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Hollywood films and science fiction literature fuel the belief that aliens are monster-like beings, who are very different to humans. But new research suggests that we could have more in common with our extra-terrestrial neighbours, than initially thought.
In a new study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology scientists from the University of Oxford show for the first time how evolutionary theory can be used to support alien predictions and better understand their behaviour. They show that aliens are potentially shaped by the same processes and mechanisms that shaped humans, such as natural selection.
The theory supports the argument that foreign life forms undergo natural selection, and are like us, evolving to be fitter and stronger over time.
[...] The paper also makes specific predictions about the biological make-up of complex aliens, and offers a degree of insight as to what they might look like.
[...] 'There are potentially hundreds of thousands of habitable planets in our galaxy alone. We can't say whether or not we're alone on Earth, but we have taken a small step forward in answering, if we're not alone, what our neighbours are like.'
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-31-aliens-may-be-more-us-we-think
[Also Covered By]: phys.org
Darwin's aliens (open, DOI: 10.1017/S1473550417000362) (DX)
Evolutionary exobiology: towards the qualitative assessment of biological potential on exoplanets (DOI: 10.1017/S1473550417000349) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @10:20AM (1 child)
"As far as we know".
As far as we know, it isn't possible to go faster than the speed of light, which is a basic requirement of interstellar travel. From that we can conclude that we won't be able to detect anything going faster than the speed of light - if we were, the first such detection would destroy the theory that it isn't possible.
So yeah, as far as we know there are no life forms capable of interstellar travel, because we aren't capable of detecting them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @02:13PM
No, it isn't. The next star is only four light years away; a travel to that star is, by definition, interstellar travel. Also, sending a generation ship is interstellar travel; there's nothing in the definition that says the crew must be the same on arrival as on departure. Also, there might just be aliens that are very long-lived; if you live for several millennia, a century-long space travel doesn't sound too bad. And finally, thanks to relativistic time dilation, it is theoretically possible to reach an arbitrarily distant star in your lifetime, just not in the lifetime of your relatives that didn't come with you.