The scientific problem with 'Nope-It's Never Aliens?

But that’s exactly what astronomer Phil Plait does with his Scientific American piece “Nope-It’s Never Aliens,” published Monday. That title, so declarative in its contention, is incompatible with Plait’s later assertion that he “took up science as a career and critical thinking as a passion.” There isn’t much evidence of critical thinking on display in that title. Indeed, it’s a direct repudiation of that critical scientific interest. This is a shame. Plait’s writing includes many interesting reports on Space and science.

Plait eventually admits that some UFOs remain unexplained and that they (or unidentified anomalous phenomena as the government now refers to UFOs) deserve some continued study. But his argument all but concludes that this study will largely be worthless.

This speaks to the central problem with the UFO subject: The overconfidence of those who consider it. On one side are those UFO enthusiasts who fixate on believing every spy balloon is an extradimensional, extraterrestrial, or extratemporal craft. These individuals become angry when journalists such as myself report that some strange UFOs are distinctly terrestrial in origin. Too many UFO enthusiasts also see government secrecy on UFOs as inherent evidence of a conspiracy. And while a conspiracy of small groups cannot be ruled out (a grand conspiracy would have leaked), most government UFO-related secrecy is designed to keep certain programs classified that are totally unrelated to UFOs but very much related to aerospace activity.