An irreverent take on some recent research funding news:


Astroboffins to search for mega-massive alien power plants

Dyson Spheres – not just for Star Trek anymore

A team of alien-hunting astroboffins has been awarded a grant to search the sky for immense engineering feats that would reveal the existence of astral civilizations far, far more advanced than us puny humans.

Lead by assistant professor Jason Wright of Penn State's Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, the team will use NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to search the sky for the infrared fingerprints of possible Dyson Spheres, energy-capturing mega-structures...


Has something similar to that not been done/proposed by Berkeley?

Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Interesting. Next they will fund the search for fairies!

No harm in trying i suppose.

John.

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Once going up to an Alpine hut at night in Val Gardena I heard voices in a waterfall. They were the voices of the "aiguanes", the local fairies which are common in the folklore of the Dolomite mountains.
Tullio

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Interesting. Next they will fund the search for fairies!

Are you really sure there are no leprechauns?

Meanwhile, to get back to this universe, what else may well be found?... (Note what is actually being looked for...)

No harm in trying i suppose.

Oh dear... Apathy rules... So much for forging ahead to expand further the frontier of ignorance!


Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Once going up to an Alpine hut at night in Val Gardena I heard voices in a waterfall. They were the voices of the "aiguanes", the local fairies which are common in the folklore of the Dolomite mountains.

Just as occasional (random) voices can be 'heard' in the interstellar noise that s@h searches through.

A pretty metaphor? Or a few hopeful dreams in the noise?...

(Or is it leprechauns, turtles, and space goats "all the way down"?)


:-)

Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Are you really sure there are no leprechauns?

Keep searchin',
Martin

Come off it now Martin,
Everyone knows leprechauns exist. Its undisputed in the scientific community. I think i saw an article in Nature journal there recently that discussed leprechaun magic. In that same edition of Nature, there was a super article about Santa Clause too! You would have enjoyed it!

John.

Since the scientists will be looking for mid-infrared emissions, they will presumably be able to detect waste heat from a high technology stellar civilization, whether its energy is collected by a Dyson Sphere, or produced by some other means. The new search will be approximately 100 times as sensitive as the previous one for Dyson Spheres. A 'type II' civilization, utilizing as much energy as that produced by a star of middling size, like our own, would have access to about 40 billion times as much power as we do.

My biggest problem with any type of massive device in space is debris. From asteroids, comets, and other space junk which will cause massive holes on any object.
I guess if someone were to build a device so huge they'd have created some sort of space vacuum to clear asteroid fields of every single bit of grit

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope