Aliens May Be Watching Our Soaps: Expert

Aliens are out there, and they may be watching Survivor, says a premier scientist searching for extraterrestrial life. “We are definitely not alone,” SETI project founder Frank Drake tells Der Spiegel. He worries about TV radio transmitters shooting human entertainment into space, greeting aliens with soap operas or "crime programs on television, violence and blood and all that," says Drake, 79. "That is a really inaccurate picture of our civilization.”

But finding these alien cultures will difficult, because unlike humans, they probably don't waste energy that floats off into space. “Every evidence that we find of extraterrestrials has to come from some form of energy wasted,” Drake says. If they find us instead, the ET's likely won't attack Earth: "On average, any extraterrestrial civilization will be 100 light-years away from us. There is going to be no benefit for them to attack." (More aliens stories.)