Scientists Say You're Looking for Alien Civilizations All Wrong

An influential group of researchers is making the case for new ways to search the skies for signs of alien societies. They argue that current methods could be biased by human-centered thinking, and that it's time to take advantage of data-driven, machine learning techniques. The team of 22 scientists released a new report on August 30, contending that the field needs to make better use of new and underutilized tools, namely gigantic catalogs from telescope surveys and computer algorithms that can mine those catalogs to spot astrophysical oddities that might have gone unnoticed. Maybe an anomaly will point to an object or phenomenon that is artificial--that is, alien--in origin. For example, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrogen oxide in a world's atmosphere could be signs of industrial pollution, like smog.