Searching, not finding

Evidence of water on various celestial bodies has led to a nearly insatiable quest to prove we are not alone in the universe. But no matter where we look, ET doesn’t seem to be phoning home. In fact, a team of scientists at Penn State University searched 100,000 galaxies for signs of highly advanced extraterrestrial life and found nothing.

The researchers used observations from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), an unmanned satellite carrying an infrared-sensitive telescope that is exploring the entire universe by collecting infrared light that comes to Earth. The scientists believe a galaxy with intelligent life would have technologies that would produce detectable infrared wavelengths, but 100 million data entries showed nothing.

Some Darwinian scientists find it surprising that galaxies they believe to be billions of years old would not have sprung to life by random chance. It’s “interesting because these galaxies are billions of years old, which should have been plenty of time for them to have been filled with alien civilizations, if they exist,” said Jason Wright, the astrophysicist who initiated the research.

Although some atheists do not anticipate finding life in outer space, many have a bias toward assuming extraterrestrial life exists because they believe that would prove Earth is not special and would discredit Christianity, Jay Richards, senior fellow of the Discovery Institute told me. “It provides motivation for some people to search for life on other planets,” he said.

But many creationists, such as author and speaker Eric Metaxas, believe the uniqueness of life on Earth points to a Creator. There are nearly 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life, and each must be perfectly met, Metaxas wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?” he asked.

Still, the quest continues. NASA is planning a program that will devise new technologies and techniques for detecting life on exoplanets.

Flying feelings

Humans wear their emotions on their hands, so to speak. Scientists believe touching specific areas of the hand can evoke certain emotions. Now researchers at the University of Sussex have invented a method to stimulate emotions through the air, no physical contact required.

They discovered sharp, quick blasts of air around the thumb, index finger, and middle portion of the palm generate excitement, but slow, moderate bursts to the outer palm and pinkie finger cause sadness.

“Relatively soon, we may be able to realize truly compelling and multi-faceted media experiences, such as nine-dimensional TV or computer games that evoke emotions through taste,” said researcher Marianna Obrist. —J.B.

Disappearing act

Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute recently studied the effects of feeling invisible. The 129 participants, wearing head-mounted displays, saw only empty space when they looked down at their bodies. The researchers created the illusion of invisibility by touching the participants while simultaneously touching an imaginary body in the same way.

In less than a minute, participants transferred the feeling of touch to the imaginary, invisible body. Then participants were placed in front of an audience of strangers. Those who had just experienced the illusion of invisibility had lower stress responses. The researchers hope the results foster new therapies for social anxiety. Follow-up studies may look into whether illusions of invisibility affect moral decision making. —J.B.