Today I reach back to three postings, the first a dozen years ago, 23 May 2010: A HALF A CENTURY SEARCHING FOR ALIEN SIGNALS Why this topic?  Perhaps some stimulation sparked by the James Webb Space Telescope, which  has begun a search for extraterrestrial intelligence  (SETI).  Just another in my primary quests seeking ultimate answers on topics like peace ( The 10% Solution ), energy ( Starpower for Humanity ) and Planet Earth ( Geoengineering for Climate Change ).  Yesterday set the stage for this future with  The Three Grand Miracles .   My professional career was dedicated to those above interest areas. For SETI, it all began with an  assignment at NASA's Ames Research Center  in 1976.  Answering the question of  Are We Alone?  to the potential of receiving  The Encyclopedia Galactica  from superior space civilizations fascinated my imagination. In many ways that first paper on SETI by Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi in 1959 set the stage for what we have today.  My firs

 It's Sunday and not much happening anywhere of much concern to me.  I could go spiritual, but can't think of anything worthwhile. Two items, though, the tiniest possible, and the second as vast as it can be, caught my attention: Fundamental physicists just reported that a fundamental particle had more mass than expected, throwing the whole field into turmoil. A W boson is supposed to have an energy effect of 80,357,000 electron volts. Hard to believe this is even physically possible, but a team of 400 scientists associated with the U.S. Fermi National Accelerator Lab reported in  Science  that they measured 80,433,000 ev.   This difference of a slightly more than one part in a thousand means that their understanding of nature is wrong! So what is the solution?  Run another 10-year study or two. Then what happens if the Fermi result is confirmed?  Then quantum mechanics will need to find another Standard Model. Perhaps all this bewilderment will someday instead be settled when