Tickets On Sale Now for Sky Fire Summit in Sedona! Next Global CE-5 Initiative Takes Place July 26! Details Revealed About Spielberg’s Upcoming Disclosure!
Details About Steven Spielberg’s Upcoming Disclosure — THE WOW! SIGNAL
Hollywood, CA, July 2025 — Steven Spielberg’s upcoming next film, entitled Disclosure , is a UFO-themed blockbuster reportedly written by David Koepp based on Spielberg’s original idea. The film is said to be a “two-hander,” with a strong focus on its UFO storyline.
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July Columns: Steve Bassett Talks World Disclosure Day; Lisa Strickland & The UAP Disclosure Act; CJ Arabia & Swamp Gas Journalism; Kosta Says “Be Prepared”; Ron James Coins New UAP Moniker; What Did Dan Harary’s Dad Really Know? ALSO: UAP Photo of the Week From The Sky Over Skinwalker Ranch!
The article moves from the general historical context of SETI to a specific, modern candidate for life, then to a mysterious signal from that candidate, critiquing the scientific response to potential extraterrestrial signals, presenting an alternative theory for the signal, and finally broadening the discussion to the overall limitations of the SETI methodology.
A Sagan-Sized Question
For decades, the search for extraterrestrial life was haunted by a daunting sense of scale. In a 1969 lecture that laid the foundation for modern UFO skepticism, Carl Sagan imagined our cosmic neighbors searching for us by a random principle: sending a spaceship to any old star and simply hoping for the best. More often than not, he assumed, they would find nothing. The universe was a colossal haystack, and intelligent life was a single, lonely needle.
It is a triumph of modern astronomy that this picture has been completely overturned. Today, we know of promising candidates for life-bearing planets right in our cosmic backyard. The proverbial haystack, it turns out, might just be a needle factory.
Proxima b’s orbit is in the habitable zone, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be habitable.
From Random Hopes to Targeted Searches
We are no longer searching blindly. Armed not with metal detectors but with powerful telescopes, we can pinpoint the most likely worlds to harbor life. An intelligent civilization on Earth would not send probes randomly into the void; we would send them to these promising targets. And there are many.
In 2016, astronomers discovered one such target: Proxima Centauri b in the Alpha Centauri system: a potentially habitable planet orbiting the closest star to our sun, a mere 4.2 light-years away. While its parent star’s fierce solar winds make surface picnics unlikely, life could theoretically thrive in subterranean shelters.
In an unrealized project, NASA studied in 1987 the possibility of reaching the orbit of Proxima Centauri b within just 100 years at 4.5% the speed of light. This project was named Longshot, and it was about sending an unmanned probe using nuclear propulsion.
If our initial observations of such a world prove inconclusive in the search for life, what would we do? We would do what we are already doing with Mars: we would send probe after probe until we could be certain. Why would an alien intelligence, having discovered a promising blue dot called Earth, be any different? And from a distance, what do our own Martian space probes look like, if not unidentified flying objects?
In a remarkable coincidence, just as we began to focus on Proxima b in the search for extraterrestrial life, a potential signal emerged from its direction. In April and May of 2019, the Parkes radio telescope in Australia detected a strange, narrow-band radio emission. Dubbed Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 (BLC1), initially it was classified as a possible sign from an alien civilization.
The signal’s characteristics were puzzling. Its Doppler shift—the change in its frequency—appeared to be the opposite of what would be expected from the planet’s orbit. Curiously, the signal appeared 10 days after a major solar flare from Proxima Centauri, though no link has been established. The primary investigators were two interns, Shane Smith and Sofia Sheikh. They worked cautiously to rule out terrestrial interference.
BLC1 – Breakthrough Listen’s First “Signal of Interest”
Some senior researchers did review the results but found nothing of note.
Long Delay
The BLC-1 signal was first reported publicly 1.5 years after its detection, and only because it was leaked to The Guardian newspaper. The public then had to wait another year for the final results. People were puzzled by the secrecy which fueled speculation.
Delays in announcing a discovery—or non-discovery—within SETI and astronomy are standard practice. Data are not released to the public until they have been verified. For instance, when radio stars were first discovered in 1967, it took two years before the discovery was published. The scientists held on to their data until they found what they considered a plausible natural explanation. The supposed Pulsar mechanism remains a mystery to this day.
PULSAR SHOCKER—SCIENCE’S BIGGEST BLIND SPOT!
Pulsars have puzzled scientists for over 50 years.
This delay practice by SETI can give the impression that data are withheld until “natural explanations” have been found; radio-frequency interference (RFI) is one such explanation.
“Ultimately, I think we’ll be able to convince ourselves that BLC-1 is interference.”
– Andrew Siemion, SETI Principal Investigator for Breakthrough Listen
Within the SETI community, Siemion’s statement exemplifies scientific humility and the cautious process necessary to distinguish genuine signals from interference. Outside SETI, analogous statements can be understood as masking underlying biases or reluctance to accept paradigm-shifting discoveries. This highlights how context influences the interpretation of such remarks.
The Mysterious Signal from Proxima Centauri
It was the perfect alien signal… until it wasn’t. This is the story of BLC1, a radio signal that appeared to be a message from Proxima Centauri.
How long did Earth listen for the BLC-1 signal?
Breakthrough Listen reserved 30 hours on the Parkes telescope to observe Proxima Centauri, but the putative signal was detected during only about three of those hours—roughly 10 % of the total observing time.
During the next six months the team logged another 39 hours of follow-up observations. Out of the 4,320 hours in that half-year, just 0.9 % was spent searching for a repeat—about one-tenth of the effort devoted to the original scan.
The question remains: Was a longer campaign warranted? More generally, aren’t extended observing campaigns in radio-astronomical SETI necessary? We cannot presume that extraterrestrial civilizations broadcast continuous signals; those transmissions may be the only ones we ever detect, and even then only by chance.
BLC-1 has underscored that, when practicable, observations of potential technosignatures should be conducted from at least two different observing sites simultaneously. That this wasn’t done in the case of BLC-1 is inexplicable.
What would be the worst case when announcing the discovery of extraterrestrial technological intelligence?
A mass panic? That later investigations prove the discovery to be wrong and it has to be retracted? Thus discrediting the field of SETI? Or that humankind no longer occupies the pinnacle of evolution in the Cosmos? Would this discovery temper humankinds worst instincts, such as warfare, to the detriment of despotic rulers?
A “Galactic Communications Grid” and BLC-1
At first glance, detecting a narrowband radio signal (e.g., BLC-1) from Proxima Centauri—the star system next door—seems fantastically unlikely. Astrophysicist Jason T. Wright countered that, from an engineering standpoint, Proxima is exactly where we should expect to find such a transmission.
If a galactic communication network exists, Proxima would be the most likely “last mile” transmitter to the Solar System. Instead of every civilization trying to beam powerful, targeted messages to every other star system they want to contact, they would establish a network of communication nodes or relays.
Proxima as the Solar System’s “Cell Tower”
Proxima as the Solar System’s “Cell Tower” In this scenario, Proxima Centauri—the closest star to our Solar System—serves as the logical “cell tower.” A message intended for our region of space would be routed through the galactic network to the Proxima Centauri system. A transmitter located there would then handle the “last mile” broadcast to the Solar System.
These nodes in the Galactic Communications Grid would need to ping each other regularly. But since radio waves travel at the speed of light, a single ping would take over eight years (accounting for the 4.24-light-year distance and signal processing time). Given this limitation, perhaps there’s another way to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI)?
The speed of light is fixed for electromagnetic radio waves—but what about physical objects? And I’m not primarily referring to warp technology, but rather to objects that might already be here.
The Trouble with SETI
ET to SETI: can you hear us now?
SETI’s foundational premise is that extraterrestrial civilizations would likely be light-years away, not operating stealthily in Earth’s atmosphere. The hundreds of thousands of reported UFO sighting are perceived by SETI as being mostly the product of wishful thinking, misinterpretations and fakes.
Because UAPs/UFOs have no confirmed extraterrestrial link, SETI has no scientific basis for allocating resources to them. Consequently, no scientific efforts are undertaken to attempt contact with UAPs by radio or other signalling methods (e.g., lasers).
To qualify as a genuine ETI radio signal, the signal must come from far away and its detection must be reproducible. Otherwise it risks being classified as interference outright.
Highly directional, sensitive radio telescopes are not suited for close-range communication. For this reason, the Contact Project has suggested involving amateur radio operators (hams), whose omnidirectional antennas could be used in communication attempts with UAPs.
SETI with directional AND omnidirectional antennas, for far-and close-range Rx/Tx searches
Scientific Observational Attempts to Detect UAPs/UFOs
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has been leading the Galileo Project, one branch of his project is the detection of possible radio emissions from UAPs.
With new observatories online Avi Loeb is challenging the scientific establishment by taking UAPs seriously.
He sensationally declared he’s looking for intelligent life in deep space, blasting: “I’m interested in intelligence in outer space because I don’t find it very often here on Earth!”
The definition of his job is simple. “What is it to be a scientist?” he asks. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s the privilege of being curious.” It is this foundational principle that now drives one of the most ambitious and controversial scientific endeavors of our time: the Galileo Project. In an age of polarized opinion, the project aims to rise above the noise by focusing on a single, unimpeachable authority. “In science,” he declares, “the arbitrator is the physical reality.”
The project, which is now in full swing in the summer of 2025, was born from a frustration with a scientific community he sees as often too quick to dismiss the unknown. The turning point was the baffling 2017 interstellar visitor, ‘Oumuamua. Its strange, flat shape and its acceleration away from the sun without a visible cometary tail led him to suggest it could be an artifact of an alien technology. The backlash was swift. He recalls a colleague, an expert on rocks, confiding that ‘Oumuamua was “so weird I wish it never existed”—a statement project leader Avi Loeb sees as the antithesis of scientific curiosity.
What If We Were About to Make Contact? The Hypothetical Implications of Confirmed Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Explore the potential consequences of an extraterrestrial discovery. What could happen upon contacting extraterrestrial intelligent life?
In April 2019, astronomers with the Breakthrough Listen project detected something extraordinary: a narrow radio signal at 982 MHz, seemingly emanating from Proxima Centauri, our solar system’s closest stellar neighbor. Dubbed BLC1 (Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1), the signal had all the hallmarks of a technosignature—a potential transmission from an extraterrestrial civilization.
For a brief moment, the world dared to wonder: Had we finally found evidence of alien technology?
But as scientists dug deeper, the truth proved far more mundane—and far more fascinating.
The Case for BLC1 as an Alien Signal
At first glance, BLC1 was the most compelling candidate in the history of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI):
Precise frequency: The signal was laser-sharp, just a few Hertz wide—something natural astrophysical phenomena can’t produce.
Non-zero drift: Its frequency drifted at 0.03 Hz/s, consistent with a transmitter on a planet like Proxima b.
Localized: It appeared only when the telescope pointed at Proxima Centauri, vanishing during off-source scans.
“The signal appears to only show up in our data when we’re looking in the direction of Proxima Centauri, which is exciting,” Ms. Sheikh said.
The Plot Twist: A Cosmic False Alarm
The Breakthrough Listen team subjected BLC1 to relentless scrutiny—and cracks began to appear.
May 2nd 2019, a possible BLC1 redetection: radio dish is pointed at Proxima b
1. The Drift That Didn’t Fit
If BLC1 came from Proxima b, its frequency drift should have shown:
Cyclical variation (rising and falling as the planet rotated). Orbital signatures (subtle shifts tied to its 11.2-day year).
Instead, the drift was strangely linear—more like a glitching human device than an alien beacon.
2. The RFI Doppelgängers
Then, researchers found dozens of similar signals at frequencies like 712 MHz and 1062 MHz—all mathematically linked to common radio interference (RFI). These “lookalikes” had the same drift behavior but were unmistakably human-made, appearing even when the telescope wasn’t pointed at Proxima.
BLC1 wasn’t a lone anomaly—it was part of a pattern.
3. The Cadence Coincidence
The final clue? BLC1’s timing matched the telescope’s observing schedule.
On-source (30 min): Signal detectable. Off-source (5 min): Signal too faint to see.
This created an illusion of localization—like a flickering streetlight that only seems to work when you walk by.
The Verdict: A Cosmic Mirage
After a year of analysis, the team concluded: BLC1 was interference, likely from:
Intermodulation: A “ghost” signal created when two radio waves mixed in faulty electronics.
A malfunctioning device (possibly hundreds of miles from the observatory).
Lessons for the Hunt for Alien Life
BLC1’s rise and fall taught scientists three critical lessons:
Single telescopes are vulnerable to false alarms. Future searches need global networks to cross-check signals.
The search is worth it.
For now, Proxima Centauri’s secrets remain hidden. But the hunt continues.
BLC1 wasn’t aliens—but as SETI enters a new era (with projects like the Square Kilometer Array), we’re better prepared than ever to answer humanity’s oldest question: Are we alone?
Primary Research Papers
These two papers were published concurrently and should be read together for a complete understanding of the BLC1 signal, from its detection to its ultimate classification as interference.
A radio technosignature search towards Proxima Centauri resulting in a signal of interest
Authors: Shane Smith, Danny C. Price, Sofia Z. Sheikh, et al.
Abstract: This paper describes the overall search for technosignatures from Proxima Centauri and the initial detection of the BLC1 signal. It details the characteristics that made BLC1 an intriguing candidate.
Analysis of the Breakthrough Listen signal of interest blc1 with a technosignature verification framework
Authors: Sofia Z. Sheikh, Shane Smith, Danny C. Price, et al.
Abstract: This is the companion paper that provides a deep dive into the analysis of BLC1. It outlines the verification framework used and presents the evidence that led to the conclusion that BLC1 was a product of human-generated radio frequency interference.
Additional Resources from Breakthrough Listen
The Breakthrough Listen initiative has also made a wealth of information about BLC1 available to the public.
BLC1 – Breakthrough Listen’s First “Signal of Interest”: This is the main resource page from the Berkeley SETI Research Center, providing summaries, links to the papers, data, and other supplementary materials.
This week’s WOW! Signal news highlights several upcoming UFO-related events, including a nine-day mindsight and skywatching gathering at Mt. Shasta in August and a global online event for “experiencers” on July 9th. Advocacy is also a key theme, as the New Paradigm Institute is urging citizens to push for a congressional investigation into UAP disinformation. The newsletter also features a guest column on presidential UFO encounters, commemorates the famous Phoenix Lights incident, and presents a UAP photo of the week from New Jersey.
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Epic “Mindsight Event” Coming to Mt. Shasta in August! New Paradigm Institute Calls for Citizens to Take Action! Global Online Event July 9 Celebrates Experiencers! The UFO Encounters Presidents Don’t Want Us To Know! The Phoenix Lights Event Continues to Fascinate! What’s Going On In The Sky Lately?
All This Plus UAP Photo of the Week, Future Events, And More!
What could be the worst-case scenario upon announcing the discovery of extraterrestrial technological intelligence? This list is not inclusive.
Scenarios after Human-ETI Contact. This list is not inclusive of all possibilities.
Potential Consequences:
1. Mass Panic:
The crisis of order. Exploitation could surge, with doomsday cults gaining followers and charlatans claiming to be “ambassadors” for the aliens, preying on the fearful.
Economic collapse might occur, as markets could crash due to radical uncertainty following an extraterrestrial discovery. Misinformation would fill the information vacuum, leading to conspiracy theories and fear-mongering, potentially inciting violence and civil unrest.
However, studies of disasters (including the COVID-19 pandemic) suggest that true, sustained mass panic is less common than often assumed.
2. A Retraction: The Crisis of Credibility
What if subsequent investigations prove the discovery to be false, requiring a retraction? This could discredit the entire SETI field.
Such a scenario would be a catastrophic embarrassment. The field already struggles with what some call the “giggle factor,” and being discredited for a generation could severely damage public trust in scientists and science as a whole. Securing funding for future searches might become nearly impossible after a failed extraterrestrial discovery.
3. Humanity Dethroned: The Crisis of Meaning
What if the extraterrestrial discovery implies that humankind no longer occupies the pinnacle of evolution in the cosmos?
Religions centered on human exceptionalism could face a fundamental crisis. However, studies on this subject have shown that the impact may be negligible.
Will Discovering Extraterrestrial Life Challenge Religion?
Examining the reaction of religion to the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Will beliefs be challenged or transformed? Discover more.
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Our entire worldview, which places humanity at the center of meaning, could be invalidated. This could lead to profound, species-wide depression, a loss of purpose, and what philosophers term “cosmic despair.” Why strive, create, or even continue if we are but ants on an unremarkable anthill?
(I disagree.)
4. The Optimistic View (The Cosmic Perspective):
Would this discovery temper humankind’s worst instincts, such as warfare, and diminish the power of despotic rulers?
Carl Sagan and others have hoped that knowing we are not alone would foster a “cosmic perspective.” Realizing we are all citizens of a fragile, shared planet in a vast cosmos could make nationalism, racism, and warfare seem petty and childish. Such an extraterrestrial discovery could unite humanity and pose a threat to despotic rulers whose power relies on manufacturing “us vs. them” conflicts.
(I agree.)
5. The Pessimistic View:
A despotic ruler thrives on controlling information and manipulating fear. An alien intelligence could become the ultimate propaganda tool.
A dictator might claim that the aliens pose a demonic threat, justifying crackdowns and military expansion to “protect” the populace.
They could also claim that the aliens have endorsed their rule, creating a new “divine right” to govern after such an extraterrestrial discovery.
The discovery could trigger an unimaginably high-stakes Cold War, where nations fight not for territory or resources but for control of communication channels and any technological secrets the aliens might reveal.
(Well, that’s why we have HAM radio operators and satellite dishes.)
You won’t believe the bizarre new way scientists are hunting for aliens! Forget listening for strange signals—the real proof might be in their TRASH! A team of maverick researchers is now searching for “technosignatures,” and their wild ideas are blowing the lid off the search for ET.
Scientists Now Hunt for ET’s GARBAGE!
The Cosmic Archaeologist:
Star astronomer Jason Wright makes the bombshell claim that alien junk—like their old space probes and pollution—could last for BILLIONS of years, making their garbage heap easier to find than the aliens themselves!
The Pollution Detective:
Researcher Jacob Haqq Misra is on the hunt for the ultimate smoking gun: cosmic factory fumes! He wants to find banned industrial chemicals and even signs of massive alien “space farms” in the atmospheres of distant worlds.
The Ocean Hunter:
But it gets weirder! Sofia Sheikh has the most mind-blowing theory yet—she wants to find microplastics in alien oceans! She even dares to ask if advanced ETs could be aquatic creatures who never needed fire and warns we could be looking right at their super-advanced worlds and be too blind to even notice!
The Search for Intelligent Life Is About to Get a Lot More Interesting
There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe, home to an unimaginable abundance of planets. And now there are new ways to spot signs of life on them.
New Unknown Signal System Detected Related to UAP Activity!
MUFON Gears Up for Its 2025 Symposium!
Hollywood Disclosure Alliance Achieves 200 Members!
UnX Publishing Releases New Book “All Monsters are Human!”
All This Plus UAP Photo of the Week, Future Events, And More!
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Highlight:
Hollywood Disclosure Alliance Marks Its 200th Member
Beverly Hills, CA, JUNE/JULY 2025 —The Hollywood Disclosure Alliance has announced that it has just secured its 200th member. The announcement was made by Dan Harary, The HDA’s Chairman/Co-Founder…Read More
What if time isn’t a single, smooth river but a hidden cascade of microscopic “droplets”? Blending hard science with speculative fiction, “The River of Time” follows Dr. Mara Lentz to CERN, where a mysterious program called Chronos may prove that every moment in the universe comes in indivisible ticks.
The river was frozen solid—or so it seemed. Beneath the glassy sheath of ice, water still slid forward, grain by grain, molecule by molecule, each one stealing an instant from the future and secreting it into the past. Dr. Mara Lentz stood on the footbridge and let her gloved fingers tap against the rail, her every heartbeat echoing the tick-tock she had sworn to conquer. In the distance, CERN’s cavernous domes glittered beneath the winter sun like watch gears strewn across the snow. Today, she promised herself, she would decide whether time was prisoner or jailer, river or clock.
Frozen River
The Invitation
A month earlier, the summons had arrived in a yellowed envelope, the handwriting achingly familiar to any physicist.
Mara, If you wish to see how deep the river of time runs—and whether it is made of droplets—come to Geneva. A. E.
Impossible, of course. Albert Einstein had been dead for nearly a century. Yet the looping letters were unmistakable, right down to the playful curl beneath the final E. A prank, she assumed, until the envelope yielded a security badge to CERN and a one-sentence note: “Ask for Chronos.”
Chronos
The man who met her at CERN reception looked nothing like a mythic god and everything like a graduate student in overwashed jeans.
“Call me Noah,” he said, steering her through a maze of elevators that plunged beneath the Earth.
“Chronos is more program than person,” he explained. “A string of algorithms built to test the most radical hypothesis on the table—that time itself has a dual identity.”
“A wave and a particle?” Mara asked, half-teasing.
“Exactly.” Noah’s eyes gleamed in the fluorescent gloom. “Just like light.”
They reached a vault-like door. Above the keypad a single line was etched into steel: FOR AS LONG AS WE HAVE BEEN HUMAN, WE HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO THE TYRANNY AND GRACE OF TIME.
CERN Control Room
Inside, the air thrummed with cooling fans and suppressed excitement. Monitors covered the walls, each looping equations Mara knew as well as her own pulse—general relativity’s smooth curves entwined with quantum mechanics’ jagged spikes.
The Duality
“For a century,” Noah continued, “we’ve known that if you watch an electron’s path, it behaves like a point particle. If instead you watch its spread, it becomes a wave. Wave-particle duality. Our question is whether time plays the same trick.”
“What if time flows in indivisible droplets?” she murmured.
“Chronons,” Noah supplied. “Each a jump of 10⁻⁴³ seconds—the Planck tick.”
Emergence
At the Planck scale, time does not flow; it hops.
Aggregating trillions of those hops, a seamless current emerges—just as a lake’s surface looks smooth though every molecule jitters.
The arrow of time appears only once enough chronons click in concert.
When fatigue blurred her vision, Mara imagined she could hear them: countless microscopic gears ratcheting reality forward—click … click … click …
The Rift
But the duality, however elegant, sat like an unsolved crime against everything Einstein had bequeathed. Relativity demanded a continuous spacetime; quantum mechanics insisted on discreteness. Chronos promised a bridge but offered no proof.
“Tools,” Noah groaned, rubbing bloodshot eyes. “We need instruments slim enough to slip between two ticks, to watch the droplet itself.”
CERN Control Room
“Or,” Mara countered, “we find evidence in the macroscopic world—patterns only quantized time could leave behind.”
Einstein’s Ghost
That night, Mara reopened the mysterious envelope. A translucent sheet she’d missed before drifted out, bearing Einstein’s familiar scrawl:
“The answer is not in the river or the clock, But in believing they are one; Watch the particle, see the wave— Then look away and they are gone.”
The River and the Clock
Back in the vault at dawn, Mara loaded gravitational-wave echoes from merging black holes. Traditional analyses assumed continuous time. She resampled the data at chronon intervals.
CERN Synchro-Cyclotron
A pattern emerged: micro-staccato pauses in the waves, like hidden commas in a cosmic sentence. They repeated every 10⁻⁴³ s.
Noah stumbled in with two coffees. One sloshed onto the floor as he saw the display. “Droplets,” he whispered. “A river of droplets.”
Convergence
Word sprinted through CERN, through Caltech, Tokyo, Cape Town. Observatories retuned their algorithms to chronon cadence. Within weeks, corroborating signals poured in. Everywhere physicists looked, the universe ticked like a flawless watch hiding inside a roaring river.
Epilogue
Mara returned to the frozen footbridge. Beneath her boots, the river still looked motionless, an immense silver ribbon. Yet she knew it for what it was: trillions upon trillions of glimmering beads—each an indivisible heartbeat of existence.
The tyranny of time remained—but its grace had multiplied. Every instant was a jewel, perfect and complete, and the future was nothing more than an undiscovered sequence of brilliant ticks.
And somewhere, maybe in the hush between those droplets, she imagined she heard Einstein laugh—soft as snow falling on the river that was also a clock.
Background:Is Time Both a River and a Clock?
A Dual Identity for Time?
What if time behaves just like a particle of light? This radical new idea from the frontiers of physics suggests that our most fundamental reality has a dual identity.
The Birth of the Arrow of Time
The dynamics of a collection of particles gains a direction in time, called the arrow of time, when there are many particles. And this arrow of time is absent for a single particle.
Tyranny and Grace: Time’s Two Faces
For as long as we have been human, we have been subject to the tyranny and grace of time. It is the steady, flowing river of our lives, as Einstein imagined it—a dimension that can be bent and stretched by gravity. It is also the relentless tick-tock of the clock, marching forward one second at a time. But what if both are true? What if time itself leads a double life?
A Quantum Clue to the Puzzle
On the cutting edge of theoretical physics, a fascinating proposition is taking shape. It suggests that time may not be one thing or the other, but could possess a dual nature, an idea borrowed directly from the strange and proven rules of the quantum world. While still speculative, it’s a powerful lens through which scientists are tackling the biggest unanswered questions in the cosmos.
The Lesson of Wave-Particle Duality
The concept hinges on an analogy to one of science’s most famous paradoxes: wave-particle duality. A century of experiments has shown that an entity like an electron or a photon refuses to be pigeonholed. If you design an experiment to track its path, it behaves like a discrete, pinpoint particle. But if you design it to observe its flow, it acts like a continuous, spread-out wave. The nature it reveals depends entirely on the nature of the measurement.
Applying this same principle to time offers a startlingly elegant way to resolve a deep conflict in physics. It would mean that time’s identity is also dependent on context.
Relativity’s Smooth River
At our human scale—the world of falling apples and orbiting planets described by Einstein’s theory of general relativity—time behaves like a continuous wave. It is the smooth, flowing river we all experience, a dimension that warps and bends to create the force we call gravity.
Zooming to the Planck Scale
But if we could zoom down to the impossibly small Planck scale, a fraction of a second so tiny it’s written with 43 zeroes after the decimal point, we might see time’s other identity. Here, it would behave like a particle. In this view, time would not flow but “tick” forward in indivisible, quantized jumps. These hypothetical droplets of time, sometimes called “chronons,” would be the fundamental clockwork of the universe.
Emergent Time: River from Droplets
This isn’t just a philosophical parlor game. The idea aligns with a leading theory known as Emergent Time, part of the grand quest to unite Einstein’s relativity with quantum mechanics. This framework suggests that the smooth river of time we perceive is not fundamental at all. Instead, it *emerges* from the collective behavior of countless discrete, particle-like ticks at the quantum level—much like the smooth, liquid surface of a lake emerges from the chaotic interactions of trillions of individual H₂O molecules.
One Reality, Two Appearances
From this vantage point, there is no paradox. The “particle” nature of time is its true, fundamental identity, while the “wave” nature is what we perceive at our macroscopic scale. It’s one reality that simply appears differently depending on whether you’re looking at the individual pixel or the entire screen.
A Roadmap to a Theory of Everything
We do not yet have the tools to probe reality at such an infinitesimal scale to prove it one way or the other. But the proposition offers a tantalizing path forward. By daring to question the very fabric of our experience, scientists may be on the verge of solving the ultimate puzzle: creating a single, unified theory of everything. The answer may have been hiding in plain sight all along—not in the river or the clock, but in the profound possibility that they are one and the same.
References:
Amelino-Camelia, G. (2013). Quantum-Spacetime Phenomenology. Living Reviews in Relativity, 16(1), 5.
Isham, C. J. (1993). Canonical quantum gravity and the problem of time. In L. A. Ibort & M. A. Rodríguez (Eds.), Integrable Systems, Quantum Groups, and Quantum Field Theories (pp. 157-287). Springer.
Pulsars have puzzled scientists for over 50 years, and many mysteries remain. Some wonder if these cosmic signals could actually be alien beacons rather than natural objects.
You’ve heard of neutron stars and their eerily precise lighthouse flashes of radio waves. But did you know the world’s leading experts openly admit they still don’t know how—or even why—pulsars pulse? Despite more than five decades of dedicated research since their discovery, fundamental aspects of the mechanisms that govern pulsars remain incompletely understood.
WHAT THEY WON’T TELL YOU
• 50 Years of “Mystery Science” – Pulsars were discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell. – The first pulsars were named “LGM” for “Little Green Men”, because they resembled deliberate intelligent signals from aliens. – The discovery was kept a secret for two years, until a “natural” explanation could be found. – Yet top reviews concede: “No consensus on how pulsars make coherent radio beams.” – Even their heavyweight magnetosphere models are “pure speculation,” say the academics.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered Pulsars in 1967
• Energy “Conversion” Conundrum – How does a spinning neutron star turn its spin into light and X-rays? – Experts shrug: “We don’t know where particles get accelerated… or how.”
• Interior Secrets Locked Tight – The neutron-star Equation of State? A “well-kept secret,” even on Wikipedia. – We can’t recreate these ultra-dense conditions on Earth—so we’re flying blind.
THE BIG QUESTION SETI WON’T ASK
If we’re this stumped by “natural” objects, could some pulsars actually be artificial beacons—designed by a super-advanced Kardashev Type III civilization? Imagine harnessing a stars energy to craft perfect, long-range lighthouses! Isn’t this a concept that the Kardashev Scale proposes?
Yet SETI protocols dismiss the idea outright: • They focus on faint, homely radio signals—never megastructures beaming across the Milky Way. • They’ve never seriously tested whether pulsar “noise” could be cosmic Morse code.
WHAT IF SOME PULSARS ARE ETI LIGHTHOUSES?
– Perfect timing, colossal power output, pinpoint beams… sounds like engineered tech! – A K-III society could be “pinging” planets for millennia, and we’ve assumed it’s just physics playing tricks.
CALLING ALL STAR HUNTERS
It’s time to break the dogma. We need to: 1. Re-examine pulsar data for hidden patterns or intentional modulation. 2. Expand SETI’s search to include high-power, pulsed signals. 3. Admit our ignorance—and embrace wild ideas to solve these cosmic riddles.
Until we dare to ask whether pulsars are aliens’ calling cards, we’ll remain stuck in the dark—waiting for E.T. to ring a bell we refused to check. Isn’t it time someone blew the whistle on astrophysics’ biggest oversight?
Scientists on the Limits of Pulsar Knowledge
Beyond the specific unsolved problems within subfields of pulsar research, there are numerous instances where scientists make overarching statements explicitly acknowledging the incomplete state of current knowledge regarding these enigmatic objects.
Several key publications and resources directly state the limitations in our understanding of pulsars:
Beskin, Chernov, Gwinn, & Tchekhovskoy (2015):
In their review “Radio Pulsars,” these authors plainly state, “Almost 50 years after radio pulsars were discovered in 1967, our understanding of these objects remains incomplete.” This is a clear and high-level admission of the persistent gaps in knowledge from experts summarizing the field.
Hankins, Rankin, & Eilek (2009):
The white paper “What is the Physics of Pulsar Radio Emission?” opens with the frank assessment: “Despite much careful theoretical and observational effort, the details of how these rapidly rotating neutron stars radiate are still a mystery.” While focused on radiation, this statement implies broader difficulties in understanding the core processes.
Contopoulos, Kalapotharakos, & Kazanas (2014):
In “A new standard pulsar magnetosphere,” the authors remark, “Though pulsars were discovered almost fifty years ago, they still remain mysterious stellar objects.” This general statement encapsulates the enduring enigmatic nature of pulsars.
NASA on PSR B0943+10:
When discussing the “puzzling pulsar” PSR B0943+10, a NASA resource notes that “astronomers… aren’t sure how the particles get stripped from the surface of the star and accelerated to high energies”. The observation of its inverse radio/X-ray pulsing “reignited debate,” indicating that any prior consensus on such emission behavior was either absent or fragile and that existing models were insufficient.
“Pulsar Electrodynamics: an unsolved problem”:
The very title of a research area or a specific paper can be telling. While there is a paper on this topic, the broader identification of “Pulsar Electrodynamics” as “an unsolved problem” is a direct admission of ongoing challenges. The source itself discusses unresolved issues like “charge starvation” and “current starvation” in electrodynamic models, implying these are areas not fully settled.
The Unknown Equation of State (EoS):
A “Well-Kept Secret” A critical unknown is the Equation of State (EoS) of matter at these supranuclear densities. The EoS describes the relationship between pressure, density, and temperature, and it dictates the macroscopic properties of the neutron star, such as its radius for a given mass and its maximum possible mass.
Neutron star equation of state, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1387647310000564
Multiple sources unequivocally state the current lack of knowledge. Wikipedia’s entry on Neutron Stars, often reflecting expert consensus, asserts: “The equation of state of neutron stars is not currently known.” The entry elaborates that this uncertainty arises because the extreme densities are impossible to replicate in terrestrial laboratories, and theoretical modeling must incorporate General Relativity as well as complex aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), potential superconductivity, and superfluidity of nuclear matter. Understanding the EoS is described as a “major unsolved problem in fundamental physics.”
This sentiment is strongly echoed in the scientific literature. A 2017 review by Chamel et al., “The physics of the neutron star crust,” notes that while the physics of the outer crust is relatively better understood, “the structure of the matter in neutron star cores and in particular its equation of state remain the well-kept secret of neutron stars”. The inability to definitively determine the EoS means that fundamental parameters, such as the precise upper mass limit for neutron stars before they collapse into black holes (the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit), remain uncertain, with theoretical estimates varying.
SIX-SIGMA:
Scientific Theories: When a theory encounters contradictory evidence or fails to explain a new observation, it is not a “defect” in the scientific process. Instead, it signals that the theory may be incomplete, incorrect under certain conditions, or in need of refinement. Such discrepancies are essential for scientific progress, often leading to new hypotheses or even paradigm shifts. This mindset may be exactly what’s needed to advance our understanding of pulsars.
Beskin, V. S. (2018). Radio pulsars. Physics-Uspekhi, 61(7), 655–686.
Hankins, T. H., Rankin, J. M., & Eilek, J. A. (2009). What is the Physics of Pulsar Radio Emission? Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Science White Papers, no. 120.
Contopoulos, I., Kalapotharakos, C., & Kazanas, D. (2014). A new standard pulsar magnetosphere. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 443(1), L45–L49.
NASA. (2013, October 23). NASA’s Chandra and XMM-Newton Find Puzzling Pulsar. NASA Missions.
Petri, J. (2019). Pulsar electrodynamics: an unsolved problem. Journal of Plasma Physics, 85(5), 15850501.
Chamel, N., Fantina, A. F., & Zdunik, J. L. (2017). The physics of the neutron star crust. In The Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars (pp. 57-95). Springer, Cham.
In 1985 I was living in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. I regularly raided the local library in Augustine Street for reading material. It no longer looks like this, but I remember walking up the stairs on the left:
Old Galway Central Library, Augustine Street, from memory
The Mysteries of Pulsars Capture My Imagination
There, I discovered a book about pulsars. As I read, I was struck by the remarkable characteristics of these cosmic phenomena—they emitted incredibly regular radio pulses, seemingly ticking like celestial clocks. Something about their precise periodicity raised a suspicion in my mind: Could these signals be of artificial origin? The idea gnawed at me. It seemed almost too perfect, too synchronized, to be purely natural.
Antony Hewish in front of 4.5-acre array, image by Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Delays and Doubts: The Scientific Community’s Caution
What puzzled me even more was the fact that the researchers who first detected pulsars waited nearly two years before publishing their findings. When they finally did, they explained the regular radio transmissions as the result of some natural astrophysical process—perhaps rapidly spinning neutron stars or some other exotic object. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was being hidden, or at least not fully explored. Why delay the publication? Why rush to explain away the strange signals with a natural cause, when they could just as easily be a message—or evidence—of intelligent life?
First Observation Of Pulsar, image by Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
A Personal Mission: Reaching Out to a Nobel Laureate
I found myself unable to let go of the thought. I decided I had to try and get some answers directly from someone who knew the science firsthand—Professor Antony Hewish himself, the Nobel laureate who played a key role in the discovery of pulsars.
The walk to the phone booth on Eyre Square was not long—just a few minutes—but to me, it felt like a journey into the unknown. I passed by the familiar sights: the cobblestone streets, the bustling cafés, and the distant clang of the clock tower. The square was busy with people, their conversations and footsteps creating a constant hum. I could feel the cool breeze on my face, carrying the faint smell of brewing coffee from nearby cafés, mingling with the crisp air of a typical Irish day.
Pádraic Ó’ Conaire statue on Eyre Square, Galway
Making the Call: Asking the Expert About Artificial Origins
As I approached the square, I paused briefly to steady my breathing. I reached into my pocket, clutching the handful of Irish pound coins I had carefully gathered for this purpose. I looked at the phone booth—a small, glass-panelled box standing at the corner of the square, slightly worn but functional. Its faded paint and the faint smell of old metal reminded me of countless moments of waiting and hope.
I stepped inside, feeling the cool metal of the door handle against my hand. The interior was dimly lit, with the faint glow of the coin slot and dialing pad. I took a moment to collect myself. The hum of the city outside seemed to fade into the background as I lifted the receiver and inserted the coins one by one into the slot, hearing the satisfying clink as they dropped into place.
The phone was a rotary-style model, but it worked—reliable and straightforward. I stared at the dial pad, my fingers trembling slightly as I entered the number for the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The line was long-distance, and I had only a limited amount of coins. I whispered a quiet prayer that the call would go through.
The Interview
Finally, I heard the connection click. A calm, measured voice answered.
Antony Hewish on the phone (AI generated)
“Hello?”
“Professor Hewish?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Yes, speaking,” came the reply.
I hesitated for a moment, my mind racing with questions. Then I blurted out, “I’m calling to congratulate you on the discovery of pulsars.”
There was a brief pause, and I could almost hear him smiling on the other end of the line.
He thanked me politely, then I took a deep breath and asked, “I find the subject absolutely fascinating, and I was wondering—are you absolutely certain that pulsars are not of artificial origin?”
He responded with quiet confidence, “Yes, I am certain.”
And then he proceeded to explain, his voice steady and reassuring:
“Pulsars are fascinating objects. They are highly magnetized, rapidly spinning neutron stars—remnants of massive stars that have gone supernova. As they rotate, their intense magnetic fields funnel particles toward their magnetic poles, which act like cosmic lighthouse beams. When these beams sweep past Earth, we detect them as highly regular radio pulses.”
Reflections Under the Galway Sky
I listened intently, my mind swirling with his explanations—ones I’d heard before, yet they only deepened my curiosity. I asked again, perhaps more insistently:
“And you are 100% sure that pulsars are not of artificial origin?”
Hewish chuckled softly on the line, “Yes, absolutely certain.”
I thanked him for his time, and before used up all my coins, I ended the call. Stepping back onto the street, I looked up at the grey, cloudy sky, pondering the vastness of space and the mysteries it still held. The conversation left me with a lingering question: could we someday truly find signs of intelligent life out there?
One Second of Error in 30 Million Years
The universe’s most precise timekeepers—the most stable pulsars—are so remarkably accurate that they would drift by only a single second over tens of millions of years. Their stability rivals—and in some respects even surpasses—that of our most advanced atomic clocks.
The most stable known millisecond pulsar, designated PSR J1713+0747, exemplifies this extraordinary precision. Its rotational period is so consistent that it would accumulate an error of just one second after approximately 30 million years.
When we talk about the superiority of pulsars as cosmic clocks, we’re referring to their ability to keep perfect time over millennia—far beyond the reach of any human-made clock. Engineers can build clocks that lose only one second in 300 billion years, but such devices are fragile, often breaking down within a few decades. Pulsars, on the other hand, can continue their steady ticking for billions of years, offering an unmatched cosmic standard of time.
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