New research paper from the Cool Worlds Lab! Today we explore the implications of a classic result in statistics but applied to alien life for the first time. The result implies a startling conclusion, the cosmos is either teeming with intelligent civilizations, or we're essentially alone. Join ...

The Wow! Signal was a radio signal detected in 1977 that remains the most compelling candidate for an alien radio transmission ever received. 45 years later, and after dozens of failed hours spent trying to catch it again, can we conclude the Wow signal was bogus? Join us today as we discuss a ...

The Kardashev Scale has become a standardized way of classifying (hypothetical) advanced civilizations. The lowest rank, Type 1, is still way ahead of us - but by how much? When will we achieve Type 1 status and exactly how could we plausibly do so? In this video, we go through some estimates ...

The Galaxy is approximately 13 billion years old, which makes one wonder - just how many civilizations could have come and gone across that ocean of time? Today, we try something a little bit different for this channel, and imagine when and how the first civilization could have lived. The story ...

Visit our sponsor, PIA to get digital privacy for $2.08/month: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/CoolWorlds The search for alien intelligence is usually a framed as a search for life around other stars. But some have suggested that we should look within the Solar System instead - seeking ...

We're looking forward to the new sci-fi film "Arrival", which explores the barriers to communicating with aliens even face to face. Astronomers really are trying to listen for alien communications, mostly using radio receivers but increasingly by looking for optical laser transmissions too. One ...