• Alien missions to moon likely to have been long ago
• Moon would preserve traces for millions of years
• Easier to find alien debris than radio signals
  
• Nasa's Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter may have captured pictures of 'footprints' of ancient aliens 

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - SETI - project looks for alien life in a one, main specific way - scanning for radio signals deliberately beamed towards earth from distant stars.

But two astronomers suggest that we may be missing evidence much closer to home.

Two scientists at Arizona State University have suggested that alien life may have 'left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact or surface modification of lunar features' - and that alien 'footprints' on the moon would last far longer than radio signals.

A gigantic object the size of a planet has appeared on astronomers screens lurking near Mercury, with UFO hunters around the world wondering whether it’s an alien ship.

The object appears from nowhere in a sequence of images of a coronal ejection from the Sun, taken by a Nasa telescope.

As the flare races past Mercury, a huge round object appears next to it – but Nasa scientists insist that the object is merely a result of the way the images are processed.

It was uploaded by user siniXster and he says in his commentary: "It's cylindrical on either side and has a shape in the middle. It definitely looks like a ship to me, and very obviously, it's cloaked."

Ray Kurzweil and other so-called transhumanists have promised that in coming decades we will be able to transfer a digital copy of the trillions of connections among nerve cells in our brains into a computer. We would essentially reincarnate ourselves as non-biological beings that persist for eternity inside a laptop, on the endless links of the Internet or as avatars inside a television set. After achieving the ultimate copy and paste, we would wave goodbye to death as we know it.

For fairly evident reasons, biologists tend to dismiss out of hand the ideas of Kurzweil and the transhumanist lot as the ravings of computer jocks who know nothing about the real workings of the DNA and cells that make up living tissue. Into this debate comes Sebastian Seung, a young and well-regarded computational neuroscientist from MIT, who has taken a serious look at some of the questions put forth by the transhumanists. [sciam]

For generations, the Maya thrived in an advanced, complex civilization in modern-day Central America. But then their society collapsed in the eighth and ninth centuries. Now, a new study finds that the Maya may have had a hand in their own apocalypse.

Deforestation in Central America before Europeans arrived contributed to drought in the region, according to the research presented today (Dec. 5) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Researchers have long suspected that drought contributed to the demise of Mayan civilization, though other factors such as conflicts and overpopulation may have also hastened the Maya's doom. [ls]

Would you choose to take someone's life in order to prevent the deaths of several other people? A new study using 3D simulations found that nine out of 10 people would answer "yes."

In the experiment, subjects donned a head-mounted device that placed them in a 3D setting with realistic digital characters. The participants also wore sensors attached to their fingertips to monitor their emotional arousal. In the virtual world, participants were standing near a railroad switch where two sets of tracks veered off from each other. As a coal-filled boxcar approached, the subjects could choose to do nothing and allow the boxcar to kill five hikers, or pull a joystick "switch" to reroute the boxcar to a different track, where it would kill one hiker.

Of the 147 participants, 14 allowed the boxcar to kill the five hikers; eleven of these subjects did not pull the rerouting switch at all, while three did so but then changed their minds and returned it to its original position. About 90 percent, or 133 participants, chose to pull the switch that diverted the boxcar to kill just one hiker. [ls]

• Living Earth Simulator could predict the spread of disease and impending financial meltdowns
• Creator describes it as 'nervous system for entire planet'
• EU Commission to pledge £900m to help get it built

A £900million scheme to produce a computer system which could predict the next financial crisis has been backed by leading scientists.

The Living Earth Simulator Project (LES) aims to 'simulate everything' on the planet, using anything from tweets to government statistics to map out social trends and predict the next economic crisis. Using vasts reams of data fed into the internet, trends can be spotted by analysing information with 'the world's most powerful computers'. [dm]

When does fear, or respect for the power of weather become a phobia?

Dictionary.com defines phobia as the following: "A persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it."

Images of Muammar Gaddafi's bruised and bloodied corpse caused a sensation last month. Most unsettling is the dichotomy between his lifeless body – carelessly thrown on a tattered, floral mattress – and the jubilant people posing in photos before his corpse.

But even those who find these images repulsive can understand that there is satisfaction in seeing a tyrant brought down. Gaddafi, and all he had come to symbolise to the Libyan people, had been reduced to nothing more than a bloated, broken body. Despite objecting to the killing of Gaddafi, Christopher Hitchens, writing for Slate, admits that it is "satisfying to see the cadaver of the monster and be sure that he can't come back".

The display of one's enemies after death reaches across cultures and across time. In 1540, Henry VIII granted the Barber-Surgeons Company the annual right to the bodies of four executed criminals. With it, he formally bound the act of the executioner to that of the surgeon: one executed the body, the other executed the law. The association of public dissection with crime and punishment was given further sanction with the passing of the Murder Act in 1751, which mandated that all murderers be dissected after death. [guardian]

The White House said Monday that there is no evidence of aliens making their presence known on Earth, but it has not given up on the search for extraterrestrial life.

A petition submitted through the White House's "We the People" project -- which lets anyone submit a petition requesting government action -- asked for a formal acknowledgment of "an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race."

Unfortunately for those who want to believe, the White House was unable to do so.

Zombies, à la the walking dead, don't exist in the real world, but they have been a big part of pop culture and show up time and again in history and folklore.

As portrayed in the classic 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead," zombies are lumbering, flesh-eating corpses. Some say this film reinvented zombies, who were shown in earlier films such as 1932's "White Zombie" as "beings whose brains had been zapped by some 'master' who was then able to control their actions," according to the University of Michigan website.

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has jumped on the zombie bandwagon , with a post on their website in May 2011 entitled "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse." The post, a tongue-in-check way to promote real disaster preparedness, went viral that week.

Of course, the CDC was not suggesting we need to worry about zombies. "If you're prepared for the zombie apocalypse, you're also prepared for hurricanes and flooding," said CDC spokesperson Dave Daigle at the time. Another scientific endeavor, by the Oxford Internet Institute, visualized in map form the global distribution of Google Maps references to "zombies." [LS]

According to film producer Raul Julia-Levy, extraterrestrials contacted the Mayan civilization in Mexico thousands of years ago — and he claims he'll prove it in an upcoming film, "Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond."

Unproven claims of ancient astronauts in the Americas have been made for decades, most prominently by Erich von Daniken, author of the best-selling classic work of pseudoscience "Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past" (Putnam, 1968). Von Daniken wrote that ancient Egyptians had neither the intelligence nor the tools to create the massive pyramids at Giza, and thus they were made by aliens.

Seeking answers to unexplained observations would seem a part of the human DNA, with our search for the "God particle" and other truths motivating many a scientist. And while unexplained flying objects have no real science going for them, that hasn't stemmed any interest and want to believe in them.

And while UFO sightings abound all year, apparently there was a spike this August 2011. In fact, for some states the number of UFO sightings doubled compared with normal. "It's pretty exciting," said Clifford Clift, the international director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), told Life's Little Mysteries about the spike. "When you average 500 a month [nationwide] and go to 1,013 in one month, that's an interesting spike in sighting reports." (MUFON tracks UFO reports.)

Spikes in UFO sightings have various explanations, including the fact that they tend to appear high in the sky, so whatever is really causing the sight is in view of thousands of people. That means reports could be of the same incident or several. Movies and other media also can pique people's interest in aliens and UFOs. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE) [LiveScience]

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilization growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by scientists at Nasa and Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.

Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa's Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity "prepare for actual contact". [guiardian]

The mysterious object was spotted Wednesday afternoon floating high above Jiangbei International Airport in the city of Chongqing, an important aviation hub for southwestern China.

Worried officials diverted several flights to other airports before it disappeared about 50 minutes later and air traffic was allowed to return to normal.

The Chongqing government has not offered any explanation for the UFO, Shanghai Daily said. However, skeptical airport workers believe it was a sky lantern or a large balloon, the newspaper said.

Wednesday's scare mirrors an incident in July last year when Xiaoshan airport in the eastern city of Hangzhou was closed after baffled air traffic controllers spotted a UFO on their radar screens.

The object vanished but footage of a strange glowing orb streaking across the night sky was posted on YouTube, sparking global interest in the supposed close encounter.

An overflowing lava pond has been spotted on the Pu'u O'o Crater floor. According to officials, the lava broke out at the base of the west flank of the cone Wednesday afternoon.

Less than an hour later, the crater floor and lava lake collapsed.

Two new lava flows are quickly advancing down slope.
Scientists say the events were not entirely unexpected since they've been watching the crater floor rise over the past month. (click to enlarge image)

"We felt that was leading to some kind of change. As the crater floor collapsed, so did the lava lake that was within Pu'u O'o Crater," Hawaii Volcano Observatory geologist Janet Babb said. "The lava lake that was within the Pu'u O'o Crater is no longer there."

Parts of the Tri-State area were pounded from the sky — with wind, lightning and ice. Residents in Little Neck, Queens picked up the hail and put them in their freezers just to have evidence.

“I’ve never seen anything, it was horrifying,” Gail Kolidas told CBS 2′s Lou Young.

As intense as the damage was, it was also concentrated along the Queens-Nassau line. The hail stones shattered car windows, punctured plastic lawn furniture and vinyl siding. It also did a good job of rattling nerves. [cbslocal]

An ocean exploration team led by Swedish researcher Peter Lindberg has found what some are suggesting is a crashed flying saucer. Lindberg's team, which has had success in the past recovering sunken ships and cargo, was using sonar to look for the century-old wreck of a ship that went down carrying several cases of a super-rare champagne. Instead, the team discovered what it claims is a mysterious round object that might (or might not) be extraterrestrial.

Lindberg explained to local media that his crew discovered, on the 300-foot-deep ocean floor between Finland and Sweden, "a large circle, about 60 feet in diameter. You see a lot of weird stuff in this job, but during my 18 years as a professional I have never seen anything like this. The shape is completely round."

Adding to the mystery at the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia, Lindberg said he saw evidence of scars or marks disturbing the environment nearby, suggesting the object somehow moved across the ocean floor to where his team found it. [livescience]

If aliens are real then it appears they are becoming savvier at getting our attention. Early risers in Texas got a surprise when a UFO shot through the sky live on breakfast TV.

Sharp eyed viewers spotted the white light flash across the screen as local station KXAS showed a traffic camera looking across Fort Worth at 5:40am.

In the top right of the video a bright light drops out of the sky and disappears. A slow-motion replay of the footage appears to show a faint light veering off at an angle to the right of the picture. [dailymail]

No one on the ground or in Pakistan's air defence spotted Area 51's latest toy as it kept watch on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on the night of the US raid that killed the Taliban leader.

Rather than one of the UFOs that the wilder fringes of the internet believe the military has stashed away at America's top-secret military site in Nevada, this "toy" was actually the latest Star Wars-type drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed at the base whose existence Uncle Sam only barely admits.

Named the "Beast of Kandahar" after it was snapped at Kandahar air base in Afghanistan back in 2009, this stealthy grey batwing-shaped long-distance reconnaissance drone, officially known as the RQ-170 Sentinel, was a throwback to Area 51's golden age before the advent of the spy satellite put the spy plane out of business. [ independent ]

Russian scientists expect humanity to encounter alien civilizations within the next two decades, a top Russian astronomer said on Monday.

"The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms ... Life exists on other planets and we will find it within 20 years," said Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute, according to the Interfax news agency.

Speaking at an international forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, Finkelstein said 10% of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth. If water can be found there, then so can life, he said, adding that aliens would most likely resemble humans with two arms, two legs and a head.

"They may have different colour skin, but even we have that," he said. Finkelstein's institute runs a programme launched in the 1960s at the height of the cold war space race to watch for and beam out radio signals to outer space. [ guardian ]

If UFO's are real and trying to get our attention perhaps they are getting a little more savvy about the way we humans work.

A new video has emerged purporting to show 'a mothership and its fleet' zipping around in the clouds above a BBC building in West London.

Perhaps the group of intergalactic travellers was hoping for some coverage from Auntie.

Instead they were caught on camera by a passer-by, and at least one other person who can be seen filming or taking pictures on his camera phone while the video is filmed.

In the video, the cameraman runs towards the corner of Bolsover Street and Clipstone Street where two other men are already standing, gazing skywards, one of whom is using a mobile phone camera. [ dailymail ]

"A lot of people are going to have things break and they're not going to know why," said Demetrios Matsakis, head of the time service department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, one of two official timekeeping agencies in the federal government.

Since 1930, electric clocks have kept time based on the rate of the electrical current that powers them. If the current slips off its usual rate, clocks run a little fast or slow. Power companies now take steps to correct it and keep the frequency of the current — and the time — as precise as possible. [ msnbc ]

Two tall and skinny waterspouts appeared off the south shore of Oahu, Hawaii yesterday, as some of the bad weather that has lately assailed the U.S. mainland has now alighted on the Pacific island.

The Star Advertiser reports that the waterspouts appeared during a hail and lightning storm that had reportedly knocked out power for at least 60,000 East Honolulu and Windward Oahu residents Monday evening. The spouts lasted for about 12 minutes. Waterspouts can become twisters if they reach land, but are usually weak.  [ Video can be found here ]

Does a recently discovered 1950 memo found in FBI archives prove that the U.S. government recovered flying saucers and alien bodies in Roswell, New Mexico?

That's what many news outlets and websites are reporting. The British tabloid The Sun, for example, states that "The amazing UFO find at Roswell, New Mexico, was detailed by FBI agent Guy Hottel in a 1950 memo to the agency's director."

The memo, dated March 22, reports that "an investigator for the Air Force stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico... Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. ... According to Mr. [XXX-blacked out] informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico..." It is apparently a genuine FBI memo, and there's no clear evidence of forgery. [ LiveScience ]

On April 4, 1949, FBI agents in Utah sent a cable marked “urgent” to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. It said an Army guard at the Ogden Supply Depot, a Logan policeman and a Utah Highway Patrol officer in Mantua each saw from miles apart a UFO - which they said exploded over Utah.

Under the title “Flying Discs,” the cable said they “saw a silver colored object high up approaching the mountains at Sardine Canyon” that “appeared to explode in a rash of fire. Several residents at Trenton … [reported] seeing what appeared to be two aerial explosions followed by falling object.”

That and other documents show the FBI was investigating whether UFOs were real, and it figured they could be. Such documents are now available in “The Vault,” vault.fbi.gov, a revamped FBI website for documents that have been released through the Freedom of Information Act and have been recently or often requested.

Besides talking about Utah UFOs, other Utah-related documents on the website look at such things as FBI snooping into whether the Salt Lake City NAACP had been infiltrated by communists; a death threat in Utah against Lady Bird Johnson; and Hoover lambasting W. Cleon Skousen — a Utahn who has become an icon of the tea party movement. [ STLRIB ]