The NOISE, March 2026, Issue 2

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Seventeen miles North-East of Manchester is the sleepy town of Todmorden. Quaint, industrial and, rather unconventionally, an infamous UFO hotspot.

Yes, you read that correctly. In the early 1980s, while policeman Alan Godfrey was dispatched on a call in the early hours, he witnessed a curious object flying in the sky. After attempting to radio the station but finding the line dead, he resolved to sketch it on a piece of paper. The craft was 20ft tall and 12 ft wide; brightly-lit; diamond in shape; and rotating in an anti-clockwise direction. In a flash, it was suddenly gone, and Godfrey was somehow transported thirty yards down the road. Weirder still, his watch indicated 25 minutes had past, and his shoe was split open to reveal an itchy mark on his foot.

The strange events were filed away, but soon leaked to the newspapers. Godfrey ended up prematurely leaving his job and becoming a social pariah in the town of Todmorden. Though Alan Godfrey’s story is compelling, evocative and scientifically-possible, it’s dismissed.

The anecdotal and unreproducible nature of this account mean that it alone is simply not enough evidence to resolve the Fermi Paradox. What is this, you ask? Proposed in 1950 by physicist, Enrico Fermi, the Fermi Paradox asks the question: if extraterrestrial life is entirely possible and likely, why haven’t we seen anything yet?

In 2026, a dichotomy is presented between 1) the search for alien life, 2) a precarious political climate, and 3) increased public distrust as artificial intelligence advances. In other words, if we found alien life would we believe it, would we want to, and would we even care?

Is there an appetite for alien discovery?

According to Google, ‘Alien Metals’ has seen a 500% rise in interest, while ‘Water on Mars’ and ‘Space’ have respectively seen uptakes of 160% and 50%. Meanwhile, ‘Science fiction’ as a film genre has seen a search increase of 70% in recent months, and 80% as a literary genre.

Popular culture is indicative of this shift, with the TV and film industry commissioning revivals, sequels, prequels and sister-projects to existing fan favourites like Jurassic Park, The X Files, Godzilla, Superman, and, notably, the Alien Franchise.

This cultural phenomenon reflects the public’s interest in both innovation and nostalgia. Perhaps this indicates a cross-generational rejection of technological advancements, and a craving for more human-centric, analogue ways of living in amongst phases of discovery.

Originals are born and classics are resuscitated in darker, more technologically-advanced contexts, spotlighting the social anxieties of the present day. It’s unsurprising, with artificial intelligence suddenly uprooting our everyday lives and putting human relevancy up for discussion. Thematic devices include the threat to human autonomy, risk of mass destruction and the border between humans and machine become increasingly ambiguous (Severance, Silo, Black Mirror).

Simultaneously, an increasing fascination with the idea of alien life and invasion is explored in themes of contagion, potentially the aftershocks of a living in a post-Covid-19 world (28 Years Later, Pluribus, The Last of Us). In recent Hollywood instalments, the ‘aliens’ are more developed, increasingly harder to vanquish, and the idea of cross-breeding aliens with humans is presented (War of the Worlds, Alien Romulus, Alien FX).

What are the latest updates in alien discovery?

Increased discussion about ‘invasion’ and ‘aliens’ may also tread a more precarious line, as numerous wars continue and political discourse on immigration heightens. Overall, there is a tangible sense of global unrest.

Dr Robin Corbet, Senior Research Scientist at the University of Maryland and based at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, recently released his paper on the ‘radical mundanity’ principle. When reflecting on other hypothesises for the Fermi Paradox, Corbet mused that perhaps alien technology is not much advanced from our own, or alien life actually got bored of looking for others. He notes the answer could reside in “in a rather more mundane, and so less terrifying universe.”

Prof Michael Garrett, who is featured in The Expert of this Magnify issue, is the former Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester. He respectfully disagreed with the radical mundanity principle, saying: “It projects a very human-like apathy on to the rest of the cosmos. I find it hard to believe that all intelligent life would be so uniformly dull.”

“I lean towards a more adventurous explanation of the Fermi paradox: that other, post-biological civilisations advance so rapidly that they slip beyond our capacity to perceive them,” he said. “I hope I’m right, but I could very well be wrong. Nature always has some kind of surprise for us around the corner.”

In recent months there have been several ‘breakthroughs’ in the search for alien life. Missions from Zhurong and NASA (Perseverance, Curiosity), alongside the Subaru Telescope and ESA’s Gaia, have discovered water-rich fracture halos and possible microbial fossils on Mars, indicating habitability once upon a time.

Incredibly, molecules within exoplanet atmospheres can be identified using Quantum mechanics. It causes every chemical to present a spectroscopic measurement which remains on light after passing through. Telescopes can analyse these ‘molecular barcodes’ (oxygen, carbon dioxide) from an exoplanet’s atmosphere using the starlight filtering through.

There are numerous planned missions to explore exoplanet habitability in more detail, with a launch planned as early as this year with the European Space Agency’s Plato telescope.

What is the threat of (declassified) alien discovery?

Helen McCaw, who worked for the Bank of England as a Senior Analyst in Financial Security, insists the UK needs to prepare for a financial crisis caused by US confirmation of alien life. This comes after recent documentary, The Age of Disclosure, features tens of military and intelligence community officials going on-the-record about an alleged 80-year cover up. 

Allegedly the hearing saw uncovered footage of an orb-like object being hit by a Hellfire missile near Yemen in late 2024, whereby the weapon appeared to cause no deterrent of its trajectory. 

According to The Times: “The documents from military and intelligence personnel behind closed doors admit that these things are real. They’re not fictitious,” Knapp said.” They can fly in formation, they’re evasive, and they outperform any aircraft known to exist, including ours. The public, of course, as I said, has been told something much different.”

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