BARELY a month goes by as of late with out the detection of a tantalising “sign of life” in an alien ambiance. With the James Webb Space Telescope’s unmatched skill to probe the chemistry of distant worlds – and so many promising exoplanets to set our sights on – in the present day’s astronomers are more and more assured that their technology would be the one to find life past Earth.
That is an exhilarating risk, little doubt. But with it comes nice accountability. Given the magnitude of the query of whether or not life exists elsewhere within the universe, and the general public curiosity that goes with it, we should be…