In this scenario, less CO2 ends up in the ocean and atmospheric levels slowly increase back to average levels, he said.
But the silicate weathering feedback moves slowly; it can take up to 1 million years after a perturbation to rebalance CO2 levels. As a result, there are climate events it can't explain, including Earth's glacial and interglacial cycles, which are characterized by huge fluctuations in CO2 levels and temperature that occur roughly every 100,000 years, Ridgwell said.
Silicate weathering also can't explain snowball Earth events, which completely cover the planet in ice, Hülse said. If silicate weathering were the only thermostat regulating Earth's climate, its smooth balancing act would prevent it from tipping into such extreme conditions, Hülse explained.
A second "thermostat"
The new research was inspired by Hülse's doctoral dissertation, in which he calculated how much organic carbon was preserved in ocean sediments during past climatic events. His results showed that after periods of intense volcanic activity and warming, mountains of organic carbon were deposited onto the seafloor. This finding suggested there might be a link between atmospheric CO2 levels and organic carbon burial in the ocean.
"There are definitely times in Earth's history when a lot of organic carbon has been deposited," Ridgwell said. "We've sort of known that there must be other things going on [besides silicate weathering], but it's much more complex to put in a model."
But Hülse and Ridgwell tackled this challenge in the new study by amalgamating their individual projects into a single global climate carbon cycle model that accounted for organic carbon burial in the seafloor. Their results revealed a second "thermostat" rooted in Earth's phosphorus cycle, which starts on land with rocks containing minerals such as apatite, the researchers said.
Weathering of these rocks due to precipitation releases phosphorus, which leaches into the ground, enters streams and rivers, and eventually ends up in the ocean. There, phosphorus is a key nutrient for tiny photosynthetic creatures known as phytoplankton, which use it to fuel cellular processes. When phytoplankton die, they sink to the ocean bottom, where they deposit organic carbon, phosphorus and other nutrients.
Phytoplankton take up phosphorus to power cellular processes, and when they die, they bring it with them to the seafloor. (Image credit: Roland Birke/Getty Images)
In a warmer world, more phosphorus is washed into the ocean and phytoplankton proliferate, meaning more organic carbon and phosphorus reach the seafloor. However, warmer oceans also hold less oxygen because oxygen becomes less soluble as temperatures increase. This deoxygenation releases deposited phosphorus back into the water column while burying organic carbon in sediments.
"Exactly how that happens is not mechanistically entirely known, but we know it happens," Ridgwell said. "Where we've had these events in the past where we see massive amounts of organic carbon being buried after a warming event, there's very, very, very little phosphorus in that material compared with normal material. If it's not being buried, it must have been returned to the ocean."
As phosphorus gets recycled, it reenters the food chain and phytoplankton continue to proliferate as they feast on phosphorus from both the land and the ocean. This leads to a phytoplankton boom, which sucks more and more CO2 out of the atmosphere and deposits more and more organic carbon onto the seafloor, which brings down global temperatures.
So, the warmer the world gets, the more productive the oceans become and the more carbon is locked away, which cools the climate. But the difference between phosphorus and silicate weathering is that phosphorus in the ocean doesn't decline as soon as Earth cools, because it continues to be released at the seafloor.
"The organic carbon thermostat is a little bit like the silicate thermostat, except it has this supercharger," Ridgwell said. "You end up with so many nutrients in the ocean — and they're being recycled very efficiently — that it's very difficult to get rid of them again."
The phosphorus cycle eventually regains its balance, but the planet can "overcorrect" in the meantime, triggering events like snowball Earth, the researchers said. It's unclear how this second thermostat will respond to climate change now, but the ocean is so rich in oxygen compared with in the past that a snowball Earth is unlikely, they said.
Instead, it's possible that the organic carbon thermostat will make up for the delay expected for the next ice age. Climate change is disturbing Earth's natural cycles, and previous research suggests it could push back the next glacial period, which is due in about 11,000 years, by tens of thousands of years. But if the organic carbon thermostat activates, atmospheric CO2 could return to background levels much faster, ensuring that the next ice age arrives on time.
"Whatever delay we'll end up with for the next ice age ... thinking about this mechanism might bring it back forward again," Ridgwell said. "One is going to start at some point for sure; it's all about when it starts."
De evolutie van UFO-studies: van randwetenschap tot voorhoedewetenschap
Oude UFO-foto. Beeldconcept van buitenaardse wezens.
Depositphotos.
De evolutie van UFO-studies: van randwetenschap tot voorhoedewetenschap
Inleiding
Sinds mensenheugenis hebben we de hemel boven ons bestudeerd met verwondering en een tikkeltje angst. Is er werkelijk leven buiten onze planeet, zoals we onszelf kennen? De afgelopen vier decennia heb ik het onderwerp UFO’s gevolgd, vaker naar de sterrengekeken dan ik kan tellen, en mezelf afgevraagd of een van die fonkelende objecten misschien een huis biedt aan wezens zoals wij. Soms vroeg ik me af of er planeten in het melkwegstelsel zijn die een spiegel vormen van onze eigen wereld. En ja, ik heb meerdere malen dingen aan de hemel gezien die ik niet kon verklaren. Dat betekent niet per se dat ik wezens uit andere werelden heb waargenomen die met hoge snelheid voorbijschieten; maar het betekent ook zeker niet dat ik dat niet heb gedaan. Wie over dit onderwerp bedachtzaam spreekt, zegt dat de waarheid daarbuiten ligt. En ik geloof sterk dat dit inderdaad zo is. Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat sommige voorwerpen die wij in onze lucht zien — en mogelijk zelfs door de ruimte reizen — niet van deze planeet zijn en geen product van de aard der dingen. Het is egoïstisch en grootheidswaanzin te denken dat ALLEEN op onze Aarde intelligent leven is en niet op de biljoenen sterren en planeten om ons heen...
Verandering van perceptie - Van bagatellisering, belachelijk maken naar wetenschap
Decennialang werden onopgehelderde vliegende voorwerpen, beter bekend als UFO’s, nu UAP's genoemd, vrijwel uitsluitend afgedaan als speelse curiosa uit de wereld van sciencefiction en mythen. De publieke verbeelding werd al gauw overschaduwd door scepsis: wat bovennatuurlijke verklaringen leek de overhand te hebben, werd in wetenschappelijke kringen al snel als ongefundeerd, oncontroleerbaar en soms zelfs als belachelijk beschouwd. Journalisten, politici en wetenschappers wisten zich vaak geen beter woord te vinden dan ridicule om het onderwerp te benaderen, waardoor serieuze debatten over de realiteit en oorzaken van deze verschijnselen ontaardden in grapjes of ontkenning. De consequentie hiervan was dat veel waarnemingen niet gedocumenteerd of serieus onderzocht werden, en dat het wetenschappelijke gesprek over mogelijk niet-normale luchtverschijnselen werd verengd tot marginaal terrein.
De afgelopen jaren is dit patroon echter ingrijpend verschoven. Steeds meer onderzoekers erkennen dat er minder sprake is van louter fantasie of misinterpretatie dan aanvankelijk werd gedacht, en dat systematische waarnemingen, data-analyse en verantwoorde rapportage wel degelijk leiden tot bruikbare inzichten. Universiteiten, onderzoeksinstituten en onafhankelijke wetenschappers pleiten vaker voor een open maar kritische benadering van wat aanvankelijk als “ongebruikelijke” gebeurtenissen werd gecatalogiseerd. Ze benadrukken dat het opdoen van betrouwbare kennis mogelijk is wanneer er transparante methodes, reproduceerbare bevindingen en stringent getypeerde waarnemingen aan ten grondslag liggen.
Ook overheidsinstanties hebben hun houding aangepast en investeren in gestructureerde programma’s om de verschijnselen te bestuderen zonder de wetenschappelijke integriteit in gevaar te brengen. Een bekend en symbolisch voorbeeld is de betrokkenheid van NASA, die, hoewel vaak geassocieerd met traditionele ruimtevaart en technologische topprestaties, nu duidelijk heeft gemaakt dat het onderwerp van onverklaarde luchtverschijnselen aandacht verdient. De vorming van een gespecialiseerde UFO-studiegroep door NASA onderstreept een intentie om werkwijzen te verbeteren, dataficeren te harmoniseren en interdisciplinaire samenwerking te stimuleren. Daarmee ontstaat een nieuw plausibel kader waarin waarnemingen worden geëvalueerd op basis van evidence, meegewogen in de context van ruimtevaart, atmospherische wetenschap en data-analyse.
Samengevat markeert deze verschuiving een markant keerpunt: van een sfeer van bagatellisering en belachelijk maken naar een wetenschappelijke, transparante en serieuze aanpak van onbegrepen verschijnselen. Het traject is nog lang niet afgerond, maar de toon is onmiskenbaar verschoven richting nieuwsgierigheid, methodische inzet en een herontdekte legitimiteit van onderzoek naar wat ons al lang fascineert: het onbekende aan de grenzen van onze perceptie.
In de afgelopen drie jaar hebben hoge functionarissen publiekelijk hun verwarring over ongeïdentificeerde luchtverschijnselen toegegeven. Boven: Vier mysterieuze objecten gespot in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1952.
Foto-illustratie door Paul Sahre
NASA’s UFO-studiegroep
Een spelverdeler of een keerpunt? De opstelling van zo’n groep onder de paraplu van een van ’s werelds meest gerespecteerde ruimte- en wetenschapsinstellingen verleent een ongekende geloofwaardigheid aan het onderzoek naar UFO’s. In plaats van losse geruchten of sensationele rapporten fungeert deze werkgroep als een serieuze, methodische instantie die systematisch kalibratie, validatie en replicatie van bevindingen nastreeft. Door een multidisciplinair team samen te brengen—astronomen, datawetenschappers, ingenieurs, veiligheidsdeskundigen en psychologen—wordt geprobeerd een zo volledig mogelijk beeld te schetsen van wat er gezien kan zijn en hoe het in een breder wetenschappelijk kader past.
De groep houdt zich bezig met het bestuderen van gerapporteerde ontmoetingen met UFO’s en het analyseren van mogelijke wetenschappelijke verklaringen voor de waargenomen verschijnselen. Dit omvat het beoordelen van waarnemingsdata uit satellieten, radar- en fotografische waarnemingen, evenals getuigenverklaringen die op langere termijn herzien kunnen worden. Een cruciale stap in dit proces is het scheiden van betrouwbare signalen van ruis, niet-specifieke interpretaties en mogelijk misleidende artefacten die door menselijke perceptie of instrumentele beperkingen kunnen ontstaan. Daarnaast wordt er aandacht besteed aan het ontwikkelen van gestandaardiseerde methoden voor data-registratie, metadata-consistentie en kwaliteitscontrole, zodat bevindingen op lange termijn herhaalbaar zijn door onafhankelijke onderzoekers.
Op 31 mei 2023 hield NASA een bijeenkomst waaruit blijkt dat UFO’s een mysterie zullen blijven totdat we betere, nauwkeurigere gegevens hebben. Daarmee wordt de eis niet zozeer dat alles onmiddellijk verklaard moet zijn, maar dat de kwaliteit en betrouwbaarheid van de data essentieel zijn voor elke vooruitgang. In deze context fungeert de studiegroep ook als een transparant platform voor publiek en wetenschappelijk debat, waar bevindingen worden gedeeld, scrutinized en waar mogelijk geanonimiseerd gedeeld in een gecontroleerde omgeving.
Overheids- en militaire onthullingen - Geluid van insiders
Naast NASA komen er steeds vaker onthullingen naar buiten van hooggeplaatste overheidsfunctionarissen, inlichtingenofficieren en militair personeel die het debat op een hoger niveau brengen. Deze insiders brengen getuigenissen naar buiten die niet louter als anekdotisch hoeven te worden gezien, maar als onderdeel van een soms lange geschiedenis van gedocumenteerde waarnemingen, onderzoeken en gedematerialiseerde rapportages. Ze beschrijven ervaringen die de twijfels van sceptici uitdagen en tegelijk de verantwoordelijke procedures benadrukken waarmee dergelijke feiten moeten worden geverifieerd en afgewogen. In veel gevallen wordt gespecieerd hoe meerdere getuigen onafhankelijk van elkaar soortgelijke kenmerken en patronen hebben waargenomen: snelle acceleraties, afwijkende aerodynamische manoeuvres, en een opmerkelijke stabiliteit tijdens turbulente omstandigheden. Sommigen voegen daaraan toe dat de waarnemingen gepaard gaan met meetinstrumenten die anomalieën registreren, zoals ongebruikelijke radiogolven, anomalieën in infraroodbeeldvorming en onverklaarbare responsen van sensoren.
Schokkende radarbeelden tonen Hellfire-raket afgevuurd door het Amerikaanse leger die afketst op een UFO boven de oceaan
Rapporten beschrijven objecten met geavanceerde vliegeigenschappen, die soms lijken te ontsnappen aan de bekende wetten van de aerodynamica en zelfs naadloos kunnen schakelen tussen verschillende media, zoals lucht en water, waardoor ze transmedium-vaartuigen lijken te zijn. In andere gevallen wordt gesuggereerd dat sommige waarnemingen mogelijk bestaan uit technologische demonstraties, prototypes of zelfs non-terrestrische technologieën die mogelijk in risicovolle proeven zijn ingezet. Daarnaast worden er bevindingen genoemd die suggereren dat overheden mogelijk delen of zelfs hele buitenaardse vaartuigen hebben teruggevonden, gedocumenteerd of onder langdurige geheimhouding geplaatst, wat het debat over autorisatie, classificatie en publieke verantwoording scherp houdt.
Of dit nu waar is of niet, het feit blijft dat dergelijke beweringen de horizon van wat als mogelijk wordt beschouwd aanzienlijk verbreden. Ze zetten overheden en militaire instellingen onder druk om transparanter, verifiëerbaarder en verantwoorder te handelen. Het gevolg is een toegenomen publieke interesse, een herijken van veiligheids- en technologiebeleid, en een gesprek over de implicaties voor nationale veiligheid, wetenschappelijke integriteit en ethische normen bij het omgaan met onbekende verschijnselen en potentieel revolutionaire technologieën. De combinatie van getuigenissen, feiten en onzekerheden maakt de kwestie complexer dan ooit en vraagt om zorgvuldige, feitelijke analyse en verantwoorde media-aandacht.
De evolutie van UFO-studies en maatschappelijke implicaties
Door de decennia heen is het veld van UFO-studies geëvolueerd van sensationele rapporten en mysteriezaaiers naar een doorwroet wetenschappelijk domein waarin gegevens, methodologie en transparantie centraal staan. In de beginjaren speelde het stigma een grote rol: waarnemingen werden vaak afgedaan als onbelangrijk of verkeerd geïnterpreteerd. Met de verschuiving naar gestructureerde rapportage, datasets en verificatie door onafhankelijke onderzoekers is de geloofwaardigheid aanzienlijk toegenomen. Instituten zoals NASA en andere ruimtevaartorganisaties hebben hun benadering verfijnd: open data, strikte waarnemingsprotocollen, en samenwerking met interdisciplinair teams van astronomen, natuurkundigen, psychologen en veiligheidsanalisten. Deze ontwikkeling heeft ervoor gezorgd dat het onderwerp op een verantwoord niveau wordt onderzocht, zonder sensationele hoogstandjes maar met reproduceerbare bevindingen.
De maatschappelijke implicaties zijn divers en diepgaand. Een “onthulling” van informatie—zij het geleidelijk of gedeeltelijk—kan het publieke vertrouwen in instituties versterken of juist ondermijnen, afhankelijk van de mate van transparantie en de duidelijkheid van communicatie. Het debat over buitenaardse intelligentie zet fundamentele vragen op tafel: wat weten we werkelijk over onze plaats in het universum, hoe definiëren we technologische vooruitgang, en welke ethische kaders gelden bij het delen van mogelijk wereldwijde kennis? Daarnaast beïnvloedt de mogelijkheid van technologische implicaties uit kontakt met andere beschavingen ons begrip van wetenschap, defensie en internationale samenwerking. Het bestuderen van deze fenomenen kan leiden tot een bredere kijk op innovatie, het herijken van prioriteiten in ruimte- en onderzoeksbeleid, en een versterkt bewustzijn van de intrinsieke menselijke zoektocht naar betekenis, zonder dat dit per se hoeft te leiden tot sensationalisme of paniek.
Een nieuwe periode van ontdekking en begrip
Wanneer we naar de toekomst kijken, lijkt het alsof de toenemende belangstelling voor UFO’s of UAP’s een hele nieuwe fase inluidt voor wetenschappelijke verkenning en menselijke nieuwsgierigheid. Deze verschijnselen roepen vragen op die verder gaan dan de onmiddellijke mysterie: wat is de aard van hun oorsprong, welke technologieën schuilen erachter, en welke wetten van natuurkunde dragen hieraan bij? Door het stimuleren van basiswetenschappelijk onderzoek kunnen onderzoekers theoretische modellen toetsen, instrumenten verbeteren en lanceerbaar maken wat ooit als ongrijpbaar lag. In dit proces kan de mensheid stappen zetten op het gebied van data-analyse, beeldverwerking, radar- en optisch waarnemen, en zelfs artificiële intelligentie die patronen detecteert die met het blote oog onzichtbaar blijven.
De verkenning van UAP’s biedt bovendien kansen om technologieën te ontwikkelen die de toekomst van de mensheid kunnen vormgeven. Denk aan geavanceerde sensoren en communicatiemethoden die ons begrip van energie, materiaalapatiteit en systemen op grote schaal kunnen verbeteren. De resultaten kunnen doorwerken in ruimtevaarttechnologie, langeafstandscommunicatie en efficiënter energiebeheer op aarde.
Daarnaast heeft deze zoektocht het potentieel om internationale samenwerking te versterken. Gedeelde nieuwsgierigheid en de drang om de grenzen van menselijke kennis te verleggen vormen universele motivaties die landen kunnen samenbrengen, ongeacht politieke of culturele verschillen. Het besef dat we mogelijk niet alleen zijn in het universum kan een sterker gevoel van menselijk samenhorigheid creëren. Het kan leiders aansporen om gezamenlijk te investeren in onderzoek, data-uitwisseling en gezamenlijke missies, met respect voor ethische, juridische en veiligheidskaders. Uiteindelijk zou dit kunnen leiden tot een nieuw tijdperk van vredevolle wetenschappelijke samenwerking en een bredere, inclusieve kijk op onze plek in het kosmische geheel.
Zwart-wit afbeelding uit video verstrekt door het ministerie van Defensie, gelabeld Gimbal, uit 2015, een onverklaard object is in het midden te zien terwijl het wordt gevolgd terwijl het hoog langs de wolken zweeft en tegen de wind in reist. Witte cijfers zijn rond de rand van de afbeelding te zien.
bu.edu
De onbekende grens - Van ridicule naar ERNSTIG wetenschappelijk terrein
De reis van UFO-studies van onderwerp van spot naar serieuze wetenschap is opmerkelijk en transformerend. Wat ooit als louter entertainment, complotdenken of oppervlakkige curiositeit werd afgedaan, wint tegenwoordig aan legitimiteit dankzij systematische waarnemingen, methodische analyses en transparante rapportage. Met de medewerking van gerenommeerde onderzoeksinstellingen, universiteiten en onafhankelijke onderzoeksnetwerken, evenals voormalige ambtenaren die hun ervaring en documenten delen, maken we licht op een terrein dat lange tijd in de schaduw lag. Deze samenwerking creëert een unieke cross-over tussen astronomische observaties, luchtvaarttechniek, datawetenschap, informatica, neurowetenschap en sociaologie, waardoor het terrein niet langer in silo’s kan worden gedacht.
Wat we vandaag doen, gaat verder dan anekdotes of sensationele beelden. Het doel is om hypotheses te formuleren, waarnemingen te verifiëren en een robuuste methode te ontwikkelen voor het evalueren van bewijs. Dit vereist open data, reproduceerbare analyses en voorzichtige interpretatie, zodat misverstanden en gehechtheid aan verlangens worden vermeden. De betrokken onderzoekers erkennen de hoge drempel van bewijslast en de noodzaak om kritisch te blijven, terwijl ze tegelijk de potentieel revolutionaire aard van bevindingen onderkennen.
De implicaties zijn diepgaand en reiken verder dan de wetenschap zelf. Een bevestigd fenomeen van buitenaardse oorsprong of onbekende technologische principes zou kunnen leiden tot doorbraken in communicatie-technieken, aandrijvingstechnologie, ruimtelijke verkenning en zelfs materiaalwetenschap. Verder heeft de verschuiving invloed op onderwijs, beleidsvorming en publieke perceptie: een cultuur van nieuwsgierigheid en bewijsverwerving kan de manier waarop wij ons universum, onze oorsprong en onze toekomst bekijken, fundamenteel veranderen. De onbekende grens blijft een uitdagend maar boeiend terrein, waarin heden en toekomst elkaar ontmoeten op de rand van wat wij kennen en wat nog ontdekt moet worden.
Een optimistische noot - Vooruitgang in zes jaar tijd
Wat de toekomst ook brengt, één ding is zeker. In de afgelopen zes jaar is er meer vooruitgang geboekt in het begrijpen van het UFO-fenomeen dan in de zestig jaar daarvoor samen. Die constatering onderstreept niet alleen de snelheid van nieuwe ontdekkingen, maar ook de ernst en de toewijding waarmee wetenschappers, beleidsmakers en onderzoeksinstellingen het onderwerp benaderen. Er is sprake van een verschuiving van terughoudend scepticisme naar een open, transparante en kritische aanpak, waarin data, verificatie en reproducibiliteit centraal staan. Betrouwbare waarnemingen worden verzameld, geclassificeerd en geconsumeerd met steeds geavanceerdere instrumenten: geodesische radars, high-resolution videotechnologie, spectroscopie en longitudinale analyses die patronen en anomalieën in kaart brengen zonder vooroordelen.
De tijdlijn van deze ontwikkeling is inspirerend. Grote onderzoeksnetwerken, internationale samenwerking en publiek-private partnerschappen hebben geleid tot een rijkere databank en een betere standaardisatie van rapportage. Burgers, piloten en professionals worden aangemoedigd om waarnemingen te documenteren en te delen, wat een bredere basis biedt voor peer-review en aanknopingspunten voor vervolggroepen. Het onderwerp zelf wordt verweven met naast elkaar liggende disciplines zoals astronomie, wiskunde, informatica en cognitieve wetenschap, waardoor we niet alleen kunnen verklaren wat mogelijk is, maar ook hoe het menselijke begrip evolueert.
Dus, kijk omhoog naar de hemel: misschien ziet ook u iets buitengewoons. De boodschap is duidelijk: we bevinden ons aan de vooravond van een mogelijk revolutie in ons begrip van de ruimte, de technologie en de plek van de mens in het grote heelal. Een toekomst waarin nieuwsgierigheid, voorzichtigheid en samenwerking de richting bepalen.
Overwegingen voor een geïnformeerde burger
Data is cruciaal. Zonder betrouwbare, hoogwaardige waarnemingen blijft het gissen. De roep om systematische verzameling en openbaarheid van data is essentieel voor elke wetenschappelijke doorbraak. In een tijdperk waarin data exponentieel toenemen, is het van belang te beseffen dat de kwaliteit van besluitvorming direct afhankelijk is van de integriteit, representativiteit en controleerbaarheid van die data. Dit betekent het investeren in gestandaardiseerde meetmethoden, metadata over context en beperkingen expliciet vermelden, en het waarborgen van herhaalbaarheid door het delen van meetprotocollen, analysecode en ruwe datasets waar mogelijk. Daarnaast dienen privacy, veiligheid en ethische overwegingen te worden afgewogen, zodat maatschappelijke belangen niet uit het oog verloren worden. Transparante kwaliteitsborging, inclusief peer-review en onafhankelijke validatie, versterkt het vertrouwen van burgers in wat wordt gemeten en gerapporteerd.
Wetenschap werkt best met meerdere invalshoeken.Gegevens uit anekdotische getuigenissen kunnen aanwijzingen geven, maar de robuuste conclusies komen voort uit rigoureuze analyses, reproduceerbare waarnemingen en gecontroleerde hypothesetoetsingen. Diversiteit in methoden en perspectieven helpt biais te verminderen en maakt het mogelijk verschuivingen in kennis dynamisch bij te houden. Het is cruciaal om verschillende disciplines naast elkaar te laten fungeren: statistiek, experimenten, modelling, en kwalitatieve benaderingen kunnen elkaar aanvullen. Zo ontstaat een vollediger beeld dan uit één enkel paradigma. Communicatie over onzekerheden hoort daarbij: welke resultaten zijn robuust, welke onzekerheden blijven bestaan, en welke aannames lagen ten grondslag aan de conclusies?
Open debat en transparantie zijn noodzakelijk. De geschiedenis heeft geleerd dat verkramping en geheimhouding innovatie kunnen schaden. Een cultuur van verantwoorde onthulling kan leiden tot bredere publieke steun en saamhorigheid. Dit vergt duidelijke richtlijnen voor toegankelijkheid van data, open publicatiekanalen, en mechanismen voor kritiek en foutcorrectie. Ook moet er ruimte zijn voor maatschappelijke stemmen, zodat zorgen en vraagstukken uit de samenleving worden meegenomen in onderzoeksprioriteiten en interpretaties.
Internationale samenwerking kan van onschatbare waarde zijn. De grootste mysteries in de kosmos overstijgen landsgrenzen; samenwerking tussen naties kan leiden tot completere datasets en betere interpretatie. Gezamenlijke infrastructuren, gedeelde databanken en gestandardiseerde protocollen verrijken de kwaliteit en snelheid van wetenschappelijke vooruitgang. Bovendien helpt internationale samenwerking bij het voorkomen van verstoorde belangen, het delen van kosten en risico’s, en het vergroten van de legitimiteit van bevindingen op wereldschaal.
Beleidsmakers en wetenschappers hebben een gezamenlijke verantwoordelijkheid om de publieke fascinerende maar vaak misleidende verhalen te corrigeren en een evenwichtig beeld te schetsen van wat bekend is, wat onbekend is, en welke vragen nog onbeantwoord zijn. Door betrouwbare uitleg te bieden, onzekerheden helder te communiceren, en toegankelijk beleid te vormen dat gebaseerd is op actuele inzichten, kunnen zij het draagvlak versterken en maatschappelijke keuzes ondersteunen die gebaseerd zijn op feiten, ethiek en transparantie.
Een terugblik op het huidige moment
De verschuiving in houding ten opzichte van UFO’s weerspiegelt een bredere verandering in hoe de mensheid kennis benadert en onze plaats in het universum uitlegt. Het is geen kwestie van het onkritisch aanvaarden van elk spectaculair verslag als onbetwist waar, maar van het erkennen dat sommige verschijnselen serieus wetenschappelijk onderzoek verdienen en mogelijk de grens tussen klassieke wetenschap en mysterie kunnen overbruggen. Deze nuance is cruciaal, want zij opent de deur naar een meer genuanceerde vorm van nieuwsgierigheid: geen blind geloof, maar wel weloverwogen verbeelding en bereidheid om hypotheses te toetsen.
Het debat is daarmee minder polariserend en meer onderzoekend geworden. Wetenschappers, overheidsinstanties en onafhankelijke onderzoekers zoeken naar methodische data, transparante rapportage en reproduceerbare resultaten. Samenwerking over landsgrenzen heen speelt een steeds belangrijkere rol, omdat de complexiteit van observaties vaak om grootschalige infrastructuur, gedeelde technieken en vergelijkbare standaarden vraagt. Internationaal gecoordineerde initiatieven kunnen de valkuilen van forensische biases en fragmentarische informatie verminderen en zo een robuuster beeld opleveren.
Ongeacht of er uiteindelijk bewijs wordt gevonden voor buitenaardse intelligentie of niet, zal de inzet van rigoureuze wetenschappelijke methoden, systematische data-analyse en open wetenschappelijk debat de manier waarop wij denken over onszelf en ons universum blijvend veranderen. Het gaat niet alleen om wat er buiten ons waarnemingsbereik ligt, maar ook om een verdiept bewustzijn van de grenzen en mogelijkheden van menselijke kennis, en de bereidheid om die grenzen waar nodig te herdefiniëren.
Slotbeschouwing
In een tijd waarin de grenzen van de menselijke kennis voortdurend worden uitgedaagd, imponeert de geschiedenis van UFO-studies als een treffend symbol van hoe wetenschap en wonder, twijfel en redelijkheid met elkaar verweven raken. Het pad van randverschijnselen naar frontlinie-wetenschap is niet lineair en is doordrenkt van controverse, maar de recente ontwikkelingen laten een hernieuwde moed en toewijding zien bij onderzoekers, ingenieurs en beleidsmakers. Nieuwe meetinstrumenten, betere data-analyse en vruchtbare interdisciplinaire samenwerking hebben de mogelijkheid geboden om eerder onverklaarde waarnemingen op een systematische en reproduceerbare manier te benaderen. Tegelijkertijd roept dit thema vragen op over methodologie, transparantie en verificatie, die ons dwingen om staalhard te marmeren wat we weten en wat we nog moeten leren.
De toekomst biedt ons de belofte van een genuanceerder begrip van wat er in onze atmosfeer gebeurt en mogelijk zelfs verder daarbuiten. Dit kan leiden tot onverwachte mogelijkheden voor technologie en veiligheid, maar ook tot een herdefinitie van onze positie in het universum en een diepere waardering van onze gedeelde verantwoordelijkheid voor de planeet en haar bewoners. Eén ding blijft onveranderd: we zullen blijven zoeken, blijven kijken en blijven leren, ook wanneer twijfel de eerste reflex blijft. In die voortdurende speurtocht schuilt de ware kern van vooruitgang.
Tot slot: de oproep aan de lezer
Wanneer u ’s nachts naar de sterren kijkt, weet dan dat er een groeiende gemeenschap is van mensen die hetzelfde doen, met hetzelfde doel: begrip. Blijf nieuwsgierig, kritisch en verantwoordelijk. Deel kennis, stel vragen en laat wetenschappelijke principes leidend zijn in het gesprek. Misschien ziet u zelf ooit iets wat uw verbeelding tart en uw begrip van het universum uitbreidt. Als we samen blijven zoeken, misschien ontdekken we uiteindelijk niet alleen wat er in de lucht rijdt, maar wat het betekent om mens te zijn te midden van de onmetelijke en stille ruimte.
Learn all about the bizarre hollow Earth theory While you may have heard of the Flat Earth Society, and understand what they believe about the Earth's shape, have you ever heard of the hollow Earth theory? While the theory may have been rooted in science originally, it has since diverged to become something closer to science fiction. However, that hasn't stopped people from believing in it!
Want to find out more about the theory that's been around for more than 300 years? Click through the following gallery to learn all about the far-fetched hollow Earth theory.
What is the theory? The hollow Earth theory posits that we live on the outer layer of our planet, however the inside is hollow, and may be home to a completely different world.
What does this earth look like? The theory has led to many ideas about what this inner Earth would look like, including anything from vague references to luminous atmospheres to a lush tropical paradise with advanced species.
How did it come to be? While the hollow Earth theory actually came to be through a scientific hypothesis, the root of the idea has been around for thousands of years.
Ancient Greeks The Ancient Greeks believed that caverns in the Earth led to the underworld. They also believed in a place called Tartarus, located even deeper than the underworld. This would've been where Zeus imprisoned the Titans.
Celtics In Celtic mythology, a cave called Oweynagat was the gate to the underworld. Supposedly it is where fairies and demons lured mortals to their doom.
The Mandan people The Mandan people supposedly lived underground, but found out about the “Earth plain” when they climbed a vine out to the surface. After describing what they had seen, some of their people climbed the vine to the surface until it finally snapped. The legend suggests that many of the Mandan people are still left underground. The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, and have lived primarily in what is now North Dakota.
Trobriand Islands People from the Trobriand Islands, in Papua New Guinea, hold the belief that their ancestors came from a subterranean land by the name of "Obukula."
Chinese mythology The supposed realm of the dead in Chinese mythology, Diyu is made up of various subterranean caverns and chambers. The number of levels varies depending on Buddhist and Taoist interpretations.
Christianity And, of course, there is the idea of hell within Christianity, which is frequently referred to as a location “below” us, whereas heaven is up above.
From myth to science While the hollow Earth theory clearly has a basis within mythology and religion, it became its own scientific idea in the late 1600s.
Edmond Halley In 1692, astronomer Edmond Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) was a proponent of the idea of a hollow Earth from a more scientific perspective, suggesting that the Earth had inner shells, a core, and magnetic poles.
Magnetic field The reason for this assumption was the shifting of Earth’s magnetic field. He hypothesized that it was due to the Earth being made up of concentric circles, with a hollow space in the middle.
And there was life Not only did he posit that the center of the Earth was hollow, but he also suggested that there was life. He suggested that living things could exist between the concentric circles, and that there must be light between them.
Comparing them to apartments In support of this statement, Halley said: “We ourselves, in Cities where we are pressed for room, commonly build many Stories, one over the other, and thereby accommodate a much greater multitude of Inhabitants.”
Almost there While you may be looking at this theory as ridiculous, Halley was actually quite close to reality. The Earth is made up of layers, and we are on the outermost one (the crust). There is even some basis for the shifting of magnetic fields!
John Cleves Symmes Jr. Similarly to Halley, John Cleves Symmes Jr. also believed in a multi-layer world with a hollow core. The differentiation? We could enter this world through holes (pictured) at the North and South Pole. He even attempted to go to the North Pole himself.
Jeremiah Reynolds While Symmes never managed to create an expedition, Jeremiah Reynolds did. A newspaper editor, Reynolds was convinced by Symmes' theory and organized an expedition to Antarctica. Unfortunately, the ships never made it to their destination.
Concave hollow Earth There was also a theory, put forth by physician and alchemist Cyrus Teed, that we actually lived in the center of the hollow Earth. He created a cult called Koreshan Unity in the late 1800s based on the idea.
Schiehallion experiment The experiment measured the mean density of the Earth, thereby proving that it was too dense to be hollow. Hutton was one of the members involved.
Earthquakes Seismic waves also disprove a hollow Earth. The time it takes for seismic waves to move through the Earth is in contradiction to the concept of a completely hollow sphere.
The move to science fiction While this theory may sound straight out of a science fiction novel, in reality, the scientific theory came first! However, there have been many pieces of literature based around the idea of a hollow Earth.
‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ Jules Vernes’ 1864 novel was one of the first to discuss the idea of inner worlds (though Dante’s ‘Inferno’ did predate it). This novel opened up a new subgenre for science fiction writers.
‘The Goddess of Atvatabar’ Using Symmes’ interpretation of a hollow Earth, William R. Bradshaw created the world of Atvatabar. Entering through a Symmes hole (the entrance at the North Pole), Atvatabar is shown as an advanced society with many spiritual motifs.
Hollow Earth theorists today Despite the theory being disproved, there are still people who believe in the idea of a hollow Earth today. Many use conspiracy theories to justify the lack of evidence, suggesting that much of the information has been covered up.
The mysterious interstellar visitor streaking through our Solar Systemis just days away from revealing its true origins.
Harvard professor Avi Loeb told DailyMail.com that if the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is a comet, it should 'disintegrate into fragments' as it swings closest to the sun on October 29, 2025.
The European Space Agency's Jupiter probe will have a front-row seat, capturing the moment it either breaks apart or, as Loeb speculated, 'releases mini-probes as a technological mothership.'
'When a comet gets close to the sun, solar radiation heats its icy nucleus,' Loeb explained.
'Volatile ices like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or water sublimate directly into gas, carrying away dust and small rocks.
'This process can cause the comet to break apart if the mix of ice and dust cannot withstand the thermal stress.'
But if it does not, Loeb said, it could release 'a fleet of mini-probes to study multiple targets simultaneously.'
Loeb noted there is a 30 to 40 percent chance the object 'does not have a fully natural origin,' noting the possibility it is a 'Trojan Horse,' where a technological object masquerades as a comet.
Harvard professor Avi Loeb told DailyMail.com that if the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is a comet, it should 'disintegrate into fragments' as it swings closest to the sun on October 29, 2025
The ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) craft will have a view of the object when it comes 125 million miles from the planet and monitor it through November.
'During November and December, terrestrial observatories will also be able to monitor 3I/ATLAS and check whether it disintegrated like a natural comet or released mini-probes as a technological mothership,' Loeb explained.
While the professor believes there is a possibility it is of alien origin, NASA has long said the object is a natural comet.
Stargazers on social media shared color-enhanced images of the object, which showed the interstellar visitor having a green glow.
Loeb and many other scientists are anticipating the visitor's journey to the sun as it will finally put the mystery to rest.
3I/ATLAS will appear as a fuzzy ball of light in the blackness of space, and if it does disintegrate, the professor said it will break into independent, smaller dots of light.
'Comets disintegrate primarily as a result of heating by the sun, but sometimes also by gravitational tides and rotational stress from outgassing,' Loeb explained.
NASA released images of 3I/ATLAS as it soared past Mars on October 3, showing it as cylindrical-shaped. Stargazers on social media shared color-enhanced images of the object, which showed the interstellar visitor having a green glow
'The catastrophic breakup of a comet into multiple fragments is difficult to forecast without knowing its detailed composition and material strength.'
So far, ESA’s Mars orbiters have not spotted any verified fragments, only faint artifacts and noise, as 3I/ATLAS moves closer to the sun.
Some reports have claimed that mysterious objects have been spotted with 3I/ATLAS, but Loeb told Daily Mail that these are false.
'There are unrelated contemporary comets, background stars and images of the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, which appear in some images. But so far, no verified object branched off 3I/ATLAS,' the professor explained.
The object was first identified in July 2025 by the ATLAS telescope network, which looks for objects that might hit Earth.
Earlier images taken by the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile this summer had unknowingly photographed the object as well, but no one realized it was there at the time.
Two new AI models allow robots to perform complex, multistep tasks in a way that they couldn't previously.
(Image credit: Google DeepMind. Retrieved from Youtube.)
Google DeepMind has unveiled a pair of artificial intelligence(AI) models that will enable robots to perform complex general tasks and reason in a way that was previously impossible.
Earlier this year, the company revealed the first iteration of Gemini Robotics, an AI model based on its Gemini large language model (LLM) — but specialized for robotics. This allowed machines to reason and perform simple tasks in physical spaces.
The new models, dubbed Gemini Robotics 1.5 and Gemini Robotics-ER 1.5, greatly expand on the capabilities of the original version to handle multistep, "long-horizon" tasks and are a significant milestone towards robots assisting people in real-world use cases.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
Wagens van de Goden, Schepen aan de Hemel: Ongeïdentificeerde Luchtverschijnselen uit het Verleden
1561 hemels verschijnsel boven Neurenberg, afgebeeld in een geïllustreerd nieuwsbericht (door UFO-liefhebbers beschreven als een luchtgevecht van buitenaardse oorsprong en door sceptici beschouwd als een zonnespectakel)
Bron: Publiek Domein
Wagens van de Goden, Schepen aan de Hemel: Ongeïdentificeerde Luchtverschijnselen uit het Verleden
Inleiding
Al eeuwenlang beschrijven mensen glinsterende voorwerpen aan de hemel die niet eenvoudig te plaatsen zijn binnen de gangbare verklaringen. Sommige hemelverschijnselen zoals kometen, meteorenzwermen, boliden, aurora’s of zelfs aardbevingachtige bliksem — allemaal aspecten die vandaag de dag vaak begrijpelijk zijn — werden in het oude rijkdommen van verhalen en waarnemingen uitgebreid gerapporteerd. Tegenwoordig noemen we zo’n fenomeen Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). Sommigen denken aan buitenaardse oorsprong, anderen zien het als mysterieuze verschijnselen of als symbolen van maatschappelijke onrust. Het onderwerp trekt nog altijd aandacht, zowel in politieke kringen als in de wetenschappelijke wereld. De komende tekst probeert dit onderwerp vanuit een historisch perspectief te plaatsen: wat zinspeelden oude volkeren in hun stille uurtjes op tegen de lucht, en hoe raken die oude verhalen verweven met hedendaagse debatten over UAPs?
Oud historisch beeld - Tekenen van beroering
In de literatuur en in inscripties uit verschillende culturen verschijnen steeds weer scènes waarin onbekende of onverklaarbare verschijningen in de lucht als teken van maatschappelijke onrust en naderend onheil dienen. Een bekend voorbeeld uit de Bijbel is het boek Ezechiël, waarin de profeet spreekt over een goddelijke strijdwagen die heet gloeit en waarin vier levende wezens te zien zijn. Deze beelden lijken zowel menselijk als vreemd, met hun vier gezichten en vier vleugels. In vele culturen duiken soortgelijke motieven op: het beeld van voertuigen die door de hemel heen scheuren of die op een andere manier bovennatuurlijk licht uitstralen.
Giovanni Battista Fontana, De Visioen van Ezechiël, 1579.
(Publiek Domein)
Een andere rijke traditie komt uit de oude Indiase epische werken, de Mahābhārata en de Rāmāyana. In de hindoeïstische mythologie worden de vimāna’s genoemd: vliegende strijdwagens die de goden meevoeren naar de verste uithoeken van het universum. In vele mythen hollen goden in deze voertuigen door de ruimte en vervullen ze zowel dagelijkse als kosmische taken. In afbeeldingen en verhalen uit Azië zijn deze vimāna’s vaak afgebeeld als schitterende, indrukwekkende machines die snelheid en macht uitstralen. Ook hier wordt het beeld van de hemel als route en arena voor goddelijke daden afgebeeld.
Krishna en Rukmini als bruidegom en bruid in een hemelse wagen getrokken door Ganesha, India, Rajasthan, Bundi, 1675-1700.
(Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
In het Middellandse Zeegebied dragen historische keren een soortgelijke thematiek. In de Romeinse en Griekse literatuur duiken meldingen op van verschijnselen in de lucht die op de een of andere manier het klimaat van oorlog en macht weerspiegelen. Een voorbeeld uit de geschiedschrijving is de Romeinse historicus Livius, die beschreef hoe tijdens de Tweede Punische Oorlog “schepen schitterden aan de lucht” of als “grote vloot” in de hemel verschenen. Of het nu echte schepen waren, vreemde wolkenformaties of iets anders, de formulering beklemtoont een moment waarin de visuele wereld in de geschiedenis verweven raakt met ook de plek waar oorlog en macht plaatsvinden. Zulke beschrijvingen suggereren dat mensen altijd de lucht hebben geïnterpreteerd als een spiegel van wat in de aardse omgang plaatsvindt.
Een ander klassiek voorbeeld komt bij Plutarchus voor, in de Life of Lucullus. Wanneer de Romeinse legers tegenover koning Mithridates VI van Pontus stonden, werd een vreemd fenomeen aan de hemel waargenomen: het leek op een grote, vlamachtige bol die tussen de legers neerdaalde. Volgens Plutarchus had het object een vorm die leek op een wijnvat (pithos) en een kleur die leek op gesmolten zilver. De waarnemers schrokken en trok zich terug. Of dit nu een meteoriet betrof of iets anders, de beschrijving geeft aan dat het fenomeen zo’n impact had dat beide partijen het als een kwaadaardige voorteken zagen.
Een derde opmerkelijke getuigenis komt uit de Joods-Romijnse geschiedschrijving van Flavius Josephus. Gebeurtenissen rondom oorlogen tussen Romeinen en Joden roepen soms de indruk op van bovennatuurlijke verschijningen: “karren” of strijdkrachten schoten door de wolken terwijl er een reeks scherp beschreven gebeurtenissen in de lucht plaatsvond. Voor veel getuigen lijkt het alsof dergelijke verschijnselen de uitkomst van gevechten vooruitbellen of –zo niet – een teken vormden dat het lot troef had.
Een koning en zijn gevolg confronteren dames onder een hemelse strijd, Frans, circa 1600.
(Publiek domein)
Van middeleeuwen tot millenniumwisseling:
Het christelijke doembeeld en de evolutie van het begrip UAP Naar de overgang van oud naar middelbaar en daarna naar modern denken, verschuift de betekenis van dergelijke waarnemingen vaak van pure interpretatie naar een bredere zoölogie van angst en hoop. In de christelijke traditie kreeg de “shield of faith” van de apostel Paulus een symbolische plaats, terwijl “schepen die door de hemel varen” werden geïnterpreteerd als een metafoor voor de bescherming van de Kerk en zijn gelovigen. In de context van de middeleeuwse Ierse literatuur verschijnt het idee dat occultverschijnselen in de lucht een soort teken van de hemel zouden kunnen zijn, en zo wordt het een symbool van de veiligheid die de Kerk biedt.
Rond de millenniumwisseling groeit de belangstelling voor iets wat we vandaag UAPs noemen. De mensen in die tijd worstelen met de betekenis van het eind der tijden, en het teken van de hemel wordt opnieuw belicht in een modern jasje. In deze periode verschijnt ook een nieuwe vorm van beschouding: waarin men zoekt naar een rationele uitleg, maar waarin religie en mysterie nog steeds een belangrijke rol spelen. Het verhaal van talloze getuigen die met UAP’s te maken hebben, of die beweren religieuze formulering te vinden in wat ze waarnemen, blijft actueel. Voor velen biedt ufologie een manier om geloof en wetenschap samen te brengen: een plek waar zowel zingeving als objectieve verklaring mogelijk lijkt te zijn.
Een onverklaard object in een videobeeld geleverd door het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie, gelabeld als Gimbal, uit 2015.
(Ministerie van Defensie via AP)
Moderne duiding
Wat betekenen UAPs nu? Vandaag de dag lopen de interpretaties uiteen. De Amerikaanse belangstelling voor UAPs is onder andere ingegeven door verwerkte en eerder geheime beelden die uitlekken, maar ook door een beleg van een voormalige inlichtingenambtenaar die beweert dat de regering “off-world” technologie bezit. Tegelijkertijd concludeert een recente NASA-rapportage dat er geen bewijs is dat UAPs buitenaards van oorsprong zijn. De discussie draait om de vraag of dit soort waarnemingen wél een interessant venster openen op onze technologische vooruitgang, of dat ze vooral angst en onzekerheid teweegbrengen.
Toch is er een duidelijke continuïteit: mensen projecteren de onzekerheid van de eigen tijd op wat zich in de lucht afspeelt. Oude samenlevingen zagen krijgsdaden en goddelijke machten in de hemel, toen als voorteken van onheil, nu als indicatie van onbekende technologieën of onbekende motivaties. De spanning tussen interpretatie en verificatie blijft bestaan. Zelfs als we naheldere verklaringen vinden voor sommige verschijnselen — zoals meteorieten of atmosferische verschijnselen — blijft er ruimte voor interpretatie en verbeelding.
De menselijke neiging tot projectie op het onbekende Een belangrijke les uit de geschiedenis is dat UAP-achtige waarnemingen nooit uitsluitend een kwestie van “waar” of “niet waar” zijn. Ze reflecteren ook de staat van de maatschappij waarin ze voorkomen. Wanneer er onrust heerst, wanneer de machtsdynamiek verscherpt of wanneer grote toevloed van informatie plaatsvindt, worden verschijnselen in de lucht vaak geherinterpreteerd als tekenen van bredere sociale processen: onzekerheid over toekomst, angst voor verlies van controle, of hoop op een oplossing vanuit iets wat groter en machtiger lijkt.
Daarom kunnen we concluderen dat UAPs, zowel in het oude als in het moderne tijdperk, een venster bieden op menselijke zorgen. Ze tonen hoe mensen zoeken naar houvast en zingeving wanneer de wereld intensiever verandert dan ooit tevoren. Of uiteindelijk de objecten in de lucht nu al dan niet buitenaards zijn, de symboliek en de impact ervan spreken een universeel verhaal: de behoefte om onze crisis naar een hoger niveau te tillen, naar de hemel, naar het onbekende.
An unclassified sketch of a UAP from the CIA.
(Public Domain)
Qua uitleg: wat kunnen we vandaag als leerpunt meenemen?
Historische continuïteit: verschijnselen in de hemel zijn altijd gebruikt als symbolen van verandering en onzekerheid. Ze dienen als culturele spiegels waarin samenlevingen hun angsten en hoop projecteren.
Interpretatie voorop: de wijze waarop men een hemelverschijnsel beschrijft, zegt vaak iets over de tijd waarin het onderzoek plaatsvindt, meer dan over de oorsprong van het fenomeen zelf.
Wetenschap en geloof: ufologie kan functioneren als brug tussen geloof en wetenschap, een plek waar mensen zoeken naar een gecombineerde betekenis die beide dimensies erkent.
De rol van bewijs:in hedendaagse debatten blijven verificatie en transparantie cruciaal. Het uitlekken van beelden en de beschikbaarheid van data beïnvloeden publieke perceptie en beleidsbeslissingen.
Ancient Aliens | Chariots Of The Gods: 50th Anniversary | Full Documentary
Slotsom
Wij zien in de geschiedenis een duidelijke lijn: van Bijbelse en Indiase mythes tot moderne rapportages over UAPs, groeiende maatschappelijke belangstelling voor wat zich in de hoogte voltrekt. Of die verschijnselen uiteindelijk buitenaards zijn of niet, raakt ons vooral in ons menselijk vermogen om de wereld te interpreteren en onze toekomst te vormen. De oude waarnemers zochten naar tekenen, naar een taal die iets vertelde over hun tijd, en misschien ook een richting bood voor wat komen zou. Vandaag blijven we die drang voelen: een zoektocht naar verklaringen, maar ook naar betekenis. Soms lijken de objecten in de lucht ons te helpen begrijpen hoe dicht we bij het onbekende staan — en hoe hardnekkig onze behoefte is om orde te brengen in wat we zien.
Eindigen we met een gedachte die eeuwenlang overeind blijft: de mens blijft de hemel lezen als een kaart van zijn eigen zorgen en hoop. Of er nu kaartjes, strijdwagens of glanzende schepen aan de hemel verschijnen, onze reactie zal altijd gekleurd zijn door de tijd waarin we leven. De geschiedenis leert ons dat de lucht meer zegt over mensen dan over objecten daarboven. Het is een spiegel waarin we onszelf zien worstelen met onduidelijkheid, met onzekerheid, maar ook met de eeuwige behoefte aan begrip en richting. Zo blijft de fascinerende relatie tussen UAPs en menselijke ervaring ons wat te zeggen heeft over hoe wij ons plaatsen in het grote verhaal van de kosmos.
Out of all the amazing archaeological discoveries made each and every day around the world, my favorites have got to be those that emerge from the depths of the ocean. I think there is something about the underwater world that captures our imagination – perhaps it is the curiosity and intrigue about what else may lie beneath the surface, or the idea that entire cities may be hidden on the ocean floor, out of sight and out of reach. Fortunately, underwater discoveries are not always out of reach and every year more incredible findings are made thanks to advancing technology in the field of marine archaeology. Here we present ten remarkable marine discoveries that have captured our imagination.
1. Artifacts Retrieved From Site of First Ever Ancient Naval Battle
In November, 2013, archaeologists announced the recovery of a treasure trove of artifacts off the coast of Sicily from the site of the first ancient naval battle ever discovered, including battering rams, helmets, armor and weapons dating back 2,000 years.
Roman helmet from the Battle of the Egadi Islands.
They are the remnants of the Battle of the Egadi Islands - the last clash from the first Punic War which took place in 241 BC – in which the Romans fought the Carthaginians in a battle that culminated from more than 20 years of warring as the Romans struggled to gain a foothold in the Mediterranean Sea. While the Carthaginians were much more powerful on the water, the Romans lay in wait trapping the Carthaginians and blocking off their sea route in a sudden attack. Up to 50 Carthaginian ships were sunk, killing up to 10,000 men. The Roman victory set them on the road for Europe-wide domination. The priceless horde of artefacts had lain undisturbed on the seabed at a depth of 100 meters (328.08 ft) for more than two millennia.
2. 2,000-Year-Old Intact Roman Medicinal Pill Found In Submerged Shipping Vessel
In June, 2013, a team of Italian scientists conducted a chemical analysis on some ancient Roman medicinal pills discovered in the Relitto del Pozzino, a 2000-year-old submerged shipping vessel which sank off the coast of Tuscany, revealing what exactly the ancient Romans used as medicine.
A front, profile, and rear view of one of the medicinal tablets.
The Roman shipwreck lay near the remains of the Etruscan city of Populonia, which at the time the ship foundered was a key port along sea trade routes between the west and east across the Mediterranean Sea. The Relitto del Pozzino was excavated by the Archaeological Superintendence of Tuscany throughout the 1980s and 90s, revealing a variety of fascinating cargo including lamps originating in Asia minor, Syrian-Palestinian glass bowls, bronze jugs, ceramic vessels for carrying wine and, of particular interest, the remains of a medicine chest containing a surgery hook, a mortar, 136 wooden drug vials and several cylindrical tin vessels, one of which contained five circular medicinal tablets. The tin vessels had remained completely sealed, which kept the pills dry, providing an amazing opportunity to find out exactly what substances were contained within them. The results revealed that the pills contain a number of zinc compounds, as well as iron oxide, starch, beeswax, pine resin and other plant-derived materials. Based on their shape and composition, scientists have suggested that the tablets were used as a type of eye medicine.
3. Incredible Discovery Of Boat Wreck In Croatia Dated To 3,200 Years
In March 2014, marine archaeologist and researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, Giulia Boetto, announced the incredible discovery of a boat wreck in Zambratija Cove, Croatia, which was just dated to 1,200 BC. The unique and rare finding is a Bronze Age sewn boat, a type of wooden boat which is literally sewn together using ropes, roots, or willow branches.
Wreck of Zambratija, Istria. Observations on the hull.
The boat measures 7 meters (22.96 ft) in length and 2.5 meters (8.20 ft) in width and is a sewn boat, which was a technique of shipbuilding practiced in the Adriatic until the Roman era. The remains of the boat found in Zambratija Cove are incredibly well-preserved for its age, with stitching still visible in some areas and the frame largely undamaged. The different types of wood used to construct it have been identified as elm, alder, and fir, and tree ring dating is currently underway, which will provide the date the tree was cut to the nearest year. Ms. Boetto said that they hope to finalize a 3D model of the boat and, eventually, a complete reconstruction.
4. Elongated Skulls Found In Maya Underwater Cave
In January, 2014, a flooded sinkhole in southern Mexico that terrifies local villagers was explored by underwater archaeologists, who found the submerged cavern littered with elongated skulls and human bones. The underwater cavern, known as Sac Uayum, is a cenote located in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
A cenote is a natural pit resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. They were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings. Local legend says that the mysterious cavern is guarded by a feathered, horse-headed serpent. Older residents of the nearby village of Telchaquillo tell stories of people seeing the serpent perching in a tree, leaping up, spinning around three times, and diving into the water. From the first day of diving archaeologists discovered that there may be a very real reason why the villagers fear the place. It appears something terrible took place there and perhaps knowledge of this was passed down over the centuries leading to the development of myths and legends. The team identified more than a dozen human remains. The bones bear no marks that would indicate cause of death, so the people probably weren't sacrificed. According to the researchers, the elongated skulls were intentionally flattened during infancy, a practice that archaeologists are still seeking answers for.
5. Swedish Divers Find 11,000-Year-Old Underwater Relics
Swedish divers made a unique and rare discovery in the Baltic Sea – Stone Age artifacts left by Swedish nomads dating back 11,000 years. Researchers uncovered a number of remnants that are believed to have been discarded in the water by Swedes in the Stone Age, objects which have been preserved thanks to the lack of oxygen and the abundance of gyttja sediment, which is sediment rich in organic matter at the bottom of a eutrophic lake.
It is extremely rare to find evidence from the Stone Age so unspoiled. Buried 16 meters (52.49 ft) below the surface, the team uncovered wood, flint tools, animal horns and ropes. Among the most notable items found include a harpoon carving made from an animal bone, and the bones of an ancient animal called aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle, the last of which died off in the early 1600s. Archaeologists are continuing the dig, and are now particularly interested to see whether there is also an ancient burial site in the region.
6. Mysterious 10,000-Year-Old Underwater Ruins In Japan
On the southern coast of Yonaguni, Japan, lie submerged ruins estimated to be around 10,000 years old. The origin of the site is hotly debated - many experts argue that is man-made, while more other scientists insist it was carved out by natural phenomena.
The unique and awe-inspiring site was discovered in 1995 by a diver who strayed too far off the Okinawa shore and was dumb-struck when he stumbled upon the sunken arrangement of monolithic blocks "as if terraced into the side of a mountain". The site consists of huge stone blocks which fit together perfectly, right angled joins, carvings and what appear to be stairways, paved streets, crossroads and plazas. Despite the unusual features displayed at Yonaguni, there remains some scientists, such as Geologist Robert Schoch of Boston University, who have studied the formation and who are adamant that the large blocks formed naturally as a result of tectonic movement.
7. The Controversial Underwater Structures Of Zakynthos
In June 2013, Greek archaeologists announced an amazing finding – an ancient underwater city in the gulf of Alykanas in Zakynthos, Greece. According to the Underwater Antiquities Department, the discovery included huge public buildings, cobblestone paving, bases for pillars and other antiquities. Of particular significance were the 20 stone pillar bases, all of which feature a “34 cm diameter incision”, which were probably meant for wooden columns. Preliminary observations led to the conclusion that the remains belonged to a large ancient public building, probably belonging to an important settlement in the ancient city’s port. However, in a strange twist, a study released in December claimed that the ‘artifacts’ are not remnants of an ancient city at all, but simply a unique natural phenomenon.
Disc and doughnut-shaped structures appeared to be architectural remnants of a city, but scientific analysis showed the formations to actually be a naturally occurring geological phenomenon.
8. The Perfectly Preserved Ancient Chinese Underwater City
The Lion City, otherwise known as Shi Cheng, is an ancient submerged city that lies at the foot of Wu Shi Mountain (Five Lion Mountain), located beneath the spectacular Qiandao Lake (Thousand Island Lake) in China. Officials have taken a renewed interest in the sunken city since discovering it in February 2014, that despite more than 50 years underwater, the entire city has been preserved completely intact, transforming it into a virtual time capsule.
The Lion city in China, similar to the lost city of Atlantis.
The Lion City was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 – 200 AD) and was once the center of politics and economics in the eastern province of Zhejiang. But in 1959, the Chinese government decided a new hydroelectric power station was required - so it built a man-made lake, submerging Shi Cheng under 40 meters (131.23 ft) of water. The Lion City lay undisturbed and forgotten for 53 years, until Qiu Feng, a local official in charge of tourism, decided to see what remained of the city under the deep waters. He was amazed to discover that, protected from wind, rain, and sun, the entire city complete with temples, memorial arches, paved roads, and houses, was completely intact, including wooden beams and stairs.
9. The 5,000-Year-Old Sunken City In Southern Greece
In the Peloponnesus region of southern Greece there is a small village called Pavlopetri, where a nearby ancient city dating back 5,000 years resides. However, this is not an ordinary archaeological site, the city can be found about 4 meters (3.12 ft) underwater and is believed to be the oldest known submerged city in the world. The city is incredibly well designed with roads, two story houses with gardens, temples, a cemetery, and a complex water management system including channels and water pipes.
In the center of the city, was a square or plaza measuring about 40x20 meters ( 131.23 x 65.61 ft) and most of the buildings have been found with up to 12 rooms inside. The design of this city surpasses the design of many cities today. The city is so old that it existed in the period that the famed ancient Greek epic poem ‘Iliad’ was set in. Research in 2009 revealed that the site extends for about 9 acres and evidence shows that it had been inhabited prior to 2800 BC. Scientists estimate that the city was sunk in around 1000 BC due to earthquakes that shifted the land. However, despite this and even after 5,000 years, the arrangement of the city is still clearly visible and at least 15 buildings have been found. The city’s arrangement is so clear that the head of the archaeological team, John Henderson of the University of Nottingham, and his team, have been able to create what they believe is an extremely accurate 3D reconstruction of the city.
The underwater remains and the digitally reconstructed pillars and walls of one of the buildings.
10. Ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion - on the border between myth and reality
The city of Heracleion, home of the temple where Cleopatra was inaugurated, plunged into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago. It was one of the most important trade centers in the region before it sank more than a millennium ago. For centuries, the city was believed to be a myth, much like the city of Atlantis is viewed today. But in 2001, an underwater archaeologist searching for French warships stumbled across the sunken city. After removing layers of sand and mud, divers uncovered the extraordinarily well preserved city with many of its treasures still intact including, the main temple of Amun-Gerb, giant statues of pharaohs, hundreds of smaller statues of gods and goddesses, a sphinx, 64 ancient ships, 700 anchors, stone blocks with both Greek and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions, dozens of sarcophagi, gold coins and weights made from bronze and stone.
The team discovered a sunken statue of a pharaoh on the Mediterranean sea floor near the great temple of ancient Heracleion.
The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) told us of a great temple that was built where the famous hero Heracles first set foot on to Egypt, and was named after him. He also reported of Helen of Troy’s visit to Heracleion with her lover Paris before the Trojan War. More than four centuries after Herodotus’ visit to Egypt, the geographer Strabo observed that the city of Heracleion, which possessed the temple of Herakles, is located straight to the east of Canopus at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the River Nile. However, until its discovery, Heracleion was just a place of legends.
Top image: Divers studying various underwater discoveries.
Is there life beyond the stars? This is one of those questions that have existed for centuries, and intrigued societies and great thinkers from the dawn of civilization. “Surely there is someone else out there in the distance,” they thought, and spoke in hushed tones about the mysteries that they could not explain. And so, generation by generation, century by century, the myths of the aliens remained, until a quite peculiar theory was born - the theory of the ancient aliens. Its adherents claim that extraterrestrial beings do exist, and that they visited our planet at the dawn of mankind, influencing its development and creating many ancient relics whose provenance cannot be explained today. These enduring mysteries are a dividing wedge between the scientific world and those who believe in something beyond the stars. But at the end of the day, is there truth to these beliefs?
The theory of ancient aliens remains quite popular, even in our modern age when we think we have answers for many things around us. Ancient alien theorists claim that there is ample evidence of extraterrestrial visitations, scattered throughout human history. They point out mysterious artifacts, stunning architectural wonders, and traditional myths that - in their view - cannot be explained by the capabilities of ancient societies and civilizations.
But there are many who oppose these ideas, always siding with mainstream society, urging people to observe things from an empirical point of view - if there isn’t sufficient evidence to support it, the theory should be disregarded.
And then there are those who go to the extremes, claiming that we are a freak of nature, and are the only living beings in the universe, and that the places beyond the stars are simply barren.
And so the war of views continues. It has been going on for many decades now. The ancient aliens theory and the concept of extraterrestrials visiting ancient peoples gained major popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. Controversial authors such as Erich von Däniken popularized the idea during this decade. Däniken’s best-selling book, “Chariots of the Gods?”, published in 1968, became a major hit and the theory quickly gained many adherents. The author proposed that many of the world’s best-known wonders are linked to extraterrestrial visitations, such as the enormous Naza Lines in Peru, the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Stonehenge in England, and many others. Without direct proof that they were built by humans - and without an explanation how they would do it in the first place - Däniken quickly pinned them on the aliens.
Following the release of this book, the ancient alien theory gained momentum. Further books, such as “Gods from Outer Space” and “The Gods Were Astronauts”, as well as a number of documentaries, movies, and popular series all gave their own distinct views on these theories. In time, the theory incorporated claims that not only great structures were alien-made, but also religions, mythologies, and many innovations in history. And most of all, the theory posits that the Gods of ancient civilizations were actually alien beings, misinterpreted as deities by the primitive humans. And so came to be the theory of ancient aliens.
But can it be proven?
Is There Evidence of Ancient Aliens?
Those who staunchly believe that our distant ancestors came face-to-face with beings from outer space often point to what they consider compelling evidence that this is, in fact, true. However, this evidence is often based on the interpretation of texts, ancient artifacts, and major architectural feats. One evidence that they offer is the collection of Nazca Lines in Peru. These enormous geoglyphs, situated in the deserts of southern Peru, can only be seen from a great height. Those believing in ancient aliens claim that these lines were created as “landing strips” or messages for extraterrestrial visitors, exactly because they can only be seen from the air. Could the ancient Nazca people have observed spacecraft high above them, leaving these drawings as a message?
And, of course, the unexplained architectural marvels are always offered as clear evidence of alien visitation. For example, the site of Puma Punku in Bolivia is always mentioned. It is made of enormous stone blocks, some of which weigh well over 100 tons, all of which were carved with incredible precision and fitted precisely without the use of mortar. How was such precision achieved? These theorists say that the stones could not be carved like that, not without the use of very advanced machinery and technology, which could have only arrived from beyond the stars.
Without a doubt, the myths of the Anunnaki are the most frequently offered evidence of extraterrestrial ancients. These ancient Sumerian texts speak of the so-called Anunnaki, a group of deities described as arriving on Earth to create humanity. Ancient alien theorists propose that this is the unopposable evidence that extraterrestrials genetically engineered humans for their own purposes and pushed forward the formation of the world’s first civilizations.
Akkadian cylinder seal dating to circa 2300 BC depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, and Enki, three members of the Anunnaki.
The same goes for the Great Pyramids of Giza, which are usually the first to pop-up in talks of ancient aliens. The sheer size, perfect alignment with the cardinal directions, and incredible precision with which it was made and aligned with the celestial bodies, could have only been achieved with extraterrestrial assistance.
Science v. Belief: Who Wins?
The ancient alien theory became a proper trend in the recent years, but even so modern science continues to adamantly discredit it, unconvinced. Most scholars simply dismiss these claims, pointing out that they were built upon misinterpretation of evidence, misunderstanding, and underestimating our ancestors. A key counter argument to these theories is simply human ingenuity and ability. Archaeologists have long pointed out that our ancestors were not as primitive or clueless as we might think, and when presented with ample time and workforce, they could have achieved some truly stunning achievements. Are we simply underestimating them?
Many engineers and archaeologists stepped forward and demonstrated the construction techniques that were used to build many ancient structures, such as Stonehenge or megaliths. They all agree that such structures were well within the capabilities of ancient societies. Even though they used rudimentary materials and tools, they were still capable of organizing a massive workforce for their projects and coming up with innovative methods that would make their work easier and feasible.
Sunrise at Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005.
Scholars also try to provide a logical interpretation and explanation of the texts and myths that are commonly seen as connected to aliens. For example, they argue that many of the ancient religious and mythical texts are symbolic or metaphorical, and not literal descriptions of events. And many of the similarities that are shared amongst ancient cultures, such as their ideas, myths, beliefs, gods, and art, are not necessarily explained by extraterrestrial meddling. Instead, we can safely conclude that they were spread through cultural diffusion, through migration, trade, and conquest. There is also the independent invention of the same thing - in completely different cultures. This explains the appearance of pyramids in many ancient civilizations: this is a common architectural form that advanced cultures could have “invented” without anyone’s intervention.
Skepticism and Inquiry
To those who teeter at the edge, not knowing what to believe at the end of the day, it is crucial to offer advice. Sure, the idea of ancient alien visitors and superior high-tech innovations in the neolithic is definitely captivating. But it should still be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, such extraordinary claims require equally extraordinary evidence. However, much of the evidence that ancient alien theorists provide is rooted in speculation, conjecture, assumption, or free interpretation. And it always ends on the note that our ancestors were simply incapable of achieving any great feats, even when presented with ample time and many laborers.
But it is important to note that science bases everything on evidence - and truth is its only driving force. Repeatedly it has proven many things from our history and given explanations for many things that we previously had no knowledge on. From the secrets of the universe to the relics of our past, science seemingly pierced every mystery. But some evidence simply does not exist, even in the scientific world. And that is the evidence that extraterrestrials exist, and that they visited planet Earth in the past.
In the ongoing clash between the scientific world and the adherents of the ancient alien theory, the former always urges the latter to view our ancestors in a different light. To give credit where credit is due, and to understand that ancient humans were great thinkers, and observed the nature around them in a logical and innovative way, which allowed them to come up with many great inventions and creations. The Baghdad battery, the Antikythera mechanism, the hydraulics, navigation, sailing - the list of ancient achievements is never-ending, and the idea of extraterrestrial involvement is completely unnecessary in any of them. That is simply because those that came before us were not so feeble after all.
“If we want to set out on the arduous search for the truth, we must all summon up the courage to leave the lines along which we have thought until now and as the first step begin to doubt everything that we previously accepted as correct and true. Can we still afford to close our eyes and stop up our ears because new ideas are supposed to be heretical and absurd?”
― Erich von Däniken, Chariots of The Gods
When there is something which we cannot explain, we cannot understand, or cannot comprehend at all, we often reach for the stars to find the answers, as if all the truth of the world lies in that distant space. And yet, the answers never come - only speculation, only daydreams, and only imagination. The scientific world fires back with its factual data, the sheer evidence, and the unearthed, tangible history. In it, there are never extraterrestrials. There are only the achievements of mankind, fueled by natural knowledge gathered for hundreds of thousands of years before the emergence of the first civilizations.
Yet even so, there are those things from history that not even science can confirm or explain. There are those creations that defy all sense of reason and logic, leaving us neither amongst the stars nor on the hard ground - but somewhere in between. Where, then, do we search for answers, if not in the great beyond?
Top image: AI image of a flying saucer coming out from clouds on pyramids.
According to research by the British neurophysiologist Peter Fenwick, near-death experiences (NDEs) occur in approximately “10% of people who come close to death, or who survive actual clinical death.”
Tens of thousands of accounts have been collected by researchers in the nearly fifty years since the study of NDEs became formalized. Reports are found in both technologically advanced civilizations and in small-scale societies, from ancient times to modern times, in all parts of the world, appearing variously in religious, literary, anthropological, scientific, and medical literature.
While even the most skeptical of researchers acknowledge that there are a number of typical sub-experiences that make up the NDE, they do not always agree on what they are. Various attempts to define the experience by identifying the most consistently recurring elements have not proven wholly successful.
The American psychologist Kenneth Ring, for example, defined the core experience as feelings of peace and well-being, out-of-body experience (OBE), entering darkness, seeing bright light, and entering the light—excluding highly recurrent elements such as meeting other deceased individuals and reaching a border or limit. Others have reduced the supposedly universal core to but two elements, though these differ depending on the researcher: the British philosopher of religion Mark Fox suggested simply darkness and light; the American sociologist James McClenon isolated “seeing other beings and other realms”; while the Australian sociologist Allan Kellehear highlighted journeying to other worlds (usually an idealized mirror image of Earth) and meeting fellow spirits.
Kellehear also pointed out, however, that the OBE may be taken for granted in almost all descriptions, for NDE’ers do not claim that their experiences occurred in the physical body.
Other commonly reported features are “the subjective sense of being dead,” “beautiful colors,” hearing others discuss one’s own death, a loud noise, feelings of joy, a sense of profound wisdom or universal understanding, heightened senses and clarity, the impression of having an ethereal body, acceleration of time and thought, precognition and clairvoyance, telepathic communication with other spiritual beings, a sense of belonging or that one has returned “home,” a life review accompanied by a sense of moral evaluation or self-judgment, being instructed or deciding to return, returning (often reluctantly), and positive effects on the life of the NDE’er.
Heavenly painting from 1504 by Hieronymous Bosch, entitled ‘Ascent of the Blessed’.
Perhaps the most useful way of thinking about the experience is that of the American theologian Carol Zaleski, who characterized the NDE as “a catalogue of assorted motifs.” To redefine the “core” of the experience as a changeable collection of possible elements, drawn upon differently by different individuals to comprise the overall experience, prevents the imposition of structure and order where none may exist. It also allows for a purely descriptive consideration of the NDE, because we shouldn’t judge an account based on its content, or whether it measures up to some hypothetical (and mythical) prototype. Instead, we should judge by its context—that is, whether or not the individual was considered to be temporarily dead or near death and reported having undergone various spiritual episodes prior to revival. The nature of those experiences will always vary. In other words, our popular stereotypes about what NDEs are like are not always accurate.
The NDE: Truth or Illusion?
The issue of whether the NDE constitutes evidence for survival after physical death is separate from the question of their impact on beliefs, though it is relevant to the metaphysical theories discussed in chapter 11 of my new book, Near-Death Experience in Ancient Civilizations.
The most comprehensive attempt to explain the NDE in materialist terms has been by the British psychologist Susan Blackmore, who claims that it is the hallucinatory result of a combination of psychological and neurophysiological events and processes of the dying brain.
Painting from 1894 by Finnish artist Anna Sahlsten, entitled ‘Passage,’ showing the spirit leaving the body of a deceased woman.
Such perspectives have been criticized for a priori reductionism and for being dismissive of the aspects of NDEs that they cannot explain. There are numerous claims of evidential out-of-body experiences, in which NDE’ers report having seen and heard things while clinically dead—and from places or perspectives impossible from the vantage point of their bodies—that were later independently verified. There are reports of children encountering deceased relatives they had never met and of NDE’ers who discover the death of a friend or relative by meeting them during the NDE. There are even some claims of visions of the future that are later verified. While impressive, such claims are technically anecdotal and without empirical replication in laboratory settings—a criterion for widespread acceptance in the scientific community.
Metaphysical interpretations of the NDE—by which we mean ideas and concepts beyond observable physical reality—have been criticized for a perceived lack of scientific logic and for not being based on evidence gathered in rigorous, controlled testing. However, Fenwick stresses the significance of the fact that NDEs in cardiac arrest cases can occur when the pateint has a flat EEG reading, when there is “no possibility of the brain creating images” and “no brain-based memory functioning,” meaning that “it should be impossible to have clearly structured and lucid experiences.”
These arguments have apparently been bolstered by the research of the British resuscitation expert Sam Parnia. He seems to have shown that consciousness can persist when no brain activity is detectable, actually during the period of clinical death prior to revival. One of his cardiac patients accurately described his own resuscitation, which he claimed to have witnessed while out of body, including the sound of a defibrillator machine. This allowed researchers to pinpoint the time of the event as having occurred during his temporary “death.” In a study conducted in a Welsh hospital, intensive care nurse Penny Sartori found that only patients who had OBEs could accurately describe the process of their resuscitation.
AI-generated image of a man rising to heaven after death.
Whatever the case, in this book we seek neutral ground, adopting the position that whatever their nature, NDEs are part of human experience. This is attested by the fact that accounts of them are found around the world and throughout history. NDEs are not determined by culture, religion, sex, age, or other demographic factors. Though individuals may be influenced by “imagery and metaphor” in popular and religious culture, it has been found that prior knowledge of the NDE actually decreases the likelihood of having one. Nor is there any significant difference between Western NDEs reported before and after 1975, when the phenomenon was popularized and the term coined by the American psychiatrist Raymond Moody.
Near-death experiences in children are largely consistent with those of adults, further demonstrating that it is not mainly a matter of cultural conditioning (though, of course, children are not free of cultural influences—even cartoons can feature afterlife and OBE imagery). NDEs also occur in congenitally blind individuals who nevertheless report visualperception during the experience.
Dr. Raymond Moody, one of the preeminent researchers into the near-death experience, at a workshop in Paris in 2017. Ehabich/CC BY-SA 4.0).
Near-Death Experiences Across Cultures
The issue of universality is controversial in near-death studies, with some researchers emphasizing cross-cultural difference at the expense of similarity.
For example, in his assessment of perhaps the earliest Western NDE account that explicitly claims to be factual (that of Cleonymous of Athens in around 310 BCE), the Dutch historian Jan Bremmer writes that the only similarity between the account and modern NDEs is a “feeling of drifting away.” This is despite clear references to typical NDE elements such as OBE, meeting deceased relatives, moral evaluation assisted by mystical or divine beings, and clairvoyance.
Likewise, in their study of Chinese NDEs, the physicians Feng Zhi-ying and Liu Jian-xun interpreted some common NDE elements as being inconsistent with the (hypothetical) Western model because the descriptions were influenced by cultural and individual idiosyncrasies. For example, sensations of weightlessness and “feeling estranged from the body” must surely be equated with the OBE. “Unusually vivid thoughts,” a feeling that thought has accelerated, a sense of peace and euphoria, and a life review are all standard NDE elements that were reported by their subjects.
Funerary marble base from ancient Greece (410-400 BC), showing scenes of the afterlife in the Elysian Fields, where according to ancient tradition the blessed dead enjoyed the golden fruits.
Similarly, the American Buddhist and neuroscientist Todd Murphy writes that there is no being of light in Thai NDEs—despite reports of the Buddha appearing as a star and of encounters with “spiritual lights.” He also states that Thai NDE’ers do not report feelings of bliss, ecstasy, peace, and the like, but rather “pleasantness, comfort, a sense of beauty and happiness.”
Rather than seeing these as analogous emotional states, he sees discontinuity. Even encounters with deceased friends and relatives are classed as dissimilarities because they don’t specifically greet the NDE’ers, but rather instruct them. Murphy’s conclusion that “accounts of Western NDEs would seem to be useless in helping Thais know what to expect at their deaths” is not supported by the Thai references to OBE, traveling in spiritual form to another realm, life review with moral evaluation, encounters with divine and mystical presences, positive emotions, transcendent feelings and an impression of knowing “all the truths of the universe,” visions of the future, deceased relatives, and being instructed to return.
Top image: Deceased person entering the tunnel with the white light at the end that is so frequently reported during near-death experiences.
However, rather embarrassingly for the preachers who predicted it, the supposed End of Days has now come and gone without incident.
Now, experts have revealedwhat the apocalypse will really look like.
And the bleak reality of human extinction is far more depressing than any story of Biblical annihilation.
From the deadly threat of rogue AI or nuclear war to the pressing risk of engineered bio–weapons, humans themselves are creating the biggest risks to our own survival.
Dr Thomas Moynihan, a researcher at Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, told Daily Mail: 'Apocalypse is an old idea, which can be traced to religion, but extinction is a surprisingly modern one, resting on scientific knowledge about nature.
'When we talk about extinction, we are imagining the human species disappearing and the rest of the universe indefinitely persisting, in its vastness, without us.
'This is very different from what Christians imagine when they talk about Rapture or Judgement Day.'
While TikTok evangelists predicted the rapture would come this week, apocalypse experts say that human life is much more likely to be destroyed by our own actions than any outside force - such as nuclear war
(AI–generated impression)
Nuclear war
Scientists who study the destruction of humanity talk about what they call 'existential risks' – threats that could wipe out the human species.
Ever since humans learned to split the atom, one of the most pressing existential risks has been nuclear war.
During the Cold War, fears of nuclear war were so high that governments around the world were seriously planning for life after the total annihilation of society.
The risk posed by nuclear war dropped after the fall of the Soviet Union, but experts now think the threat is spiking.
However, the worrying prospect is that humanity could actually be wiped out by only a tiny fraction of these weapons.
The nine nations with nuclear weapons currently hold 12,331 nuclear warheads, which could lead to millions of deaths (AI–generated impression)
The five most likely causes of human extinction
Rogue AI
Nuclear war
Engineered bioweapons
Climate change
Natural disasters or asteroid strike
Dr Moynihan says: 'Newer research shows that even a relatively regional nuclear exchange could lead to worldwide climate fallout.
'Debris from fires in city centres would loom into the stratosphere, where it would dim sunlight, causing crop failures.
'Something similar led to the demise of the dinosaurs, though that was caused by an asteroid strike.'
Studies have shown that a so–called 'nuclear winter' would actually be far worse than Cold War predictions suggested.
Using modern climate models, researchers have shown that a nuclear exchange would plunge the planet into a 'nuclear little ice age' lasting thousands of years.
Reduced sunlight would plunge global temperatures by up to 10˚C (18˚F) for nearly a decade, devastating the world's agricultural production.
Meanwhile, a global nuclear war would kill 360 million civilians immediately and lead to the starvation of 5.3 billion people in just two years following the first explosion.
Even a limited nuclear exchange could plunge the world into a 'little nuclear ice age' which would drop global temperatures by 10°C (18°F) for thousands of years (AI–generated impression)
Dr Moynihan says: 'Some argue it's hard to draw a clear line from this to the eradication of all humans, everywhere, but we don't want to find out.'
Engineered bioweapons
Just like the threat of nuclear arms, another likely way that humanity could come to an end is through the release of an engineered bioweapon.
Since 1973, when scientists created the first genetically modified bacteria, humanity has been steadily increasing its capacity to make deadly diseases.
These man–made diseases pose a significantly greater threat to our existence than anything found in nature.
Otto Barten, founder of the Existential Risk Observatory, told the Daily Mail: 'We have a lot of experience with natural pandemics, and these have not led to human extinction in the last 300,000 years.
'Therefore, although natural pandemics remain a very serious risk, this is very likely not going to cause our complete demise.
'However, man–made pandemics might be engineered specifically to maximise effectiveness, in a way that doesn't occur in nature.'
Natural pandemics are unlikely to lead to human extinction, but genetically engineered variants could be much more deadly (AI–generated impression)
Experts are concerned that the tools needed to engineer deadly pathogens are becoming more accessible and could fall into the wrong hands (AI–generated impression)
Currently, the means to create such deadly diseases are limited to a handful of states that wouldn't benefit from unleashing a deadly plague.
However, scientists have warned that improving technologies like AI mean that this ability is likely to fall into the hands of more and more people.
If terrorists gain the ability to create deadly bioweapons, they could release a pathogen that would spread wildly out of control and eventually lead to humanity's extinction.
What would be left behind would be a world that looks like it does now, but with all traces of living humans wiped away.
Dr Moynihan adds: 'Extinction is, in this way, the total frustration of any kind of moral order; again, within a universe that persists, silently, without us.'
Rogue artificial intelligence
Experts currently believe that the biggest danger humanity is creating for itself is artificial intelligence.
Scientists who study existential risk think there is anywhere between a 10 and 90 per cent chance that humanity will not survive the advent of superintelligent AI.
One of the biggest risks to humanity is the creation of a rogue AI which becomes 'unaligned' with humanity's interests (AI–generated impression)
What is a rogue AI?
Some AI experts are concerned that AI might soon reach a state called superintelligence, meaning it is more intelligent than the combined efforts of all humans.
Once this happens, the AI might start to develop its own goals.
If those goals don't align with what humans want, this is called an unaligned or 'rogue' AI.
A rogue AI might not be openly hostile to humans, but if humanity's extinction is more convenient for its goals, it could eliminate all living humans.
The big concern is that a sufficiently intelligent AI will become 'unaligned', meaning its goals and ambitions will cease to line up with the interests of humanity.
Dr Moynihan says: 'If an AI becomes smarter than us and also becomes agential — that is, capable of conjuring its own goals and acting on them.'
If an AI becomes agentic, it doesn't even need to be openly hostile to humans for it to wipe us out.
When an agentic AI has a goal that differs from what humans want, the AI would naturally see humans turning it off as a hindrance to that goal and do everything it can to prevent that.
The AI might be totally indifferent to humans, but simply decides that the resources and systems that keep humanity alive would be better used pursuing its own ambitions.
Experts don't know exactly what those goals might be or how the AI might try to pursue them, which is exactly what makes an unaligned AI so dangerous.
'The problem is that it's impossible to predict the actions of something immeasurably smarter than you,' says Dr Moynihan.
'It's hard to imagine how we could anticipate, intercept, or prevent the AI's plans to implement them.'
Experts aren't sure how an AI would chose to wipe out humanity, which is what makes them so dangerous - but it could involved usurping our own computerised weapons or nuclear launch systems (AI–generated impression)
Is climate change an existential risk?
Existential risk experts say that climate change could lead to human extinction, but that this is extremely unlikely.
The only way climate change could kill every human on Earth is if global warming continues to be much stronger than scientists currently predict.
The bigger risk is that climate change might exacerbate other risks.
For example, climate change will lead to food shortages and displace millions of climate refugees as parts of the world become uninhabitable.
That could lead to conflicts, which could escalate into nuclear war.
Another big issue is that experts don't know exactly how an AI might go about wiping out humanity.
Some experts have suggested that an AI might take control of existing weapon systems or nuclear missiles, manipulate humans into carrying out its orders, or design its own bioweapons.
However, the scarier prospect is that AI might destroy us in a way we literally cannot conceive of.
Dr Moynihan says: 'The general fear is that a smarter–than–human AI would be able to manipulate matter and energy with far more finesse than we can muster.
'Drone strikes would have been incomprehensible to the earliest human farmers: the laws of physics haven't changed in the meantime, just our comprehension of them.
'Regardless, if something like this is possible, and ever does come to pass, it would probably unfold in ways far stranger than anyone currently imagines. It won't involve metallic, humanoid robots with guns and glowing scarlet eyes.'
Climate change
Mr Barten says: 'Climate change is also an existential risk, meaning it could lead to the complete annihilation of humanity, but experts believe this has less than a one in a thousand chance of happening.'
In an unlikely but terrifying scenario, a runaway greenhouse effect could cause all water on Earth to evaporate and escape into space, leaving the planet dry and barren (AI–generated impression)
However, there are a few unlikely scenarios in which climate change could lead to human extinction.
For example, if the world becomes hot enough, large amounts of water vapour could escape into the upper atmosphere in a phenomenon known as the moist greenhouse effect.
There, intense solar radiation would break the water down into oxygen and hydrogen, which is light enough to easily escape into space.
At the same time, water vapour in the atmosphere would weaken the mechanisms which usually prevent gases from escaping.
This would lead to a runaway cycle in which all water on Earth escapes into space, leaving the planet dry and totally uninhabitable.
The good news is that, although climate change is making our climate hotter, the moist greenhouse effect won't kick in unless the climate gets much hotter than scientists currently predict.
The bad news is that the moist greenhouse effect will almost certainly occur in about 1.5 billion years when the sun starts to expand.
Elon Musk wants to push technology to its absolute limit, from space travel to self-driving cars — but he draws the line at artificial intelligence.
The billionaire first shared his distaste for AI in 2014, calling it humanity's 'biggest existential threat' and comparing it to 'summoning the demon'.
At the time, Musk also revealed he was investing in AI companies not to make money but to keep an eye on the technology in case it gets out of hand.
His main fear is that in the wrong hands, if AI becomes advanced, it could overtake humans and spell the end of mankind, which is known as The Singularity.
That concern is shared among many brilliant minds, including the late Stephen Hawking, who told the BBC in 2014: 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.
'It would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate.'
Despite his fear of AI, Musk has invested in the San Francisco-based AI group Vicarious, in DeepMind - which has since been acquired by Google - and OpenAI, creating the popular ChatGPT program that has taken the world by storm in recent months.
During a 2016 interview, Musk noted that he and OpenAI created the company to 'have democratisation of AI technology to make it widely available'.
Musk founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, the company's CEO, but in 2018 the billionaire attempted to take control of the start-up.
His request was rejected, forcing him to quit OpenAI and move on with his other projects.
In November, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which became an instant success worldwide.
The chatbot uses 'large language model' software to train itself by scouring a massive amount of text data so it can learn to generate eerily human-like text in response to a given prompt.
ChatGPT is used to write research papers, books, news articles, emails and more.
But while Altman is basking in its glory, Musk is attacking ChatGPT.
He says the AI is 'woke' and deviates from OpenAI's original non-profit mission.
'OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it 'Open' AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft, Musk tweeted in February.
The Singularity is making waves worldwide as artificial intelligence advances in ways only seen in science fiction - but what does it actually mean?
In simple terms, it describes a hypothetical future where technology surpasses human intelligence and changes the path of our evolution.
Experts have said that once AI reaches this point, it will be able to innovate much faster than humans.
There are two ways the advancement could play out, with the first leading to humans and machines working together to create a world better suited for humanity.
For example, humans could scan their consciousness and store it in a computer in which they will live forever.
The second scenario is that AI becomes more powerful than humans, taking control and making humans its slaves - but if this is true, it is far off in the distant future.
Researchers are now looking for signs of AI reaching The Singularity, such as the technology's ability to translate speech with the accuracy of a human and perform tasks faster.
Former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil predicts it will be reached by 2045.
He has made 147 predictions about technology advancements since the early 1990s - and 86 per cent have been correct.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
