The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
01-10-2025
Aliens may be hiding out in ‘five or six’ underwater UFO bases off US coast, claims Congressman
Aliens may be hiding out in ‘five or six’ underwater UFO bases off US coast, claims Congressman
The underwater crafts reportedly travel hundreds of miles an hour
AN American congressman has claimed aliens could be hiding out in "five or six" underwater bases off the US coast.
Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett said alien "entities" were reportedly already living in deep-water areas on Earth.
UFO researcher Dr Michael Salla said the bases are believed to be in a region near the Bahamas
Republican Representative Tim Burchett made explosive claims in a video posted to social media
Credit: EPA
Burchett said whistleblowers had seen underwater crafts travelling 'hundreds of miles an hour'
Credit: Reuters
The claims from the member of the House Oversight Committee that oversees UFO reports caused a massive stir on social media.
In a now viral video posted to social media platform X on September 17, Burchett suggested that advanced alien beings or civilisations may have been hiding under the sea for "millennia".
In a sidewalk interview with UFO researcher and documentary maker Red Panda Koala (a pseudonym), Burchett added that there had been frequent sightings of unidentified crafts in around five or six specific deep sea areas.
"We have naval personnel telling me that we have sightings ... of these underwater crafts that they're chasing," he said.
"[The underwater crafts] they're chasing are doing hundreds of miles an hour, and the best we've got is something that does maybe just a little bit under 40 miles an hour".
"I've got a lot of questions about that stuff," he added.
In the short clip, he also noted more is known about the moon's surface than what is under the ocean.
Despite these claims, no verifiable evidence including artefacts or clear footage of these crafts, has been made available to the public.
Critics have argued that the reliance on anecdotal reports from naval personnel and the lack of peer-reviewed scientific data casts doubt on the claims.
Following Burchett's revelations, Dr Michael Salla revealed that a region of the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas was one of the alleged UFO bases.
Haunting moment mystery V-shaped UFO hovers over Los Angeles in eerie video
The researcher and author whose work focuses on extraterrestrial phenomena said he'd also spoken to credible whistleblowers, including senior military and executive branch officials who confirmed the existence of these underwater bases.
Dr Salla said the US Navy operated a top-secret underwater facility called AUTEC that he compared to Area 51.
AUTEC - an acronym for Atlantic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Centre - was in that specific region of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Just to the right of it is the Tongue of the Ocean, which is a very deep part of the ocean there in the Bahamas," he said on the Redacted podcast on September 19.
"It drops off immediately around 3000 ft.
"So that's ideal for a submarine, but it's also a place where people have seen many UFOs, many underwater crafts coming into and leaving the water."
Dr Salla said he had interviewed two eyewitnesses who said they'd visited these secret bases, including a US Army whistleblower using the pseudonym JP.
JP claimed he was on a mission where he was taken by a Black Hawk helicopter to an ocean platform, then boarded a high-tech submarine.
The submarine was reportedly crewed by tall, Nordic-looking extraterrestrials.
He claimed the submarine - which was also capable of space travel - took him to an underwater city under a dome, resembling Dubai, with a large white pyramid.
The mission involved retrieving an artefact, but no physical evidence of this mission has ever been produced.
Despite the lack of tangible evidence for any of these claims, there has been increasing interest and testimony from credible sources, including military personnel at these congressional hearings.
The statements suggest that UFOs and extraterrestrial entities have visited Earth.
On September 9, a congressional hearing featured a new round of whistleblowers.
The group shared their experiences with UFOs, including a video showing an orb-like object surviving a missile strike, before splitting into four parts with each continuing to fly.
One whistleblower said he had been in an underwater craft that could also space travel
Wat gebeurt er als de magnetische polen van de aarde omdraaien? Het magnetische veld van de aarde onderscheidt haar van de omringende planeten van ons zonnestelsel. Het is een ongelooflijk sterke kracht in het centrum van onze wereld en zijn primaire rol is om onze atmosfeer te beschermen. Zonnewinden, kosmische straling en enorme wolken plasma worden tegengehouden door het schild van de magnetosfeer van de aarde. In een constant bewegend energieveld gedragen de polen van de aarde zich als de verschillende uiteinden van een magneet. Deze polen verschuiven en veranderen ongeveer elke 300.000 jaar van plaats. Het lijkt erop dat we over tijd zijn voor een poolomwenteling; maar wat betekent dat precies?
LEES verder om te ontdekken of mensen een omkering van de magnetische polen van de aarde kunnen overleven.
Afnemende kracht Sommige wetenschappers denken dat het aardmagnetisch veld in sterkte afneemt net voordat het volledig omkeert - iets wat het in het verleden al verschillende keren heeft gedaan.
Afnemende kracht Met andere woorden, als hun magnetisme blijft afnemen, kan dit een poolomwenteling veroorzaken, waarbij noord zuid wordt en zuid noord.
Magneetveld draait om Magnetic field flips aren't all that common. On average, they've happened around every 200,000 to 300,000 years. But the last one was 780,100 years ago, so some believe we're overdue a change.
A temporary flip However, this doesn't include a temporary flip that occurred 41,000 years ago. The reversal only stuck for 250 years before switching back to the positions the poles remain in today.
Midden-oceaanruggen Midden-oceaanruggen leveren bewijs van geomagnetische omkeringen. Dit komt doordat tektonische platen van de aardkorst (lithosfeer) uit elkaar bewegen en worden opgevuld met magma.
Magnetische velden Magnetische velden worden opgewekt door bewegende elektrische ladingen. In een staafmagneet zijn de bewegende ladingen elektronen die rondjes draaien in atomen. In de aarde zijn het elektronen die worden verplaatst door circulerende stromen gesmolten ijzer.
Gesmolten ijzeren buitenkern De reden dat poolomwentelingen plaatsvinden is nog steeds een mysterie. Wetenschappers denken echter dat het iets te maken heeft met de gesmolten ijzeren buitenkern van de aarde.
Gesmolten ijzeren buitenkern De rotatie van de gesmolten ijzeren buitenkern van de aarde genereert het magnetische veld. De kern koelt langzaam af en er ontstaat beweging door convectie. Stel het je voor als water dat kookt in een steelpan.
Het magnetische veld Maar er is een groot verschil tussen dit proces en een kokende steelpan: er zijn bewegende ladingen aanwezig die het magnetische veld genereren.
Dynamoproces Dit wordt een zelfopwindend dynamoproces genoemd, waarbij de elektrische stromen die in het langzaam bewegende gesmolten ijzer vloeien een magnetisch veld creëren.
Positieve feedbacklus Het magnetische veld induceert vervolgens elektrische stromen. Deze stromen genereren op hun beurt hun eigen magnetische veld dat meer elektrische stromen induceert, in een positieve terugkoppelingslus.
Chaos en mysterie Er ontstaat veel chaos en turbulentie als de gesmolten ijzerkern ronddraait. Deze turbulentie is de meest geaccepteerde verklaring voor poolomkering, maar niemand kan het op dit moment met zekerheid zeggen. Het is nog steeds een mysterie.
Lijnen van aantrekking Magnetische polen bevinden zich waar de magnetische aantrekkingslijnen de aarde binnenkomen. Voor een polariteitsomkering moet het magnetische veld met ongeveer 90% verzwakken tot een drempelniveau. Dit proces kan duizenden jaren duren.
Het World Magnetic Model (WMM) Het World Magnetic Model (WMM), dat gezamenlijk is ontwikkeld door het Amerikaanse National Geophysical Data Center en de British Geological Survey, is een grootschalige ruimtelijke weergave van het magnetische veld van de aarde.
Locatie De noordelijke magnetische pool, ook wel de geomagnetische noordpool genoemd, bevindt zich momenteel bij 80,8 graden noord bij 72,7 graden west, in het Canadese Ellesmere Island.
De bewegende noordelijke magnetische pool In 2022 werd gemeld dat de noordelijke magnetische pool zich zo grillig uit het Canadese noordpoolgebied in de richting van Siberië bewoog dat wetenschappers er verbaasd over waren.
De bewegende noordelijke magnetische pool De snelheid waarmee de noordelijke magnetische pool beweegt is sinds het midden van de jaren 90 toegenomen van 15 kilometer per jaar tot 55 kilometer per jaar. De afgelopen jaren is hij zelfs over de internationale datumlijn richting het oostelijk halfrond geslingerd.
Stokken omgooien Het omdraaien van de magnetische polen betekent niet dat de aarde geen magnetisch veld meer zou hebben. Stel je echter voor dat je kompas naar het noorden blijft wijzen, terwijl je eigenlijk naar het zuiden kijkt.
Stokken omgooien Het goede nieuws is dat het leven heeft overleefd en gedijt ondanks poolomwentelingen in het verleden. Het betekent geen wereldwijde catastrofe.
De effecten van een flip Tijdens zonnestormen is er een groter dan normale instroom van energetische deeltjes, die voor ons meestal onschadelijk zijn. Maar voor onze moderne technologie is het een ander verhaal.
Het effect op technologie Geladen deeltjes uit de zonnewind (waar ons magnetisch veld ons normaal gesproken tegen beschermt) zouden verwoestende effecten kunnen hebben op de aarde als de polen zouden omslaan.
De gebeurtenis in Carrington In 1859 maakte een krachtige geomagnetische storm poollicht zichtbaar in het Caribisch gebied en de telegraafsystemen vielen uit. In die tijd waren operators echter in staat om het systeem zonder stroom te laten werken
Meer impact Als zo'n gebeurtenis vandaag de dag zou gebeuren, zou het, gezien onze afhankelijkheid van technologie, veel vernietigender kunnen zijn. Maar het is een worst-case scenario.
Meerdere palen Er kunnen zich ook meerdere polen vormen wanneer er een omkering plaatsvindt, waardoor navigatiesystemen in de war raken. Maar dit proces kan honderden of zelfs duizenden jaren duren.
Geomagnetische activiteit Het is ook belangrijk om op te merken dat eerdere poolomkeringen niet per se betekenen dat de omkering leidde tot meer vulkanen, aardbevingen of klimaatveranderingen.
Depiction of the Pioneer probes descending to Venus' atmosphere. Credit - NASA
Reanalyzing old data with our modern understanding seems to be in vogue lately. However, the implications of that reanalysis for some topics are more impactful than others. One of the most hotly debated topics of late in the astrobiological community has been whether or not life can exist on Venus - specifically in its cloud layers, some of which have some of the most Earth-like conditions anywhere in the solar system, at least in terms of pressure and temperature. A new paper from a team of American researchers have just added fuel to that debate by reanalyzing data from the Pioneer mission to Venus NASA launched in the 70s - and finding that the Venus’ clouds are primarily made out of water.
That doesn’t mean that it’s water in the traditional sense of how we think water vapor makes up clouds here on Earth. The dihydrogen monoxide in Venus’ clouds seems to be tied up in hydrated materials rather than stand alone as pure water droplets. But that is still a drastic change from our current understanding that Venus’ clouds are made up primarily of sulfuric acid. There is still some of that floating around - 22% of the cloud material according to the paper - but how could the scientists of the 70s be so far off the mark in terms of the readings of their instruments?
To answer that required some scientific sleuthing from a series of researchers at various institutions, including Cal Poly Pomona, the University of Wisconsin, Arizona State, and even NASA itself, to uncover the old Pioneer data. It had been stored on microfilm in NASA’s Space Science Data Coordinated Archive office - so the first step in reanalyzing the data was to fish it from the archives and digitize it.
Fraser discusses why Venus is so interesting to study.
Inspiration for the idea came from a conversation between Rakesh Mogul of Cal Tech Pomona and Sanjay Limaye a Venus expert of the University of Wisconsin, who were talking about the composition of Venus’ clouds and then agreed they should reanalyze the mass spectrometry data Pioneer originally collected, as they thought there might be some new insights to glean there.
Turns out there were. The data came from two instruments on board Pioneer Venus Large Probe - part of the Pioneer mission that descended through Venus’ clouds - the Neutral Mass Spectrometer (LNMS) and the Gas Chromatograph (LGC). Drs. Mogul and Limaye realized that, as the probe descended through the thicker parts of the atmosphere, the inlets for these instruments, which were designed to measure atmospheric gases, became clogged with aerosolized particles from the clouds. For evidence of this clog, they point to a massive, but temporary, drop in the CO2 levels in the atmosphere as the probe descended through the cloud layers.
Instead chalking this up as an instrument failure, they looked at the data as a way of analyzing the types of aerosols that were trapped in the inlet - and they did so by looking at their burn-off temperatures. As the probe continued to descend through the atmosphere, it melted the various aerosols at different temperatures (and allowed the inlet to flow freely again, which caused the CO2 reading to spike back up). Analyzing what gases were released at the temperatures those aerosols melted would help them understand what the aerosols, and hence the clouds themselves, were made up of.
Life on Venus might not even require water, as Fraser discusses in this video.
The first thing they noticed were massive spikes in water at 185𝇈C and 414𝇈C, which were indicative of hydrates such as hydrated ferric sulfate and hydrated magnesium sulfate. They also noticed that water made up the bulk of the aerosols at 62%, though almost all of it was bound up in these hydrates.
As expected, sulfuric acid was also present in the aerosols. It showed up in a major release as SO2 around 215𝇈C, which is the temperature sulfuric acid decomposes. Interestingly there was also another release of SO2 around 397𝇈C, which indicated there was another, more thermally stable sulfate compound in the aerosols as well.
A hint at what that compound might be came from a spike in another, though unexpected, chemical signature - iron. At the same temperature as the second SO2 spike, the LNMS detected a spike in iron ions. Combined with the release of SO2 at that temperature, there’s a strong indication that one of the aerosols is ferric sulfate, which decomposes to iron oxide and sulfur oxides around those temperatures. Estimates put the ferric sulfate content of the aerosols as high as 16%, almost matching the 22% estimated for the sulfuric acid that was thought to dominate the clouds banks until this paper.
Fraser discusses the future of Venus exploration.
So where did the iron come from? The authors believe it comes from cosmic dust that is pulled into Venus’ atmosphere and then reacts with the acid cloud bank. But ultimately the biggest finding from this new analysis is the significant presence of water. It also solves a mystery as to why there was a discrepancy between probes that collected data from the actual clouds compared to those that simply remotely scanned Venus’ cloud layer with spectroscopy equipment in terms of the water content of the clouds. The remote sensing devices wouldn’t be able to detect the water bound up in hydrates - only the amount of atmospheric vapor, making the descent probes much more accurate in their calculation of total water content.
All this new understanding obviously has big implications for the search for life in Venus’ clouds, as one of the main arguments against that possibility was the scarcity of water in that environment. It turns out that water is much more abundant than previously thought - though admittedly it’s rather acidic for the taste of most Earth-bound microbes.
This new understanding shows how useful even old data can be, and how it can effectively contribute to even modern discussions of unanswered scientific questions. The problem might just be finding it buried somewhere in NASA’s archives - which can be a scientific feat in itself.
Now I have found a lot of strange things over the years, so none of these will come as any big surprise. However I found a face that is 100% proof of this alien race existing...and they look just like us. Nasa puts these photos into black and white on purpose because the human eye is not use to being limited to only two colors. However if you look at it a few moments, take your time...and you will see what I see.
The celestial show of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is preparing to take a break. The space traveler, who came to us from the depths of the Milky Way, will soon temporarily disappear from the view of observers on Earth. The reason lies in orbital motion: our planet and the comet will soon be on opposite sides of the Sun. The bright light of the star will completely obscure the faint glow of the comet, making it impossible to observe.
Illustration of comet 3I/ATLAS approaching its perihelion. Author: Copilot AI
The comet is now only a few degrees from the Sun in the sky, setting about an hour after dusk. This creates a narrow window of opportunity for its detection. However, only those with powerful telescopes will be able to see it.
3I/ATLAS now looks like a faint spot located approximately at the distance of Mars’ orbit. Soon, the angular distance between it and the Sun will begin to decrease rapidly, and by the end of October, they will converge at their minimum distance.
Non-standard trajectory
Position of comet 3I/ATLAS as of the end of September 2025
Despite this proximity, Comet 3I/ATLAS will not approach the Sun in the same way as ordinary comets do. The point of its perihelion, its closest approach to the star, will be reached on October 29. At that moment, it will be a full 202 million km away from the Sun. This distance means that Earth will miss the most interesting phase of the comet’s activation, when solar heat would intensively evaporate ice from its core, forming a bright tail.
Unique space visitor
This comet differs sharply from the two previous interstellar visitors – 1I/Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. It moves almost twice as fast and is much larger. Its origin is also different: most likely, the interstellar visitor arrived from the “thick disk” of our galaxy, rather than from the region where the Solar System is located.
The 3I/ATLAS study is key to understanding the nature of interstellar objects and the structure of other planetary systems. Even its recent change to green has sparked keen interest among scientists.
Back to the skies
Fortunately, this is not the last appearance of the mysterious guest. Scientists predict that the comet will once again be visible from late November, just before its closest approach to Earth. The minimum distance to our planet will be 268 million km. Although it is not a close encounter, astronomers are already preparing their instruments to obtain valuable new data about this unique interstellar traveler.
Babies could soon be born without biological mothers – as scientists have come up with a way to create human eggs from skin cells.
The technique opens the possibility for DNA from a man's skin cells being placed inside a donor egg, before being fertilised by another man.
In theory, this could allow two men to have a baby, without any DNA from a woman.
The breakthrough could also help women experiencing problems with their eggs to have their own genetic children.
While further research is needed to ensure safety and efficacy before clinical trials can go ahead, experts have described the news as a 'major advance'.
'Many women are unable to have a family because they have lost their eggs, which can occur for a range of reasons including after cancer treatment,' said Professor Richard Anderson, Deputy Director of MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the study.
'The ability to generate new eggs would be a major advance. This study shows that the genetic material from skin cells can be used to generate an egg–like cell with the right number of chromosomes to be fertilised and develop into an early embryo.
'There will be very important safety concerns but this study is a step towards helping many women have their own genetic children.'
Experts from Oregon Health & Science University have created fertilizable eggs from human skin cells for the very first time
For some couples struggling to conceive, in virto fertilization (IVF) can be an option.
This treatment sees the eggs fertilized by sperm in a lab, and the resulting embryo then placed in the woman's uterus.
However, if there's a problem with the egg itself, IVF can be ineffective.
Previous studies have suggested that a method called 'somatic cell transfer' could be an alternative approach.
This process involves transplanting the nucleus from one of a patient's own somatic cells (such as skin cells) into a donor egg cell with the nucleus removed, enabling the cell to differentiate into a functional egg.
However, while standard eggs have half the usual number of chromosomes (one set of 23), cells generated from skin cells have two sets of chromosomes (46).
Without intervention, this would cause the differentiated eggs to have an extra set of chromosomes.
So far, a method to remove this extra set has been developed and tested in mice – but is yet to be tried in humans.
For some couples struggling to conceive, in virto fertilization (IVF) can be an option. This treatment sees the eggs fertilized by sperm in a lab, and the resulting embryo then placed in the woman's uterus (stock image)
How does it work?
Somatic cell transfer involves transplanting the nucleus from a patient's own skin cells into a donor egg cell with the nucleus removed, enabling the cell to differentiate into a functional egg.
However, while standard eggs have half the usual number of chromosomes (23), cells generated from skin cells have two sets of chromosomes (46).
Without intervention, this would cause the differentiated eggs to have an extra set of chromosomes.
The team resolved this issue by inducing a process they've named 'mitomeiosis', which mimics natural cell division and causes one set of chromosomes to be discarded.
During tests, the researchers produced 82 functional eggs using this process, which were fertilised in a lab.
In their new study, the team resolved this issue by inducing a process they've named 'mitomeiosis'.
'[Mitomeiosis] mimics natural cell division and causes one set of chromosomes to be discarded, leaving a functional gamete,' the researchers explained in a statement.
During tests, the researchers were able to produce 82 functional eggs using this process, which were then fertilised in a lab.
Approximately nine per cent went on to develop the the blastocyst stage of embryo development.
However, the researchers did not culture the blastocysts beyond this point, which coincided with the time at which they would usually be transferred to the uterus in IVF treatment.
While the findings raise the tantalising possibility of women with problems with their eggs having their own genetic children, the experts note several limitations with their study.
Importantly, the vast majority (91 per cent) did not progress beyond fertilisation.
What's more, several of the blastocysts were found to contain chromosomal abnormalities.
Regardless, experts have called the research an 'exciting proof of concept'.
'This breakthrough, called mitomeiosis, is an exciting proof of concept,' said Professor Ying Cheong, a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the research.
'In practice, clinicians are seeing more and more people who cannot use their own eggs, often because of age or medical conditions.
'While this is still very early laboratory work, in the future it could transform how we understand infertility and miscarriage, and perhaps one day open the door to creating egg– or sperm–like cells for those who have no other options.'
In-vitro fertilisation, known as IVF, is a medical procedure in which a woman has an already-fertilised egg inserted into her womb to become pregnant.
It is used when couples are unable to conceive naturally, and a sperm and egg are removed from their bodies and combined in a laboratory before the embryo is inserted into the woman.
Once the embryo is in the womb, the pregnancy should continue as normal.
The procedure can be done using eggs and sperm from a couple or those from donors.
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that IVF should be offered on the NHS to women under 43 who have been trying to conceive through regular unprotected sex for two years.
People can also pay for IVF privately, which costs an average of £3,348 for a single cycle, according to figures published in January 2018, and there is no guarantee of success.
The NHS says success rates for women under 35 are about 29 per cent, with the chance of a successful cycle reducing as they age.
Around eight million babies are thought to have been born due to IVF since the first ever case, British woman Louise Brown, was born in 1978.
Chances of success
The success rate of IVF depends on the age of the woman undergoing treatment, as well as the cause of the infertility (if it's known).
Younger women are more likely to have a successful pregnancy.
IVF isn't usually recommended for women over the age of 42 because the chances of a successful pregnancy are thought to be too low.
Between 2014 and 2016 the percentage of IVF treatments that resulted in a live birth was:
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
National Archives Upload Sparks Renewed Interest in the Roswell Incident
National Archives Upload Sparks Renewed Interest in the Roswell Incident
A nearly 22-minute video titled “The Roswell Incident” has recently appeared on the official website of the U.S. National Archives, stirring fresh curiosity around one of the most famous UFO cases in history. The 1947 Roswell event, long shrouded in secrecy and speculation, has been at the heart of countless books, documentaries, and debates about extraterrestrial life.
The sudden appearance of the video—uploaded without fanfare—has triggered widespread discussion online, with many UFO enthusiasts claiming it could contain new evidence related to the alleged crash of an unidentified flying object in New Mexico nearly eight decades ago.
Ross Coulthart: “Just Having a Bit of Fun”
Veteran investigative journalist Ross Coulthart, who has spent years reporting on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), spoke with NewsNation Prime about the upload. He cautioned viewers not to jump to conclusions, emphasizing that there is no verified archival footage of the 1947 Roswell crash.
According to Coulthart, the video is unlikely to represent authentic government documentation of alien debris or bodies. Instead, he suggested the appearance of the material may be someone “just having a bit of a fun game.”
Why the Roswell Story Endures
Despite repeated efforts by the U.S. military and skeptics to explain the Roswell case—most notably as the crash of a high-altitude surveillance balloon—public interest has never disappeared. The possibility of a cover-up, combined with decades of secrecy surrounding UFO research, has cemented Roswell as a cultural touchstone in discussions about extraterrestrial life.
The latest development highlights how easily speculation can reignite. Even when experts like Coulthart dismiss claims of new evidence, the Roswell incident remains an enduring mystery that continues to capture the imagination of the public.
What This Means Going Forward
The posting of “The Roswell Incident” in the National Archives underscores two ongoing themes in the UFO debate:
Public hunger for disclosure:Any new document, image, or video linked to Roswell instantly becomes a focal point for enthusiasts and researchers.
Need for verification: As Coulthart stresses, without reliable provenance or supporting evidence, such materials risk spreading misinformation rather than shedding light on historical truth.
For now, the video may add more questions than answers. But in the broader context of recent congressional hearings, military whistleblower testimonies, and growing calls for transparency, it reinforces how the Roswell crash of 1947 continues to shape the conversation about what might be hiding in the skies above us.
A mysterious space signal that has never been explained may have come from an equally mysterious object racing through our solar system.
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who has continued to theorize that the object known as 3I/ATLAS could be an alien craft, has said the famous 'WOW! signal' may have come from this fast-moving visitor.
3I/ATLAS was first detected by astronomers this summer and is now only days away from making a close pass by Mars.
Loeb has noted several irregularities in the supposed comet that suggest it could be something that's artificially constructed with a mysterious mission that takes it past three planets in the solar system.
Now, Loeb has drawn a connection between 3I/ATLAS and this unexplained space signal received in 1977.
The WOW! signal was captured by the Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope for 72 seconds, in a burst so unusual that it prompted astronomer Jerry Ehman to write 'WOW!' on the telescope's readout.
Loeb's new analysis has found that on August 12, 1977, just a few days before the WOW! signal was detected, 3I/ATLAS was in a part of the sky very close to where the signal came from.
The chances of two random points in the sky being this close are only about 0.6 percent, which makes this potential connection even more compelling.
3I/ATLAS (pictured) is the third interstellar object discovered by astronomers as it passes through our solar system
The 'WOW! signal' was received on Earth back in 1977 and scientists have not been able to explain what produced it
If the signal did come from 3I/ATLAS, Loeb explained that it would have needed a transmitter as powerful as a nuclear power plant on Earth to send it from that distance.
Although astronomers have not found any proof of artificial technology on the surface of the object nearing Earth, Loeb has previously theorized that 3I/ATLAS could be a nuclear-powered vessel.
His claims were based on 3I/ATLAS appearing to generate its own light in a photo by the Hubble Telescope in August.
'3I/ATLAS could be a spacecraft powered by nuclear energy, and the dust emitted from its frontal surface might be from dirt that accumulated on its surface during its interstellar travel,' Loeb wrote in a statement.
Since then, scientists have widely dismissed the alien spacecraft theory, concluding that the interstellar object is a strange comet that's composed of a completely different chemical makeup than most comets created in our solar system.
So far, no one has checked if 3I/ATLAS has been sending out radio signals, but Loeb hopes this coincidence will encourage scientists to take a closer look.
This year, Earth spacecraft near Mars and Jupiter will get a chance to observe 3I/ATLAS as it passes by, which could give us more clues.
NASA has just unveiled a new tracking system for 3I/ATLAS, which allows anyone to zoom in and look at the object up close. According to NASA's simulation, it's a giant space rock with a white tail that will make it's closest pass by Mars on October 3.
3I/ATLAS will make a close pass by Mars on October 3 and NASA has just unveiled a new tracking tool for the public
As for the WOW! signal, it exhibited several intriguing characteristics, including a narrow bandwidth, high signal strength, and a frequency close to the natural radio emissions produced by neutral hydrogen - an element abundant in the universe.
These properties have led many to speculate the signal could have come from an alien origin, possibly sent by an extraterrestrial intelligence.
Looking at its possible connection to 3I/ATLAS, the signal showed a slight shift in frequency, which could match the speed of the comet moving toward the sun, though it's not a perfect match.
'In case we detect an artificial signal from an interstellar object, how should we engage with it?' Loeb asked in his latest paper on the interstellar object.
However, the Harvard professor said the answer is more complicated than some might think, warning that an alien intelligence could pose a threat to the human race.
'We must consider the possibility of a black swan event from interstellar objects resembling a comet at large distances, but potentially carrying devastating consequences to our future like a Trojan Horse,' Loeb warned.
NASA whistleblowers have come out with a dire warning, predicting that an astronaut will likely die in a tragic accident due to shocking changes at the space agency.
In a 21-page report released by the USSenate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, NASA employees claimed leadership has been keeping plans secret, with no written records, and shutting down open communication.
Whistleblowers believed future astronauts were at risk because of significant budget cuts proposed by the Trump Administration and an alleged culture of fear that's stopping workers from reporting safety problems.
One person who spoke to the committee warned that this could lead to an astronaut death soon due to ignored safety issues on upcoming space flights.
The committee specifically point the blame at the Trump White House and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), led by Director Russell Vought, for these safety risks, accusing them of illegally forcing unapproved budget cuts on NASA this year.
The budget cuts included a proposed rollback from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion for NASA's 2026 budget, a 24 percent overall slashing.
That May proposal focused on a 33 percent cut to science projects, a 47 percent reduction in NASA projects, and laying off 32 percent of the agency's workforce.
'No one is coming to save us,' a whistleblower said in the report.
NASA recently revealed 10 new astronauts who will make up its first new recruits since 2021, including some who may be the first people to set foot on Mars
Under the Trump Administration's budget cuts, nearly every area of NASA would see reductions, including a nearly 50 percent cut to major science programs (Stock Image)
The NASA staffers told the committee leadership, including Chief of Staff Brian Hughes, ordered them to only follow the unapproved 2026 budget (PBR) and that 'if it's not in the PBR, it does not count.'
This prompted them to come forward because they saw the policy changes as breaking NASA's rules and endangering its mission.
The whistleblowers added they spoke out to protect NASA's future, expressing heartbreak over losing young talent and fearing that without action, the agency's safety and innovation could collapse.
Another NASA employee said they were, 'very concerned that we're going to see an astronaut death within a few years.'
The committee added that the US Constitution is clear in this situation, declaring that the executive branch is not allowed to unilaterally impose a president's proposed budget without the approval of Congress.
'NASA's legal office should know better,' a whistleblower said.
Those that have come forward added that NASA employees are generally 'keeping their heads down' out of fear of retaliation for raising safety concerns.
Former NASA chief Bill Nelson told the Daily Mail that by cutting efforts to return to the moon and to pursue Mars missions undermines NASA's future (Stock Image)
During a recent NASA press conference, which announced the discovery of microbial life on Mars, new NASA Administrator Sean Duffy was pressed on the impact of the $6 billion budget cut to the agency.
Speaking specifically about how the proposed budget would cancel a sample retrieval mission to Mars, Duffy said NASA was looking at their budgets and finding faster and more cost-effective ways of completing space missions.
Despite the cuts, Duffy declared that the US would launch the Artemis II mission, which will orbit the moon, in less than two years.
He added that the Artemis III astronaut mission would then 'land and establish a long-term presence of life on the moon led by America.'
This month, former NASA chief Bill Nelson voiced his opposition to the cuts, fearing that future missions to Mars involving robots like the Perseverance rover were now in jeopardy.
'A lot of things I deeply care about and worked hard on are getting cut,' lamented Nelson, the former Democratic senator who flew aboard the space shuttle and served as NASA's 14th administrator.
However, the White House has dismissed the criticism and maintained that NASA has been 'grossly over budget,' arguing the same goals could be met through future manned Mars missions instead.
Using data collected by the Cassini spacecraft, scientists have found that these ice crystals are packed with complex organic molecules.
According to a new study, some of these molecules could be part of the chain of chemical reactions that ultimately lead to life.
The researchers say this discovery means Enceladus now 'ticks all the boxes' to be a world capable of supporting life.
The moon has a constant supply of liquid water, a source of energy from hydrothermal vents, and the right set of chemical elements and complex organic molecules.
Lead researcher Dr Nozair Khawaja, of Freie Universität Berlin, says: 'Even not finding life on Enceladus would be a huge discovery, because it raises serious questions about why life is not present in such an environment when the right conditions are there.'
Scientists have found that grains of ice spewed from Enceladus, Saturn's sixth–largest moon, contain organic compounds that could lead to life. Pictured: Enceladus' south pole as seen by the Cassini spacecraft
The European Space Agency found that water forced up from the underground ocean carried a set of complex organic molecules that are likely produced by chemical reactions around deep hydrothermal vents
What is Enceladus?
Enceladus is Saturn's sixth–largest moon, at 313 miles wide (504 kilometres).
It is an icy satellite with hydrothermal activity – a rare combination – with vents spewing water vapour and ice particles out from a global ocean buried beneath the moon's frozen crust.
According to NASA observations, the plume includes organic compounds, volatile gases, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, salts, and silica.
Microbes on our planet either produce these compounds or use them for growth, leading some to speculate that tiny organisms live in Enceladus' hidden ocean.
On the surface, conditions are exceptionally cold with temperatures as low as –201°C (–330°F).
However, in 2005, scientists discovered that a huge liquid ocean was actually trapped beneath the icy shell.
Jets of water erupt like geysers through cracks near the South Pole and, while some fall back down to the surface, some escape and form a ring around Saturn that traces the moon's orbit.
Dr Khawaja says: 'Cassini was detecting samples from Enceladus all the time as it flew through Saturn's E ring.
'We had already found many organic molecules in these ice grains, including precursors for amino acids.'
But some of these grains were hundreds of years old, so the scientists couldn't be sure whether the chemicals within had been altered by radiation from the sun.
In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft discovered striking tectonic faults at the south pole known as 'tiger stripes' (bottom right). These allow ice to escape from the oceans into space
Some of the ice falls back to the lunar surface, but much of it escapes into space, where it forms a ring around Saturn. In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft gathered samples from this ring and found that the ice contained organic molecules. Pictured: Artist's impression of Enceladus' surface
That changed when Cassini flew straight through Enceladus' spray in 2008, gathering ice crystals on its Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA) as they emerged from the moon's interior.
As Cassini whipped through the cloud at 11 miles per second (18 km/s), it gathered the freshest and fastest ever collected.
That speed actually makes a big difference to the quality of the data, since it helps scientists separate water from other interesting molecules.
'At lower impact speeds, the ice shatters, and the signal from clusters of water molecules can hide the signal from certain organic molecules,' explains Dr Khawaja.
'But when the ice grains hit CDA fast, water molecules don't cluster, and we have a chance to see these previously hidden signals.'
After spending years working through the vast amounts of data collected by Cassini, Dr Khawaja and his co–authors have finally confirmed that these fresh ice crystals also contain organic molecules.
Those molecules included some that had been found around Saturn and some new chemicals that hadn't been detected before.
That means the molecules found in Saturn's ring and in Enceladus' ice geyser must be formed within the moon's ocean, not created later by reactions with solar radiation.
Cassini (artist's impression) was able to fly directly through the plumes of ice emerging from the south pole and gather tiny particles of ice at extremely high speeds. This proved that the organic molecules found in Saturn's ring were formed in Enceladus' ocean
On Earth, these molecules are part of the chemical reactions that lead to life. This means that the moon now 'ticks all the boxes' to be a habitable world capable of sustaining living organisms
On Earth, these organic molecules are involved in the chains of chemical reactions which lead to life, raising the tantalising possibility that Enceladus could be home to life.
Dr Khawaja says: 'There are many possible pathways from the organic molecules we found in the Cassini data to potentially biologically relevant compounds, which enhances the likelihood that the moon is habitable.'
In the future, ESA is planning to launch a mission to Enceladus that will collect more grains of ice from the South Pole plumes and even land on the moon's surface.
This would be the first time that any space agency has landed on Enceladus and could reveal more details about the possible conditions for life.
Cassini launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1997, then spent seven years in transit followed by 13 years orbiting Saturn.
An artist's impression of the Cassini spacecraft studying Saturn
In 2000 it spent six months studying Jupiter before reaching Saturn in 2004.
In that time, it discovered six more moons around Saturn, three-dimensional structures towering above Saturn's rings, and a giant storm that raged across the planet for nearly a year.
On 13 December 2004 it made its first flyby of Saturn's moons Titan and Dione.
On 24 December it released the European Space Agency-built Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan to study its atmosphere and surface composition.
There it discovered eerie hydrocarbon lakes made from ethane and methane.
In 2008, Cassini completed its primary mission to explore the Saturn system and began its mission extension (the Cassini Equinox Mission).
In 2010 it began its second mission (Cassini Solstice Mission) which lasted until it exploded in Saturn's atmosphere.
In December 2011, Cassini obtained the highest resolution images of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
In December of the following year it tracked the transit of Venus to test the feasibility of observing planets outside our solar system.
In March 2013 Cassini made the last flyby of Saturn's moon Rhea and measured its internal structure and gravitational pull.
Cassini didn't just study Saturn - it also captured incredible views of its many moons. In the image above, Saturn's moon Enceladus can be seen drifting before the rings and the tiny moon Pandora. It was captured on Nov. 1, 2009, with the entire scene is backlit by the Sun
In July of that year Cassini captured a black-lit Saturn to examine the rings in fine detail and also captured an image of Earth.
In April of this year it completed its closest flyby of Titan and started its Grande Finale orbit which finished on September 15.
'The mission has changed the way we think of where life may have developed beyond our Earth,' said Andrew Coates, head of the Planetary Science Group at Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London.
'As well as Mars, outer planet moons like Enceladus, Europa and even Titan are now top contenders for life elsewhere,' he added. 'We've completely rewritten the textbooks about Saturn.'
We tend to fear and project our shadow onto strangers.
Evil is, and should be, one of life's "ultimate concerns."
It is incumbent upon us to recognize, acknowledge, and constructively address the reality of evil.
The mysterious phenomenon of UFOs or UAPs inevitably touches on matters of religion, spirituality, morality, and psychology, including our innate quest for meaning and, especially, on the perennial problem of evil. We humans possess a primal, perhaps instinctual proclivity to perceive and deem that which we do not understand, i.e., the unknown, as negative, destructive, or evil.
In Part 1 of this post, I addressed some of the psychological dynamics and existential needs (e.g., meaninglessness and alienation in a mysterious cosmos, dread of the stranger or "other," seeking a messianic "ultimate rescuer," etc.) that can foster belief in UFOs, extraterrestrial visitation or abduction, etc.
Fervent, far-fetched, unswerving and unlikely reports with absolutely no objective evidence or corroboration can, in some cases, sound like the stuff of delusions or hallucinations heard every day in psychiatric wards around the world. And like hallucinations and delusions, these reported experiences can sometimes serve as a sort of projective test, revealing hidden conflicts, fears, resentments, repressed memories, traumas, and anxieties (and sometimes positive feelings, wishes, talents, potentialities, aspirations or beliefs) not only in the psyche of individual experiencers but deeply rooted in our collective unconscious psyche as well.
However, having said all that, this is in no way intended by me to dismiss or deny the objective reality of the UFO or UAP phenomenon but rather only to provide some psychological context within which to try to better comprehend, explain, and come to terms with it. Given some of the most recent information and imagery released by the government, for example, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, chair of a federal declassification task force, telling Joe Rogan (August, 2025) that she’s seen classified photos of objects “not created by mankind,” New York Times articles (2018, 2020) on UAPs offering several images of unidentified objects captured via video by the U.S. military, and thousands of eye-witness accounts by airline pilots, military personnel, police, etc., and other reliable and credible witnesses, it can no longer be denied that strange objects have been observed.
As with Hermann Rorschach's famous inkblots, we tend to project our deepest hopes and fears onto such enigmatic and ambiguous phenomena. Indeed, human beings are prone, as C.G. Jung theorized in his concept of the "shadow," to project our own capacity for evil onto the "other"--be they our partner, neighbor, co-worker, or someone of a different race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, political leaning, or sexual orientation--thus preserving our narcissistic and one-sided, unidimensional image of ourselves as being good, kind, caring people while consciously or unconsciously harboring hostility, hatred, resentment, distrust, and dread of the unknown other or stranger.
What is a demon? It is a creature not of this world. Foreign to us in almost every way. They traveled to us with magic we probably don't understand.
This dangerous and destructive dynamic is exemplified today in the excessive polarization, paranoia, and interpersonal hostility pervading American culture, manifesting in racism, antisemitism, political enmity, and defensive isolationism. But other nations and people engage in similar projection of the shadow, in the process, dehumanizing, devaluing, and demeaning the perceived enemy.
Human beings historically harbor a primal fear of the "other" and the "unknown" and superstitiously see them as threatening harbingers of evil, whether these are people of different races, ethnicities, nationalities, or religions or uninvited and unwelcome strangers from outer space. We project our so-called shadow, viewing them as the evil enemy. (See, for example, former PT contributing editor Sam Keen's 1991 book Faces of the Enemy.) Consequentially, we are prone to attacking, verbally or physically, the unknown object of our fears, which causes untold interpersonal and international conflict and unspeakable suffering.
On the other hand, belief in UFOs and alien beings can be a way of wishing to be rescued from evil, much like the belief in a loving and good god or messiah (see my prior post on the messiah complex). This presumes the intrinsic benevolence and goodness of aliens. But is the problem or existential reality of evil indigenous to the human race or could it be present in extraterrestrial civilization as well? Whatever these foreign objects and their occupants (or remote or robotic pilots) are and wherever they come from, they have now become an integral part of our modern collective myth, for better or worse.
To many folks, the only difference is their motivations. Are they here to be friend or foe? Whether they got here via science or magic is meaningless compared to how they want to greet us?
If aliens, assuming they truly exist, eventually turn out not to be trustworthy, demonstrating hostility, aggression, malice, evil intentions and pose a mortal threat to humanity, as depicted for example in H.G. Wells' (1897) science fiction novel War of the Worlds, they will need to be fought and resisted despite their superior technology if humanity is to survive. That they even possess or represent such a potentiality for evil is for some people frightening reason enough to deny their existence entirely. Not to mention the shattering impact that the reality of alien life would have on our religious, philosophical, and scientific beliefs.
Of course, another at least equally likely scenario in any close encounter with aliens has humanity as the initial aggressor, violently attacking these possibly well-intentioned, empathic, and peaceful visitors, as portrayed in another classic 1951 sci-fi flick The Day the Earth Stood Still. Indeed, it is at least equally possible that such enigmatic alien entities mean no harm by their presence or may actually wish to help society and humanity survive and thrive. That their mission here is to save us from ourselves.
Have evolved extraterrestrials, very unlike humanity, found some way to transcend, mitigate, or even eliminate the pernicious problem of evil that has plagued humanity from time immemorial? If so, would that make them immune to the tendency toward evil? Is this even a realistic possibility? It represents an optimistic but potentially very naive and, therefore, risky view which to assume would be wishful thinking. Because many people tend, as did humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers, to believe in the intrinsic goodness of others, we will likely give any extraterrestrial visitors the benefit of the doubt initially, presuming that by providing them a warm, friendly, supportive, empathic welcome (demonstrating "positive regard") they will choose to respond in kind. Perhaps.
But until we know for certain much more about these supposedly extraterrestrial strangers, whomever or whatever they are, we would do well to keep in mind the existential capacity for evil, not only potentially in them but especially in ourselves. For all we know, the problem of evil may reside inherently and exclusively in the terrestrial human condition but, then again, could turn out to be a pervasive and ubiquitous universal reality, one which, as here on Earth, can lead to catastrophic consequences when denied, minimized, or ignored.
Just like not every demon is evil.
The phenomenon of human evil, if proven to be indigenous and exclusive to our species, can be conceived of as a kind of malignant cancer capable in the future of metastasizing to the farthest reaches of creation. Thus it is crucial for we human beings to better comprehend the psychology of evil. The more we are willing to study, confront, and acknowledge the phenomenon of human evil, doing our best to understand, mitigate and control it, the less likely we are to engage in evil directed toward aliens, be they human or extraterrestrial. It is only natural to hope that visiting aliens have transcended, outgrown or eliminated the evil tendencies with which we humans still so tragically struggle.
The more likely scenario is that, if extraterrestrials do indeed exist, they are, for better or worse, probably something like us: creatures inherently capable of both good and evil.
References
Diamond, S.A. (1996). Anger, madness, and the daimonic: The psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity. SUNY Press.
Diamond, S.A. (2026). Forthcoming: "The psychology and psychotherapy of evil: Encountering the daimonic." In Hoffman, L. (Ed.) (2026). APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology. APA books.
New York Times. April 28, 2020. U.S. Navy Releases Videos of Unexplained Flying Objects
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What Do Scientists And NASA Actually Think Of Aliens And UFOs?
What Do Scientists And NASA Actually Think Of Aliens And UFOs?
The truth is out there.
James Felton
Seeing this would certainly clear things up.
Image credit: Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock.com
If you believe certain, odder, corners of the Internet, scientists are either too arrogant to investigate the possibility of alien life visiting Earth, or actively involved in a cover-up.
But what do scientists really think about UFOs, and aliens more generally? Are they interested in the phenomenon, and do they think it worthy of further investigation? And do they think alien life will exist at all?
Fortunately, not only are scientists interested in studying the topic, they are even interested in studying whether they are interested in the topic. There are several surveys asking these kinds of questions, with some surprising answers, even if some of the results should be taken with a generous pinch of salt.
Let's start with the more general questions. In a study published in January 2025, researchers from Durham University surveyed 521 astrobiologists and 534 non-astrobiologist scientists on whether they believe life and intelligent life exists out there in the universe.
"The results reveal that 86.6% of the surveyed astrobiologists responded either 'agree' or 'strongly agree' that it’s likely that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists somewhere in the universe," Professor in Philosophy of Science, Peter Vickers, explained in a Durham University blog post.
"Less than 2% disagreed, with 12% staying neutral. So, based on this, we might say that there’s a solid consensus that extraterrestrial life, of some form, exists somewhere out there."
The team found that scientists were optimistic about intelligent life too. 67.4 percent of astrobiologists and 58.2 percent of non-astrobiologists agreed that complex and intelligent life exists out there in the cosmos, though as Vickers points out, given the sheer number of stars out there you could call these numbers quite pessimistic indeed.
How about UFOs and UAPs? These topics have been a little more taboo in scientific circles over the last century. Though scientists are slowly taking it more seriously, with projects like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and its evil twin METI, for the large part scientists do not want to discuss the possibility that UFOs and UAPs could be alien visitors. Of course, this could largely be because there is little convincing evidence to suggest that they are, even if some video footage is intriguing and worthy of investigation.
But there have been anonymous surveys which have attempted to gauge scientists' beliefs on the topic. In 2023, a team from the University of Virginia did just this, asking scientists with tenure or on the tenure track at top research universities whether they or anyone close to them had witnessed "anything of unknown origin to you that might fit the U.S. government’s definition of a UAP".
The survey found that 18.9 percent of respondents said that they had, while a further 8.7 percent responded "maybe". The survey did not ask for further details of these incidents, but asked if there was anything else they would like the researchers to know.
“My entire family and I witnessed a UFO around 1976. It was over our house in the rural northeast (state redacted). Two of my siblings saw it, while the rest of us in the house felt it shake and heard a loud noise. We were eating dinner and the shaking was so intense that we all ran outside," one anonymous academic responded.
“I saw an unidentified flying object as a child in (state redacted) (with my sibling) – which my parents didn’t believe. The news reported that others saw it, too," another added, while a third said they had witnessed two UAPs.
“I used to tell people, but they thought I was crazy or lying – so now I’m silent," they added.
Though interesting that some academics do believe they have seen a UAP, it should be noted that the survey respondents were self-selecting and chose to fill in a survey about UFOs, and so perhaps are not reflective of the scientific community as a whole. In fact, the team reported that they received hostile responses to the survey email, with one even writing "tenure might be tricky for you – good luck.”
Despite the stigma, studies into the topics of UAPs are slowly making their way into the mainstream, particularly with the recent US government hearings on it. NASA, too has released its own reports on UAPs. While they did not find any evidence that UAPs are of extraterrestrial origin, they cannot say for certain what each UAP is, but they will continue to investigate.
"The mission of NASA is to find out the unknown," former astronaut Bill Nelson said as the report was released. "I've said several times in my comments today that we deal openly, and we will be transparent on this."
In short, scientists are interested in the topic too, and want to investigate further, even if the answer doesn't turn out to be "it's aliens".
Als er een ruimtewedloop is, lijkt China deze al te winnen: NASA’s Mars-monsters en de race om Mars-monsters terug naar de Aarde
Als er een ruimtewedloop is, lijkt China deze al te winnen: NASA’s Mars-monsters en de race om Mars-monsters terug naar de Aarde
Een illustratie van NASA's Perseverance-rover naast een voorraad verzegelde Marsmonstervoorzieningen. De rover heeft 30 geologische monsters op Mars verzameld, maar NASA's geplande missie om ze op te halen is vertraagd.
(Beeldkrediet: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Inleiding
Er wordt momenteel veel gesproken over een mogelijke ruimtewedloop tegen Mars. Een opvallende opmerking luidt: als er al een race is, dan lijkt China deze al te winnen, en NASA zal waarschijnlijk geen Mars-monsters (monsters) eerder terughalen naar de Aarde dan China. Experts wijzen erop dat traditionele tijdlijnen en technologische mijlpalen steeds vaker onder druk komen te staan door geopolitieke belangen, technologische doorbraken en de enorme complexiteit van een Mars Sample Return-missie. Dit artikel verkent de context, de stand van zaken en wat dit betekent voor de toekomst van de verkenning van de Rode Planeet.
1. Achtergrond
Waarom Mars-samples terug naar de Aarde zo aantrekkelijk zijn Het verzamelen en terugbrengen van Mars-monsters naar de Aarde is een unieke kans om een schat aan wetenschappelijke informatie direct te analyseren met de precisie en instrumentatie die op Aarde ontbreekt op een ruimtevaartuig. Terwijl robots op Mars rovers en landers laten zien wat mogelijk is, biedt een wetenschappelijk laboratorium op Aarde de mogelijkheid tot diepgravende analyses op moleculair, isotopisch en biogeochemisch niveau. De belofte is simpel maar enorm: om graffiti-achtige tekens van vroeg leven, geologische processen en de geschiedenis van de planeet beter te begrijpen dan ooit tevoren.
Toch is een Mars Sample Return (MSR) missie een van de meest ambitieuze en risicovolle ondernemingen in de ruimtevaart. Het vereist coördinatie over meerdere ruimtemissies, strikte contaminatiecontrole, veiligheid op aarde en een dure investeringslijn die decennia kan overspannen. Die combinatie van technologische complexiteit en operationele verwikkelingen legt een hoge lat voor tijdlijnen en budgetten. Daarom zien experts MSR als een langetermijninspanning, waarbij elke stap een leerproces is.
Een "selfie" van China's Zhurong-rover en het Tianwen-1 landingsplatform op Mars in 2021.
Bron: China National Space Administration
2. NASA, MSR en de haalbaarheid op kortere termijn
Sinds het begin van de jaren 2000 heeft NASA MSR-ambities gekoesterd, maar de uitvoering is niet lineair verlopen. De huidige visie draait om een combinatie van een Mars-orbitalsessie, een lander en een sample-return missie die terugkeer naar de Aarde mogelijk maakt. De planning is ver verwijderd van een eenvoudige “lima” met een enkele vlucht. Er zijn cruciale technologische knelpunten, zoals het veilig ophalen van Marsboden met mondiaal contaminants en het betrouwbaar afleveren van monsters in een speciaal container op aarde, waar streng toezicht en controle op aanwezigheids- en opslagsystemen nodig zijn.
Daarnaast spelen budgettaire realiteiten en prioriteitsafwegingen in NASA’s bredere programma een grote rol. MSR vereist partnership en cofinanciering met andere ruimtevaartorganisaties en industriepartners. In het recente verleden zijn er stappen gezet zoals pre-voorbereidende studies, concept-ontwikkeling en demonstratie-activiteiten die de haalbaarheid vergroten, maar een concrete startdatum blijft onzeker. Daardoor ontstaat bij critici het beeld dat NASA mogelijk de tijd vooruit maakt op sommige vlakken, maar de totale terugkeer van Mars-monsters naar de Aarde een lange, complexe en gedeeltelijk onvoorspelbare onderneming blijft.
China heeft actief hun plannen voor aankomende ruimtemissies gedeeld, waaronder de asteroïdemissie, de Mars-monsterrterugbrengmissie en de missie naar Jupiter. Samen met hun ambitieuze robotische missies kondigde de CNSA in 2021 aan dat ze van plan zijn hun eerste bemande missie naar Mars te sturen in 2033, met als doel regelmatige missies naar Mars te sturen en uiteindelijk daar een basis te bouwen. China heeft ook hun Tiangong-ruimtestation, dat momenteel drie astronauten huisvest voor verblijven van zes maanden.
3. China’s ruimteprogramma
Op weg naar Mars-monsters terug naar huis China heeft de afgelopen jaren aangekondigd en vervolgens laten zien dat het mee wil doen aan het meest ambitieuze deel van de planetoid-wereld: een Mars-sample return. Het land heeft al een succesvol ruimtemissiesucces gevierd met de Tianwen-1 missie: een orbiter, een lander en een rover die gezamenlijk de Rode Planeet heeft onderzocht. De volgende stap, zo suggereren officiële aankondigingen en openbare plannen, is het ophalen van Mars-monsters en het terugbrengen naar de Aarde.
China’s aanpak wordt vaak geprezen om zijn gelikte randvoorwaarden: duidelijke doelstellingen, agressieve tijdlijnen en een cultuur van strakke uitvoering. De betrokkenheid van een robuuste ruimtevaartindustrie, een intensief test- en validatieprogramma en een streven naar geopolitieke invloed op het gebied van ruimteonderzoek, dragen eraan bij dat China’s plannen serieus worden genomen. Experts wijzen erop dat China niet alleen investeert in individuele missies, maar ook in de infrastructuur die nodig is om zulke missies te ondersteunen: grondstations in verschillende delen van de wereld, geavanceerde grondcontrole, en een rijp beleid voor ruimtevaartveiligheid en -beveiliging.
NASA-programmawetenschapper Lindsay Hays legt uit wat mogelijke tekenen van oud leven op andere werelden definieert en waarom deze nader onderzoek vereisen. De Perseverance-rover van NASA op Mars zoekt naar deze tekenen, verzamelt monsters voor toekomstige terugkeer naar de aarde en helpt de weg te effenen voor menselijke verkenning.
Bron: NASA/JPL-Caltech What is a Potential Biosignature?
4. Waarom de tijdlijnen zo anders uitpakken dan men zou verwachten
Technische complexiteit: Het terughalen van Mars-monsters vereist meerdere stappen: verregaande landers, sample caches op de maan of in een tweede voertuig, en een terugkeer-progamma dat monsters veilig naar de Aarde brengt en vervolgens in een controleert gecontroleerde bioveiligheidsomgeving onderzoekt. Elk van deze stappen heeft unieke ontwerpuitdagingen en testvereisten.
Contaminatiedeals en ruimtebodemhygiëne: Een van de grootste zorgen is het voorkomen van biologische of chemische verontreiniging, zowel van Mars naar Aarde als omgekeerd, wanneer monsters worden aangeraakt en geanalyseerd. De regelgeving en procedures voor biosafety zijn streng en vereisen uitgebreide validatie.
Politieke en financiële factoren:MSR-projecten financieren zich niet vanzelf. Veranderingen in politieke prioriteiten, economische omstandigheden en internationale samenwerking kunnen tijdlijnen flink beïnvloeden. De huidige geopolitieke context, gekenmerkt door belangrijke concurrentie in de ruimte, heeft de kosten en de politieke bereidheid om samen te werken kunnen beïnvloeden
Innovatie- en supply-keten uitdagingen: De benodigde systemen en onderdelen (zoals speciale weerbestendige containers en strikte contaminatiewaardesystemen) moeten wereldwijd worden ontwikkeld en geproduceerd, hetgeen logistieke vertragingen oplevert. Elk missertje in de supply chain kan de hele klok vertroebelen.
Na meerdere jaren en meerdere beoordelingen van het gezamenlijke NASA/Europese Ruimtevaartorganisatie MSR-project was er een schrikbarend prijskaartje. Vroege conceptuele kunstwerken tonen een door de VS geleid initiatief.
(Afbeelding tegoed: NASA/JPL/Caltech)
5. Geopolitieke realiteiten
De ruimte als theater van invloed De opkomst van een ruimtewedloop vol geopolitieke concurrentie heeft de dynamiek van missies veranderd. Voor sommige analisten is China al dichter bij de finishlijn dan NASA, omdat China sneller in staat blijkt te schakelen tussen planning, technologische ontwikkeling en uitvoering. Anderen merken op dat NASA, ondanks de doorbraaktempo en het succes van NASA’s Mars- en Artemis-programma’s, met zijn eigen stevige partnernetwerk en multinationale samenwerking, in staat zal zijn om MSR-ambities te realiseren, zij het mogelijk op een iets langere tijdschaal.
Toch blijft de onderstroom duidelijk: wie als eerste Mars-monsters op aarde kan ontvangen, zal niet alleen een wetenschappelijke prestatie leveren, maar ook een symbolische overwinning die de perceptie van leiderschap in de ruimtevaart bepaalt. In informele bewoordingen wordt er gezegd dat “als er een ruimtewedloop is, China deze al gewonnen heeft”—niet dat NASA geen significante wetenschappelijke vooruitgang boekt, maar dat de tijdlijn en de haalbaarheid van MSR er anders uitzien dan men in de vroege jaren 2000 had verwacht.
Waar te verzamelen, wat te verzamelen, hoe te verzamelen en hoe te analyseren wat wordt gevonden, wordt actief bestudeerd door functionarissen van het Chinese ruimtevaartprogramma.
(Beeldcredit: De Universiteit van Hong Kong)
China's routekaart voor een Marsmonstermissie die in 2028 gelanceerd zal worden.
(Beeldcredit: The University of Hong Kong/Zengqian Hou, et al.)
6. Wat betekent dit voor de wetenschap en de publieke perceptie?
Wetenschappelijke implicaties
Een succesvolle terugkeer van Mars-monsters zal de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap in staat stellen om analyses uit te voeren met hulp van state-of-the-art laboratoria op aarde. Dit kan leiden tot nieuwe inzichten in de geologie, de ontwikkeling van Mars en mogelijk signalen van vroeg leven of prebiotische chemische processen. De vooruitgang in analyse-technieken en de interoperabiliteit van internationale partners kunnen de kwaliteit en snelheid van wetenschappelijk begrip aanzienlijk verhogen.
Publieke perceptie en inspanning
Een duidelijke publieke boodschap over wie wanneer Mars-monsters terugbrengt, kan de publieke interesse in ruimtevaart versterken of juist tot discussies leiden over prioriteiten en uitgaven. Belangrijke ruimte-evenementen en persmomenten kunnen dienen als katalysator voor bredere belangstelling en educatieve projecten.
Beleidskaders en internationale samenwerking
De gespannen maar noodzakelijke dialoog tussen ruimtevaart agentschappen wereldwijd, met inbegrip van regels rondom veilige terugkeer, data sharing en aansprakelijkheid, zal cruciaal blijven. Internationale samenwerking kan missies haalbaarder maken, maar vereist ook duidelijke afspraken over eigendomsrechten van monsters, data en de verdeling van wetenschappelijke voordelen.
7.Conclusie:
Wat de toekomst ons leert Of China nu daadwerkelijk als eerste Mars-monsters naar de Aarde zal brengen, of NASA uiteindelijk de eerste officiële terugkeer zal realiseren, is voor het moment minder belangrijk dan wat deze race leert over de toekomst van ruimteverkenning. Het gaat niet alleen om de eindbestemming, maar om de weg ernaartoe: de technologische innovatie, de samenwerking tussen landen en sectoren, en de maatschappelijke dialogen over de waarde van onderzoek en ontdekking.
De uitspraak dat China mogelijk vooroploopt in de ruimtewedloop straalt een pragmatisme uit: de realiteit is dat zowel de technologische doorbraken als de geopolitieke omstandigheden voortdurend veranderen. In die zin is er geen eenvoudige winnaar in een dergelijke complexe onderneming. Wat wel vaststaat, is dat Mars-exploratie niet langer een eenvoudig “sciencefiction”-verhaal is. Het is nu een internationaal en multidisciplinair project waar elke morgen een stap dichter bij de Aarde mogelijk wordt gemaakt—en waarin de wereld toekijkt hoe twee grootmachten, en mogelijk anderen, de grenzen van wat mogelijk is opnieuw verleggen.
Eind noot
Het debat over wie Mars-monsters als eerste terugbrengt naar de Aarde, blijft een boeiend onderwerp voor ruimtefanaten, wetenschappers en beleidsmakers. Terwijl mengformuleringen over de ruimtewedloop bestaan, blijft één ding duidelijk: de technologische ontwikkeling, de internationale samenwerking en de publieke belangstelling voor Mars zullen in de komende decennia centraal staan. Of China nu wint in de perceptie, de realiteit blijft dat Mars-verkenning een collectieve menselijke onderneming is—een onderneming waarin elke stap, elke innovatie en elke samenwerking bijdraagt aan ons begrip van de Rode Planeet en ons eigen plek in het universum.
Pyramids in Egypt: Tombs or Rather Tools of Power?
Artistic visualization of a pharaoh supervising pyramid construction.
Pyramids in Egypt: Tombs or Rather Tools of Power?
Abstract
The pyramids of Egypt have long occupied a central place in scholarship, public imagination, and national identity. Traditionally viewed as royal tombs, these monuments also function as profound statements of political authority, religious ideology, economic organization, and social mobilization. This article reviews the evidence and debates surrounding the purpose of the pyramids, synthesizing archaeological, textual, architectural, and paleoeconomic data. It argues that while tomb function remains integral to pyramids’ meaning, their construction, layout, orientation, and associated practices reflect a broader set of tools through which kings projected power, coordinated labor, integrated state economies, and validated divine legitimacy. The discussion draws on Giza and Dahshur exemplars, aligns with developments in the Old Kingdom, and situates pyramids within longer trajectories of evolving royal ideology.
The Great Khufu pyramid looms behind the Sphinx at Giza, just outside Cairo, Egypt. The three large pyramids at Giza were built by King Khufu over a 30-year period around 2550 BCE with a newly discovered system of ramps.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Introduction
The question “tombs or tools of power?” captures a persistent tension in Egyptology: are the pyramids primarily repositories for the dead or are they dynamic instruments of sovereign authority? The answer, rather than a binary, lies in a nuanced synthesis of function, symbolism, and social practice. Pyramids are monumental expressions of the state—scales visible from afar, materials and labor logistics that reveal administrative reach, religious program that legitimizes rulers, and spatial configurations that perpetuate a ruler’s memory across generations. This article surveys core evidence and interprets it within a framework that foregrounds political economy, ritual legitimacy, and architectural innovation.
Historical and ideological context
The Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE) witnessed the crystallization of centralized government under a series of dynastic rulers who leveraged monumental projects to assert legitimacy. The pyramid, an evolution from earlier mastaba tombs, embodies a shift toward enduring, geologically anchored monuments. The social and economic fabric of the state—corvée labor, provisioning systems, regional administration, and long-distance trade—enabled large-scale construction operations. Ideologically, pyramid complexes anchored the king as a god on earth, linking his earthly reign with cosmic order. The sun cult, celestial alignments, and mortuary cults contributed to a ritual economy in which the king’s cosmic venture could be sustained beyond his death. These features collectively suggest that pyramids functioned as state devices for mobilizing resources, legitimizing authority, and reinforcing the ruler’s place within a divine grain of order.
Depiction of laborers at work on pyramid construction
Architectural and spatial dimensions
Pyramids are not uniform; their forms—stepped, smooth, or partial—signal shifts in style and political aims. The earliest royal pyramids at Saqqara (e.g., Djoser’s Step Pyramid) introduced the concept of a monumental tomb enclosed within a sacred precinct, linking burial with a curated landscape of cult temples and processional way. The Giza plateau (Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure) epitomizes later apexes of scale and precision. The geometry, orientation to cardinal points, and the alignment with celestial or solar cults imbue pyramids with a cosmological function that transcends mere burial. The causeways, valley temples, queen’s pyramids, and satellite structures reveal a complex ritual geography designed to channel offerings, initiate mortuary cults, and sustain royal memory.
The Architecture of the Pyramids - Egypt Tours Portal
The tomb hypothesis:
Evidence and limits The explicit burial function is evident in chamber systems, protective substructures, and grave goods. Principal burial chambers and sarcophagi are central to the tomb narrative. Yet the sheer scale of the pyramids, the labor organization required, and the duration of construction imply more than a simple bequest of a tomb. The presence of extensive and durable mortuary cult spaces, inscriptions on blocks and in temples, and long-lasting cult activity suggests that pyramids were both tombs and ongoing political-religious instruments. In short, the tomb served as a focal point within a broader apparatus of power projection and ritual governance.
Power projection and state organization
A key line of evidence concerns the logistical and economic machinery that underwrote pyramid building. Large-scale labor mobilization relied on organized corvée and periods of vrijwillige labor with incentives. Settlement patterns, bakeries, quarries, and supply depots indicate a centralized procurement system with a robust command hierarchy. Quarried limestone, granite, and basalt required transport networks along the Nile and overland routes, signaling a sophisticated infrastructure for resource extraction and distribution. The ability to marshal such resources—without modern bureaucratic apparatus—speaks to a highly centralized political order that could command, schedule, and reward labor on a grand scale. The pyramid thus emerges not only as a royal repository but as a visible demonstration of state capacity and the ruler’s stewardship.
Ritual economy and the divinization of kingship
The intersection of mortuary cults with solar theology situates pyramids within a broader cosmology. The king’s association with the sun god Ra (and later local Solar cults) ties the pyramid to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Mortuary cults, processional routes, and temple complexes created a ritual economy in which offerings, prayers, and festivals sustained the king’s divine presence. By designing a monumental tomb that aligns with solar or stellar cycles and by situating the royal cult within a temple precinct, the ruler communicated a message: the king’s legitimacy is anchored in cosmic order and divine favor. The pyramid becomes a physical manifestation of divine kingship, a political technology that secures social cohesion and collective identity.
Economic dimensions and labor regimes
The pyramid projects reveal an advanced, organized economy. Workforce estimates vary, but the scale is indisputable: tens of thousands of laborers, artisans, and support personnel, organized in hierarchical teams with specialized roles. Seasonal labor cycles, provision systems, housing for workers, and medical or recreational facilities demonstrate a sophisticated approach to labor management. In addition to direct labor, a substantial network of suppliers—stone quarriers, metalworkers, carpenters, and symbolic artisans—contributed specialized knowledge. The economic impact extended beyond the workforce: provisioning required agricultural surpluses, storage facilities, and distribution channels across regions. The state thus used large-scale building as both a driver of economic activity and a mechanism to distribute wealth, incentivize loyalty, and integrate regional communities into a centralized project.
Construction Method of the Pyramids - Egypt Tours Portal
Archaeological and textual evidence
Archaeology provides material corroboration for a power-centered interpretation. Quarry marks, tool marks, transport tracks, and the organization of workspaces reveal the practicalities of construction and the magnitude of logistical operations. Inscriptions and reliefs within temple forecourts and mortuary temples underscore the king’s divine status, his role as cosmic steward, and his relationship to the state cult. While textual sources from the Old Kingdom are sparse, later inscriptions and literary traditions reflect consolidations of royal ideology that credit the pyramid projects with legitimizing the dynasty. The paucity of direct, contemporary administrative records poses interpretive challenges, but the convergence of architectural analysis, landscape archaeology, and signaled ritual programs yields a coherent picture of pyramids as manifestations of state power.
Debates and interpretations
Scholars have debated whether pyramids should be primarily considered tombs, monuments of power, or hybrids. Some argue for a “tomb-centric” reading, emphasizing burial chambers, grave goods, and the cultic memory of the deceased. Others stress the political economy of construction, arguing that pyramids primarily functioned as tools to organize labor, mobilize resources, and solidify the ruler’s legitimacy through monumental display. A synthesis understands pyramids as both; their tomb function is inseparable from their political, economic, and religious roles. The interpretation also depends on the broader project of state formation: in a highly centralized system with a powerful ruler and a sophisticated administrative apparatus, monumental architectures serve as both memory and mechanism for governance.
Case studies and regional variations Giza:
The plateau near Cairo became the apex of pyramid construction during the Fourth Dynasty. The scale, alignment to celestial axes, and proximity to royal cemeteries and vast mortuary landscapes reveal a sophisticated fusion of ritual, memory, and statecraft. The related causeways, temples, and subsidiary monuments show a coordinated complex designed to sustain royal cult and public display of power. This site is a paradigmatic example of how pyramids served as visible embodiments of kingly authority and social cohesion.
Photograph of the empty sarcophagus from the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid at Giza, which once housed Pharaoh Khufu’s mummy. The mummy was stolen long ago, but the sarcophagus remains.
Dahshur: The bent and red pyramids of Sneferu mark technical and ideological experiments in pyramid design. These early attempts reflect evolving ideas about the relationship between form, function, and cosmic symbolism. The development visible at Dahshur confirms the state’s enduring commitment to monumental projects, even as architectural details adapt to new political and religious objectives. The Dahshur examples illuminate the process by which political power sought to optimize architectural language for legitimacy, labor management, and ritual significance.
Sneferu and the transition to true pyramids:The transition from step and mixed forms to true smooth-sided pyramids signals a maturation of royal ideology and engineering prowess. This transition carries implications for the scale and discipline required from the state to realize increasingly complex monuments. The ability to translate early experimentation into enduring, durable forms further demonstrates the state’s capacity to project power through architectural innovation.
Implications for modern understanding
The pyramids’ dual role as tombs and tools of power has implications beyond Egyptology. They illustrate how states mobilize labor, harness resources, and structure a political-religious narrative through monumental architecture. They also remind scholars of the importance of integrating multiple modalities of evidence—archaeology, epigraphy, architecture, landscape studies, and economic history—to understand complex socio-political phenomena. In contemporary public discourse, the pyramids function as powerful symbols of state organization, technological ingenuity, and enduring cultural memory, reinforcing the need for careful, evidence-based interpretation rather than simplistic legends.
Methodological notes
This synthesis draws on diverse lines of evidence. Architectural analysis focuses on the geometry, alignment, and functional zoning within pyramid complexes. Archaeological data include labor organization, supply chains, and production facilities. Epigraphic and iconographic evidence, where available, illuminates the political theology surrounding kingship and mortuary cults. Economic history approaches examine provisioning, resource flows, and labor inputs. Integrating these strands helps avoid overly reductionist conclusions and supports a holistic understanding of pyramids’ roles in ancient society. It is crucial to acknowledge gaps, especially the fragmentary nature of early records and regional variability in practices.
Conclusion
Pyramids in Egypt are best understood as complex, multi-functional instruments of royal power. They function as tombs in the sense that they house and memorialize the deceased ruler and his cult, but their architectural form, scale, and integration with a vast ritual economy reveal a broader political purpose: to demonstrate and sustain the centralized authority of the king, mobilize resources and labor, and align the ruler with divine order. The interpretation of pyramids as “tombs or tools of power” is insufficient; instead, they should be read as synergistic systems where burial, cult, engineering prowess, and economic organization converge to project legitimacy, ensure social cohesion, and encode political memory. As monuments that controlled landscapes, labor flux, and ritual life, the pyramids crystallize the Old Kingdom state’s capacity to blend divine kingship with practical governance. They stand as enduring testaments to the ingenuity with which ancient Egyptian society articulated power, faith, and identity through monumental architecture.
In closing, the pyramids’ enduring mystery may lie less in a single purpose and more in their capacity to unify multiple functions—cosmology, governance, labor organization, and collective memory—into a single, visible emblem of unity and authority. The evidence supports a model in which tombs are essential anchors for mortuary cult and memory, but only within a broader framework of political economy and symbolic sovereignty that ultimately reveals the pyramids as powerful instruments of statecraft.
Huge fertility breakthrough as scientists create functional eggs from human SKIN cells: 'A step towards helping many women have their own genetic children'
Huge fertility breakthrough as scientists create functional eggs from human SKIN cells: 'A step towards helping many women have their own genetic children'
Infertility is something that affects millions of people around the world – often caused by problems with the egg.
Now, scientists have taken a huge step towards helping many women have their own genetic children.
Experts from Oregon Health & Science University have created fertilizable eggs from human skin cells for the very first time.
While further research is needed to ensure safety and efficacy before clinical trials can go ahead, experts have described the news as a 'major advance'.
'Many women are unable to have a family because they have lost their eggs, which can occur for a range of reasons including after cancer treatment,' said Professor Richard Anderson, Deputy Director of MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the study.
'The ability to generate new eggs would be a major advance.
'This study shows that the genetic material from skin cells can be used to generate an egg–like cell with the right number of chromosomes to be fertilised and develop into an early embryo.
'There will be very important safety concerns but this study is a step towards helping many women have their own genetic children.'
Experts from Oregon Health & Science University have created fertilizable eggs from human skin cells for the very first time
For some couples struggling to conceive, in virto fertilization (IVF) can be an option.
This treatment sees the eggs fertilized by sperm in a lab, and the resulting embryo then placed in the woman's uterus.
However, if there's a problem with the egg itself, IVF can be ineffective.
Previous studies have suggested that a method called 'somatic cell transfer' could be an alternative approach.
This process involves transplanting the nucleus from one of a patient's own somatic cells (such as skin cells) into a donor egg cell with the nucleus removed, enabling the cell to differentiate into a functional egg.
However, while standard eggs have half the usual number of chromosomes (one set of 23), cells generated from skin cells have two sets of chromosomes (46).
Without intervention, this would cause the differentiated eggs to have an extra set of chromosomes.
So far, a method to remove this extra set has been developed and tested in mice – but is yet to be tried in humans.
For some couples struggling to conceive, in virto fertilization (IVF) can be an option. This treatment sees the eggs fertilized by sperm in a lab, and the resulting embryo then placed in the woman's uterus (stock image)
How does it work?
Somatic cell transfer involves transplanting the nucleus from a patient's own skin cells into a donor egg cell with the nucleus removed, enabling the cell to differentiate into a functional egg.
However, while standard eggs have half the usual number of chromosomes (23), cells generated from skin cells have two sets of chromosomes (46).
Without intervention, this would cause the differentiated eggs to have an extra set of chromosomes.
The team resolved this issue by inducing a process they've named 'mitomeiosis', which mimics natural cell division and causes one set of chromosomes to be discarded.
During tests, the researchers produced 82 functional eggs using this process, which were fertilised in a lab.
In their new study, the team resolved this issue by inducing a process they've named 'mitomeiosis'.
'[Mitomeiosis] mimics natural cell division and causes one set of chromosomes to be discarded, leaving a functional gamete,' the researchers explained in a statement.
During tests, the researchers were able to produce 82 functional eggs using this process, which were then fertilised in a lab.
Approximately nine per cent went on to develop the the blastocyst stage of embryo development.
However, the researchers did not culture the blastocysts beyond this point, which coincided with the time at which they would usually be transferred to the uterus in IVF treatment.
While the findings raise the tantalising possibility of women with problems with their eggs having their own genetic children, the experts note several limitations with their study.
Importantly, the vast majority (91 per cent) did not progress beyond fertilisation.
What's more, several of the blastocysts were found to contain chromosomal abnormalities.
Regardless, experts have called the research an 'exciting proof of concept'.
'This breakthrough, called mitomeiosis, is an exciting proof of concept,' said Professor Ying Cheong, a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the research.
'In practice, clinicians are seeing more and more people who cannot use their own eggs, often because of age or medical conditions.
'While this is still very early laboratory work, in the future it could transform how we understand infertility and miscarriage, and perhaps one day open the door to creating egg- or sperm-like cells for those who have no other options.'
In-vitro fertilisation, known as IVF, is a medical procedure in which a woman has an already-fertilised egg inserted into her womb to become pregnant.
It is used when couples are unable to conceive naturally, and a sperm and egg are removed from their bodies and combined in a laboratory before the embryo is inserted into the woman.
Once the embryo is in the womb, the pregnancy should continue as normal.
The procedure can be done using eggs and sperm from a couple or those from donors.
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that IVF should be offered on the NHS to women under 43 who have been trying to conceive through regular unprotected sex for two years.
People can also pay for IVF privately, which costs an average of £3,348 for a single cycle, according to figures published in January 2018, and there is no guarantee of success.
The NHS says success rates for women under 35 are about 29 per cent, with the chance of a successful cycle reducing as they age.
Around eight million babies are thought to have been born due to IVF since the first ever case, British woman Louise Brown, was born in 1978.
Chances of success
The success rate of IVF depends on the age of the woman undergoing treatment, as well as the cause of the infertility (if it's known).
Younger women are more likely to have a successful pregnancy.
IVF isn't usually recommended for women over the age of 42 because the chances of a successful pregnancy are thought to be too low.
Between 2014 and 2016 the percentage of IVF treatments that resulted in a live birth was:
Investigative journalist Leslie Kean claimed she was in a meeting to contact the dead when a cloud-like “ectoplasm” appeared on a lit table, and within it a hand formed of a non-physical being. She said she touched it, and it felt very human.
In a 2022 podcastinterview with Rainn Wilson & Reza Aslan, investigative journalist Leslie Kean, who has spent years researching subjects like UFOs and the afterlife, recounted her experience of feeling the hand of what she claims was a non-physical being. She says the being manifested a real, physical human hand out of thin air, and she was able to hold it.
Kean explained that her work began from a skeptical, scientific approach; she only became more open to extraordinary possibilities after witnessing phenomena she couldn’t explain. She described her investigation of physical mediumship, where mediums in deep trance states allow “spirit entities” to communicate and produce physical phenomena, such as levitating objects or materializing objects in a room.
Kean detailed her own experiences observing these events, specifically mentioning a medium named Stuart Alexander, who underwent scientific controls while performing séances. She said that during these performances, substances called “ectoplasm” would appear, forming hands out of nothing which became tangible and interacted with the environment, such as banging on a table.
Kean emphasized that there is historic scientific literature describing these phenomena, some by Nobel prize-winning scientists, and that, according to her, genuine cases exist even if most people haven’t seriously studied this evidence.
Stewart Alexander said that he had practiced physical mediumship for over half a century, having started by joining spiritualist home circles. He explained that physical mediums seemed to have more ectoplasm within them than most people, and that this substance was important for creating physical phenomena in séances.
Stewart clarified that ectoplasm could be drawn from the medium’s body, such as the ears, nose, mouth, or solar plexus, and when first extracted, it appeared almost like smoke before the spirit world transformed it into something much more substantial. [From Jeffery Mishove interview]
Stewart said that, although he was the medium, he was usually unconscious during the trances, so most of his knowledge came from what other people told him afterward or what he had read in books about spiritualism and mediumship.
Some people in his home circle witnessed ectoplasm being produced and forming physical hands. Occasionally, the spirit “Walter” produced an etheric hand that people could see and touch, and Stewart said that sometimes people recognized the hands as those of children.
He explained that he did not allow filming or infrared cameras in the séance room, even when others wanted to capture the phenomena.
Stewart said he had concerns that, even with honest documentation, people might dismiss the footage as fake because modern technology could be used to simulate anything. He did not want to be thrust into the public spotlight or have his life disrupted. Stewart revealed that his mediumship was kept private, to the extent that his own sons did not know about it for decades.
Stewart described how, in his séances, harmony and trust among circle members were crucial for phenomena to occur. He said that whatever was achieved was due more to the collective energy and unity of the group than himself alone.
Stewart stated that the spirit team and the home circle worked together as a united team. He conducted both private home circles and some public séances, sometimes for organizations like the Noah’s Ark Society, and he believed that these sessions converted many skeptics into believers in survival beyond death.
Stewart talked about physical phenomena, like trumpets flying through the air during séances, which he saw at other mediums’ sittings but not in his own because he was usually in trance.
Sometimes voices of the deceased were heard through the trumpet. He also mentioned materializations, especially Dr. Barnett, a spirit who sometimes appeared as a solid human figure to heal people. He gave an example of a man who had a serious heart condition; after a séance where Dr. Barnett worked with him, the man’s heart improved dramatically and returned to normal, which doctors could not explain.
He described a few rarer experiences, such as the levitation of the chair he was sitting in, sometimes at public séances, and said that he trusted the spirit world completely during those moments. He explained that he was only a medium during séances and kept his spiritual life very separate from his family and business life.
Kean tied these experiences to a broader view that there’s a “hidden world” behind physical reality, suggesting that reality may be much more than what our senses perceive. She said her experiences have made her feel more connected to others and have expanded her sense of consciousness. She describes herself as now being open to more transcendent, non-material experiences.
She described how NDEs display universal features, such as out-of-body experiences, moving through tunnels, encountering beings of light, feelings of overwhelming peace, and panoramic life reviews.
She referenced cases like Maria and the shoe, a woman who saw a hidden shoe on a hospital roof during her NDE, later verified by a nurse. She shared the famous story of Pam Reynolds, who underwent a surgical operation that left her with no brain activity for an extended period. Despite her complete lack of brain function, Pam later described the tools and events in the operating room in detail that she could not have known, which was verified by medical staff.
Kean suggests that consciousness might not be strictly tied to the brain, likening the brain to a receiver or filter for a larger, possibly non-local consciousness. She points out that there are cases where people are able to report accurate events that took place while their brain was clinically inactive, which is difficult to explain by materialist science.
This view aligns with some contemporary medical researchers and philosophers who see consciousness as something fundamental, possibly more fundamental than matter.
Kean said that Death is certainly the end of the physical body, but she finds the evidence for some form of ongoing consciousness highly suggestive, though not absolutely definitive. She did not claim to know for sure what happens after death, but believes “something survives.”
She said that descriptions of NDEs and paranormal experiences often feel “more real than reality” to those who experience them, suggesting there may be other forms of reality parallel to the everyday physical world.
View of Magellan radar data of the surface of Venus, revealing a surface shaped by geological activity (Credit : NASA/JPL)
Venus is often called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similarities in size, mass, and composition. Both are rocky worlds that formed around the same time in the inner Solar System however, despite these similarities, Venus evolved into a world vastly different from Earth, with surface temperatures around 465°C, crushing atmospheric pressure 90 times greater than Earth’s and thick clouds containing sulphuric acid circling the planet. These dramatic differences between two such similar planets make Venus a fascinating subject for planetary scientists to study.
First view of Venus's surface. The first clear panoramic image taken by Venera 9 lander. This image was sent back in the lander's 53-minute lifetime 22 October 1975
(Credit : Ted Stryk)
Beyond their similar dimensions, Venus and Earth share another similarity, both planets are geologically active and have been shaped by volcanism. Venus's surface is dominated by vast volcanic plains, enormous shield volcanoes and vast lava flows. Like Earth, Venus has been resurfaced by molten rock erupting from its interior, creating landscapes that bear striking resemblances to volcanic regions on our own planet. Understanding these volcanic features, including the underground structures they create, offers a window into the geological processes that have shaped both worlds and provides clues about why they took such different evolutionary paths.
An international team led by Barbara De Toffoli from the University of Padova have been studying radar images and topographic data from earlier Venus missions. They focused their attention on the planet's large shield volcanoes, those exceeding 100 kilometres in diameter to search for signs of collapsed lava tubes. These features are natural tunnels that form when the surface of a lava flow cools and solidifies while hot lava continues to flow underneath. Once the lava drains away, it leaves behind a hollow tube. They identified four clear curving chains of pits that appear to mark where sections of underground tubes have collapsed.
These tubes have been found on the Moon and Earth, but until now, their existence on Venus remained purely theoretical. Their existence on Venus, or any planet for that matter, provides valuable insights into the volcanic history and perhaps excitingly, may even serve as a shelter for future human exploration missions. This may sound somewhat fanciful but their subsurface nature would offer protection from the hostile environment of the surface.
Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. The step mark, more visible on the right wall, indicates the depth at which the lava flowed for a period of time
(Credit : Frank Schulenburg)
Unlike straight pit chains caused by tectonic forces pulling the crust apart, these formations curve and wind across the surface, following the natural downhill flow of ancient lava. The team were convinced the pit discovery is not related to tectonic activity due largely to their sinuous nature but also their dimensions since tectonic pits present as different sizes. The team identified four instances of these pits and interestingly they all exist on the flanks of volcanoes covered with extensive lava flows. This is exactly where you would expect to find lava tubes. The pits are also aligned in a down hill orientation making this consistent with lava flowing downhill.
This discovery significantly advances our understanding of how Venus has evolved geologically. The planet's extreme surface conditions make it notoriously difficult to study. Lava tubes offer a window into Venus's volcanic past and could help us to refine models of the planet's thermal and tectonic evolution. I have to confess though, as a not-so-closet geek, I’m quite taken by the concept of these extensive subterranean tunnels being used by future human explorers. With upcoming missions like the ESA EnVision mission to Venus which has a Subsurface Radar Sounder we will get to reveal the true extent of these tubes and perhaps take us a tiny step closer to human exploration.
Launched in 2009, theKepler Space Telescope revolutionized astronomy by discovering thousands of exoplanets in over 150,000 star systems. Kepler was specifically designed to detect Earth-sized planets by monitoring stars for periodic dips in brightness, which may result from planets passing in front of their star relative to the observer. Known as the Transit Method (or Transit Photometry), this technique has allowed astronomers to identify the majority of the more than 6,000 exoplanets in the current census. However, the method is not perfect and produces some false positives (initially as high as 5%–10%), which can sometimes be caused by other celestial objects.
According to new research by a team of astronomers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), this was the case with KOI-1755, a star located 982 light-years from Earth that periodically dims. As they indicated in their study, recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, the transit signal was a false positive caused by an eclipsing binary. The research team was led by Ph.D. candidate Wang Haozhi under the supervision of Prof. Ali Esamdin at the CAS's Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO).
Kepler first detected a transit-like event from KOI-1755 in 2014 and again in 2021, both of which corresponded to a period of about 25 days. On the second occasion, the signal was interpreted as a possible indication of a planet with 5.9 Earth radii (or 0.5 Jupiter radii), making it comparable in size to a Neptune-sized gas giant. Despite this periodic dimming, the true source of the signals has remained a mystery. To determine the true source of the dimming, the CAS team analyzed data from Kepler's Target Pixel Files (TPFs).
They subjected this data to pixel-level flux modeling. centroid shift measurements, and cross-matching with the Gaia mission's third data release (DR3). This modeling strategy significantly improved the quality of the Kepler light curves, and the DR3 data allowed them to avoid contamination from nearby stars. This allowed the team to isolate the uncontaminated light curve from the background star, confirming that it was caused by an eclipsing binary.
In short, their analysis revealed that the system is not a single star, but instead composed of two dwarf stars with an orbital period of about 6.14 days. In addition to eclipses, their analysis showed the binary system exhibits periodic modulations caused by starspots and differential rotation. This study not only clarified the true source of KOI-1755's signals but also demonstrated the effectiveness of the pixel-level photometric modeling method developed by Wang and his colleagues. It also demonstrates that there could still be an invaluable amount of information on stellar dynamics embedded in Kepler and K2 mission data.
The method could also be very promising for investigating other transit-like signals in the Kepler archives and other missions that rely on the Transit Method to detect exoplanets, such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and demonstrates how retired missions can experience a second life through improved analysis techniques.
2nd UFO I summoned a glowing disk 400 meters across over Salt Lake City Airport, Sept 29, 2025 UAP sighting news
2nd UFO I summoned a glowing disk 400 meters across over Salt Lake City Airport, Sept 29, 2025 UAP sighting news
Date of sighting: Sept 29, 2025 7:09pm
Location of sighting: Over Salt Lake City Airport, Utah, USA
Source: Myself SCW
I recorded this today. I was mentally calling a UFO to appear. Five minutes later the triangle ufo (earlier video) appeared then this glowing disk appeared over the Salt Lake City Airport, Utah. It lasted about 7 minutes. Sept 29, 2025 at 7:09 pm. When calling the aliens mentally, I promised to record it and share it with my followers, so here it goes.
1st UFO over Salt Lake, Utah Sept 29, 2025, UFO UAP sighting news. 👽 alien craft close to airport!
1st UFO over Salt Lake, Utah Sept 29, 2025, UFO UAP sighting news. 👽 alien craft close to airport!
Date of sighting: Sept 29, 2025
Location of sighting:viewed from Bountiful, Utah, USA
Source: I recorded it, SCW
Yeah I did it. I admit it. I have practices summoning for several years now and I seem to be getting more powerful lately. This time I managed to get the first of two UFOs in five minutes time after summoning them using just pure focused thought out over the airport. And then this appeared. So you be the judge, but only those who have tried summoning should judge me.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
