Separating Hope from Hype in the Search for Alien Life | Becky Ferreira

### Skeptical Inquirer Presents

# Separating Hope from Hype in the Search for Alien Life | Becky Ferreira

### Featuring: Becky Ferreira

##### September 4, 2025 - 7:00 pm EDT

The search for alien life is entering a thrilling new phase as next-generation telescopes and missions open unprecedented windows into distant worlds. That means we’re likely to experience an avalanche of “possible biosignatures” that might point to alien life. The truth is out there, but it is not likely to be very forthcoming.

Join us on Thursday, September 4, at 7:00 p.m. ET for a Skeptical Inquirer Presents livestream with science reporter Becky Ferreira. While popular culture has primed us to expect a slam-dunk “first contact” moment, a more likely scenario is some ambiguous atmospheric chemistry on a planet 500 light years away that may simply vex us for generations—or all time. Ferreira will discuss how to manage our expectations about biosignatures and shift the conversation from certainty to probabilities as we embrace the search for life on its own enigmatic terms.

This live online event is free, but advance registration is required. Sign up today!

Becky Ferreira is a science reporter with bylines in The New York Times, WIRED, MIT Technology Review, National Geographic, and many more. She writes the weekly science newsletter The Abstract for 404 Media and the independent newsletter The BeX Files. Her debut book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens will be published on September 30, 2025.