Aliens

Is there life on other planets? And if so, are they the little green men of science fiction? Professor Ian Stewart from the University of Warwick thinks there is life on other planets and while it could be little and green, it�s highly unlikely to be anything we would recognise as men. Despite our fascination with science fiction it seems our imagination rarely extends beyond pointed ears and different coloured skin when we picture alien races. Now an exhibition at London�s Science Museum addresses just what alien life might look like when it develops on planets with different physical and chemical properties to our own. Apply scientific principles and alien life might be very alien indeed. As a scientist who is also a science fiction writer, Professor Stewart was one of the early advisors to the Exhibition and is uniquely positioned to comment on what alien life could really be like! Professor Stewart argues that popular culture fails miserably to give us anything approaching a scientifically sound idea of what an alien could look like. Many authors and film-makers simply rely on making their aliens in our humanoid image such as Star Trek's Mr Spock or Klingons. Even when a bit more imagination is used science is ignored in favour of simply reproducing the cosyily familiar such as the teddy bear like Ewoks in the film Return of the Jedi, or the remarkable resemblance of ET to the size and behavior patterns of a human toddler. for the rest of the story http://www.physorg.com/news7949.html

ok, so you're taking the scientific approach to this--we have an alien topic in paraspring as well....

Ooops, should done it with linkage.

There was a great program of some lenth on Discovery Channel dealing more with science fiction writers than scientists but the discussion was lively. No, they will not look like us at all, is their opinion. More than likely they will be tiny.

I saw that, wasn't it a great program.

It really was great. They will more than likely show it again. Watch for it.