Just a quick pointer to a Forbes article I just posted on the whole Obama + Alien kerfuffle in today’s new’s cycle.

I’ve been asked by a bunch of media outlets to comment on the story today. The main point I’m thinking about is the perceived overlap between UFO stuff and the actual science of Astrobiology.

How much of the current flap over UFOs can be linked to astronomers discovering one alien world after another for the last 3 decades? Have astronomical discoveries laid the ground in the public thinking on alien life to change?

I ask this because, really, when it comes to UFOs and hard-core, high quality evidence… nothing has changed since the 1970s. We still only have personal testimony, fuzzy images and ex-government folks saying other government folks are hiding stuff.

All of this already existed 40 years ago. In fact if you look at both recent and old scientific studies of UFO sitings, they all find that about 95% are explainable. So it’s not like the sky is suddenly full of unexplainable stuff.

One thing that has changed is that pilots can now report sightings without stigma. I think that is real progress. You can’t figure out what the unexplained UFOs are if you don’t know they exist. But, still, all those congressional hearings haven’t revealed a single piece of data a scientist could use. So what, really, has changed?

I think it’s the science of alien worlds that makes us think more about aliens.

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PS If you have specific questions or issues you want me to address leave a comment on the website or email me at [email protected]

PPS: I could not get this piece proofread so please excuse the typos.

— Adam Frank 🚀