Aliens ‘Will Be The Size Of Polar Bears’, Scientist Claims
Not-so-little green men
Forget the sci-fi image of aliens as delicate, waif-like creatures - they’re probably absolutely massive, a scientist says.
Fergus Simpson of the University of Barcelona says that - according to statistical analysis - aliens will probably be about 310kg, the size of a polar bear.
Simpson writes, ‘What does this value of 310 kg really mean? Think of it like a spread bet in a sporting event. If a strong team plays a weak team, bookmakers offer a handicap of several points to the weaker team in order to ensure the odds of each team winning are even, at 50 percent,” Simpson wrote.
‘It’s a similar situation here – it’s not that we should expect an alien species to be exactly 310 kg, but there is an equal chance of an alien species being heavier or lighter than 310 kg.
Even relatively stupid life-forms are likely to be pretty big-boned, the researchers suggest - using a mathematical model which predicts that humans are most likely at the smaller end of the scale size-wise.
The researchers say, ‘Most inhabited planets are likely to be closer in size to Mars than the Earth. Furthermore, since population density is widely observed to decline with increasing body mass, we conclude that most intelligent species are expected to exceed 300kg (47 stone).’
Other experts believe that aliens might be a bit closer to humankind.
Seth Shostak, a researcher at the SETI project (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), says that humans have evolved into an intelligent, space-faring species not because of our size, but because of our upright stance.
Shostak says, ‘Polar bears are large but do not write great literature and build radio towers, and a lot of that is probably because they are walking around on all fours.’
