Antonio Calanni / AP file

The Shroud of Turin bears the faded image of what appears to be a Christlike figure. Italian researchers say they've come close to the shroud's coloration by blasting strips of linen with ultraviolet laser light.

Last updated noon ET Dec. 27:

Italian researchers have resurrected the idea that the Shroud of Turin's mysterious image of a Christlike figure could only have been created by a powerful flash of light — but skeptics still aren't buying it.

Scientists have tussled with believers, and with each other, over the origins of the centuries-old cloth for decades: Many believers think it's the true image of Jesus, left behind miraculously on his burial cloths after his resurrection. Analyses of the Shroud's chemical makeup, as well as radiocarbon dating of fiber samples, have led lots of researchers to conclude that the image was painted onto the cloth during the 14th century. But other researchers, sympathetic to the Shroud's cause, say those tests were faulty.

The Italian studies, conducted at the ENEA Research Center in Frascati, addresses a specific question in Shroud science: Could a burst of radiation have created the coloration seen on the linen? The answer is yes, although the results reported in the latest studies aren't a perfect match. So does that mean the Shroud image could only have been created by the flash of a miraculous resurrection? The answer is no, despite what you might read on the Web.

Five years of tests
"Sadly, we have seen many claims spread in the Web made by journalist/bloggers that discuss the content of a paper they never read," lead researcher Paolo Di Lazzaro told me today in an email. "It is obvious that a serious scientific work cannot prove any supernatural action. We have shown that the most advanced technology available today is unable to replicate all the characteristics of the Shroud image. As a consequence, we may argue it appears unlikely a forger may have done this image with technologies available in the Middle Ages or earlier. The probability the Shroud is a medieval fake is really low. In this sense, the Shroud image is still a scientific challenge."

Di Lazzaro and his colleagues based their conclusions on five years of tests, using an ultraviolet laser apparatus and strips of modern-day linen. They blasted the cloth with UV at different power levels, and reported that they "achieved a very superficial Shroud-like coloration of linen yarns in a narrow range of irradiation parameters." The best effect depended on laser pulses lasting less than 50 nanoseconds.

"These processes may have played a role in the generation of the body image on the Shroud of Turin," the researchers report.

They don't go so far as to claim a miracle. But the fact that UV laser blasters didn't exist in the 13th century, let alone in Jesus' day, strongly implies that they suspect something out of the ordinary was going on.

Di Lazzaro told me that the tests were not financed by ENEA, which is a government-sponsored research agency, and were conducted outside working hours. "The research was curiosity-driven, the attempt to replicate an image which is considered 'the impossible image' due to its very peculiar characteristics," he said.

Over the years, Di Lazzaro and his colleagues have published a long list of studies, including peer-reviewed papers (see below). The latest studies were presented at a May conference in Frascati and published in November as an ENEA technical report (with a disclaimer saying that the contents didn't necessarily express ENEA's opinion). But they didn't really get traction until this week, just in time for Christmas, thanks to a series of sensationalized British news reports.

Critiquing Shroud science
Shroud science, also known as sindology, usually percolates outside the scientific mainstream — but every once in a while a sensational claim comes into the public spotlight. Joe Nickell, an investigator for the New York-based Center for Inquiry, has been following sindology for decades. He noted that the Italian research revives a discussion going back to the 1980s, spearheaded by a group called the Shroud of Turin Research Project, or STURP.

"This is really nothing new," Nickell told me today. "This is a supposed vindication of STURP."

Nickell said Di Lazzaro and his colleagues started out with the assumption that the coloration on the Shroud couldn't have been created by applying pigment to the linen — which runs counter to the conclusions drawn by other studies. Starting out with the idea that the human figure shown on the Shroud is an "impossible image" stacks the deck in favor of a miraculous explanation, he said.

"Making the assumption of a miracle is a really, really, really, really, really big assumption," Nickell said. "That it's done in the name of science is just astonishing."

Nickell said the latest findings don't prove much of anything, even though they're dressed up in high-tech tests.

"It is made up of whole cloth," he said. "The pro-Shroud people start with the answer, and then they have to get some scientific evidence to back this up."

Some folks would suggest that the Shroud of Turin is a valuable focus for faith, whether it's real or not. What do you think? How much value is there in studying the Shroud, and how much impact do scientifico-religious debates like this one have on your own thinking? Check out the Web links below, give it some thought, and add your comments.

Update for 4:15 p.m. ET Dec. 22: Di Lazzaro sent a follow-up email calling attention to his group's publications, which I've added below, and he poses this question for Joe Nickell: "Was he (or anybody else) able to reproduce by chemical paint, acid and any other color a depth of coloration which is 0.2 micrometer thick (that is, one-fifth of a thousandth of a millimeter)? We are talking of this, because on the Shroud, the image has a coloration depth so thin that it is impossible to do with any kind of painting. I can quote peer-reviewed papers that show this is the coloration depth of the Shroud image.

"By the way, Nickell will be interested to know that using VUV photons we obtained this shallow coloration thickness," Di Lazzaro wrote.

I'll pass the question along to Nickell, who says he doesn't use email. I suspect the answer could go along two tracks: One is that it's a tough thing to try to reproduce a precise coloration depth under any circumstances. The other is that centuries of wear and tear might have had an effect that's not easily replicated by the contemporary application of pigments or other chemicals. But we'll see what Nickell has to say.

Update for 2:15 p.m. ET Dec. 23: Nickell responded to Di Lazzaro's question, and added a couple of questions of his own:

"Paolo Di Lazzaro claims the Turin 'Shroud' coloration depth is 0.2 micrometers, but surely he does not claim that that was uniformly measured throughout the cloth. The coloration indeed appears to be generally confined to the topmost fibrils (although the face image does show faintly on the back of the cloth). Using a two-part hypothesis I put forward in 1983, Italian chemist Luigi Garlaschelli has produced a replica shroud with such superficial staining. So let me ask Lazzaro a question in turn: Have you been able, using your high-intensity ultraviolet laser technique, to produce a replica shroud yourself? Until you do, shouldn’t you stop slashing carelessly with Occam’s razor?"

Here's a 2009 Reuters report about the Garlaschelli replica.

Update for 3:50 p.m. ET Dec. 26: Di Lazzaro sent this response to Nickell's questions via email:

"In 1978, several sticky tapes were used to sample the Shroud in different points of the body image. When the image fibers were pulled out of the adhesive, their colored coatings had been stripped off the fiber and remained in the adhesive. These coatings were independently analyzed by Profs. Alan Adler and Ray Rogers, and all of them were too thin to measure accurately with a standard optical microscope. This means the thickness of all coatings was smaller than the visible light wavelength, say thinner than 0.6 micrometer.

"Recently, these results have been confirmed by a direct measurement of another fiber, showing the thickness of the colored coating around the fiber is about 0.2 micrometer. As a consequence, there is quite a good probability most of the image fibers throughout the body image have a coloration depth smaller than 0.6 micrometers.

"Prof. Garlaschelli claimed he obtained 'a superficial coloration' without mentioning 'how much' superficial. Is it 100 micrometers thick? 10 micrometers? One micrometer? Nobody knows. I asked chemists [who are] colleagues at ENEA, and they told me it is impossible to obtain a coloration depth smaller than 10 to 20 micrometers with the chemicals used by Prof. Garlaschelli. This fact alone means the results of Garlaschelli are not comparable with the Shroud image.  Mr. Nickell may be interested to know Prof. Garlaschelli refused to reply the letter sent to the editor of JIST (the journal that published his results) where several points of his work were criticized, including the lack of a measurement of the coloration depth.

"Coming to the question of Mr. Nickell: We never claimed to have reproduced the whole Shroud image. We were interested to gain a deeper insight into the physical and chemical processes that generated such an unusual image. And we were successful to find photochemistry processes that are able to generate a Shroud-like coloration of linen fibers.

"Concerning Occam's razor, I am a scientist, and when I wish to understand a phenomenon, seeking for a scientific explanation, I use microscopes, spectrometers, image detectors and other laboratory tools. I see Mr. Nickell prefers using philosophical instruments like the medieval Occam's razor, a theory proposed in the 14th century. Each of us is free to choose the most familiar tool to find answers."

Update for noon ET Dec. 27: And Nickell responds...

"Di Lazzaro equates the depth of colored coatings that were stripped from surface fibers (using adhesive tape) with the depth of penetration that might be determined by cross-sectioning of actual threads, then asserts that a single fiber’s examination (still apparently not cross-sectioned) has 'confirmed' the dubious claims. Given the tremendous evidence against the 'shroud' — its incompatibility with Jewish burial practices, lack of historical record, bishop's report of the forger’s confession, the still-bright-red 'blood' which failed forensic serological tests, the presence of pigments and paints throughout the image, three laboratories' radiocarbon dating of the cloth to the time of the confession (1260–1390), and much additional evidence — it would seem that Di Lazzaro is straining at a gnat and attempting to swallow a camel. Let him produce a shroudlike image according to whatever theory he can muster, and we'll talk again."

The chatter on the Shroud:

• ENEA: Shroud-like coloration of linen fabrics by vacuum UV radiation
• Int'l Workshop on the Scientific Approach to Acheiropoietos Images
• Telegraph: Study claims Shroud is Christ's authentic burial robe
• Daily Mail: The Turin Shroud DOES have miraculous powers
• The Independent: Scientists say Shroud is supernatural
• Center for Inquiry: Turin 'Shroud' called 'supernatural'
• Telegraph: The Turin Shroud is fake. Get over it

Earlier tales of the Shroud of Turin:

• Documentary looks at the face in the Shroud
• 'Jesus-era' cloth casts doubt on Turin Shroud 
• Could new test settle Shroud of Turin debate?
• Public gets a look at the Shroud of Turin

Journal references from Paolo Di Lazzaro:

Peer reviewed Journals:
G. Baldacchini, P. Di Lazzaro, D. Murra, G. Fanti: “Coloring linens with excimer lasers to simulate the body image of the Turin Shroud” Applied Optics vol. 47, 1278-1283 (2008).

P. Di Lazzaro, D. Murra, A. Santoni, G. Fanti, E. Nichelatti, G. Baldacchini: “Deep Ultraviolet radiation simulates the Turin Shroud image” Journal of Imaging Science and Technology vol. 54, 040302-(6) (2010).

Conference Proceedings
P. Di Lazzaro, G. Baldacchini, G. Fanti, D. Murra, E. Nichelatti, A. Santoni: “A physical hypothesis on the origin of the body image embedded into the Turin Shroud” Proceedings of the Int. Conf. on The Shroud of Turin: Perspectives on a Multifaceted Enigma, edited by G. Fanti (Edizioni Libreria Progetto Padova 2009) pp. 116 – 125. ISBN 978-88-96477-03-08 01-12.

P. Di Lazzaro, G. Baldacchini, G. Fanti, D. Murra, A. Santoni: “Colouring fabrics with excimer lasers to simulate encoded images: the case of the Shroud of Turin”, XVIII Int. Symposium on Gas Flow, Chemical Lasers, High-Power Lasers, edited by R. Vilar, Proceedings SPIE vol. 7131 (2009) pp. 71311R-1 – 71311R-6.

P. Di Lazzaro, D. Murra, A. Santoni, G.- Baldacchini: “Sub-micrometer coloration depth of linens by vacuum ultraviolet radiation”, Proc. International Workshop on the Scientific approach to the Acheiropoietos Images, edited by P. Di Lazzaro (2010) pp. 3 – 10.

D. Murra, P. Di Lazzaro: “Sight and brain, an introduction to the visually misleading images”, Proc. International Workshop on the Scientific approach to the Acheiropoietos Images, edited by P. Di Lazzaro (2010) pp. 31 – 34.

Technical Reports
G. Baldacchini, P. Di Lazzaro, D. Murra, G. Fanti: “Colorazione di tessuti di lino con laser ad eccimeri e confronto con l’immagine sindonica” ENEA RT/2006/70/FIM (2006).

P. Di Lazzaro: “Wissenschaftliche Hypothesen zur Entstehung des Bildes auf dem Turiner Grabtuch” 30Tagen n.4 (2010) pp. 63-66.

P. Di Lazzaro, D. Murra, E. Nichelatti, A. Santoni, G. Baldacchini: “Colorazione similsindonica di tessuti di lino tramite radiazione nel lontano ultravioletto: riassunto dei risultati ottenuti presso il Centro ENEA di Frascati negli anni 2005 -2010” RT/2011/14/ENEA (2011).

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

INAH

The Maya Long Count calendar and its connection to 2012 have long been topics of controversy.

What is it about doomsday that draws a crowd?

Time after time, doomsayers have predicted the breakdown of society on a date certain, stirring up a buzz that builds to a crescendo and ends in a crash when doomsday doesn't come. 1844 brought the Great Disappointment, 1999 brought the Y2K alarm, 2011 brought the Rapture ruckus, and exactly a year from today, we're due for the Maya apocalypse.

If the past is any indicator, we'll be intently blogging, tweeting and indulging in black humor as the clock ticks down to Dec. 21, 2012. Then, on Dec. 22, we'll look around for the next doomsday.

It's just human nature, says Oregon State University sociologist Richard Mitchell, author of a book about survivalist trends titled "Dancing at Armageddon." Telling stories and trading tips for making it through the catastrophe that's ahead of us are pursuits that go back to ancient times.

"The attraction of all of these 'final crisis' tales is in the re-narration, the puzzling out of the details, the putting of fragmented facts into a coherent narrative," Mitchell said.

There are plenty of fragmented facts to choose from for 2012's "end of the world" narrative, including the Maya Long Count calendar, which supposedly winds down to the end of a 5,126-year-long cycle next Dec. 21. Today the city of Tapachula in southern Mexico is turning on a digital clock for the yearlong countdown, and Mayan priests are performing a ceremony at a nearby archaeological site.

They're dramatizing the doomsday date largely to drum up tourism. "If people are interested, we have to take advantage of this," Manolo Alfonso Pino, the regional tourism director for Mexico's Chiapas state, told The Associated Press.

Other angles include the recent string of natural disasters and extreme weather events, the upswing in solar activity, and even the ramp-up of the Large Hadron Collider. The narrative gets embellished with additional twists from seemingly ancient lore, such as the feared approach of a mysterious unseen planet, or a prediction that "30 hours of blindness" will beset us.

Some of the concerns should be taken seriously — for example, heightened solar storms really can have a negative effect on power grids and communication satellites, and the link between global warming and wild weather is truly a valid topic of scientific debate. But there's no need to worry about Planet X or the LHC, and even the real concerns aren't any cause for catastrophic talk. Don Yeomans, who heads the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, addresses the 2012 hype in this video:

Mitchell doesn't expect the hard-core prophets of doom to accept the assurances of NASA ... or, for that matter, Cosmic Log. "They don't trust the media or academia, because we do in fact pose a real threat — not to their physical well-being, but to their storytelling," he said.

Any potential for panic?
Is there a danger in doomsday stories? Based on his studies of survivalists, Mitchell doubts that 2012 worries will touch off mass panic. He told me that folks who are worried about the collapse of society usually shy away from group activities. "There aren't any 'groups,' though one will pop up every once in a while, just to see and be seen," he said. "It's just a myth to suggest that groups exist, other than online mailing lists that nudge electrons back and forth. Largely, it's individual activity, if there's any activity at all."

But Rosanna Guadagno, a social psychologist at the University of Alabama, worries that websites and apocalyptic chatter on the Internet could create a "tipping point" for 2012 hysteria. "I think it's going to ramp up as we get closer to next December," she told me.

Guadagno's research focuses on the effect that computer-mediated communication has on social interaction and influence.

"The one thing that we have going against us is the way that information spreads online," she told me on Tuesday. "For example, yesterday half the world thought Jon Bon Jovi was dead, just because one person set up a website."

What if someone decided to go viral with the apocalypse?

"It won't take that many people to take advantage of the Internet, to basically spread a lot of misinformation and cause panic among greater numbers," Guadagno said. "Hopefully the general public will be forewarned that this is all bunk."

That's what we're here for. And we'll be here whenever the bunk hits the fan during 2012. So whatever you do, DON'T PANIC!

Update for 5 p.m. ET: The doomsday predictions have centered on Dec. 21 as the fateful date, but that's not the unanimous opinion of experts on Maya glyphs. Penn Museum's Simon Martin, for example, is among those who say that Dec. 23 rather than Dec. 21 marks the end of the Maya calendar's millennia-long baktun cycle. Actually, the discrepancy may turn out to be more than just a couple of days: Gerardo Aldana, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, says conversions of the Maya calendar to the modern calendar could be off by as much as 50 to 100 years.

An exhibit at the Penn Museum, titled "Maya 2012: Lords of Time," will focus on the ancient Maya people's conceptions of the universe, including their ideas about time and the calendar. The Philadelphia show opens on May 5 and will end on ... Jan. 13, 2013. 

Extra credit: After 2012, what's the next doomsday to watch for? Here are a few dates that are popping up:

• 2014, when the LHC is due to reach full power. Some folks believe the second decade of any century is a rough time, just because it historically has been. Nicholas Boyle, a professor specializing in German literature and history at Cambridge University (and no close relative of mine), has already written a book on that theme titled "2014: How to Survive the Next World Crisis." Not sure what that has to do with German, but OK. 
• 2029, when futurist Ray Kurzweil expects machine intelligence to equal human intelligence.
• 2045, when Kurzweil foresees a global transformation dramatic enough to be classified as a "singularity."
• 2060, the "no-earlier-than" date for Isaac Newton's predicted doomsday.

It's interesting that these dates are all about 15 years apart. Is there a 15-year doomsday activity cycle, analogous to the 11-year solar activity cycle? That's one more thing to mull over in the comment section below.

More from '2012 Watch':

• Mayan region launches countdown
• The end is not near in 2012
• 'Death Star' debunked
• Don't fret over Planet X
• Pole shift comes with the territory
• Stressed by storms and supernovas?
• Alien invaders vs. the truth squad
• Solar cycle sparks doomsday buzz
• Doomsday brouhaha over Betelgeuse
• French village flooded by doomsday survivalists
• Court case over LHC doomsday finally closed
• 'End of the world' delayed ... by Mayan calendar

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Les Bossinas / NASA

An artist's conception shows a starship entering a wormhole to travel to a distant galaxy.

Last month's "100-Year Starship" conference, backed by NASA and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, threw a huge spotlight on the idea of sending spacecraft far beyond our solar system — but how realistic is that idea? Check out what one of the world's top experts on the subject has to say on "Virtually Speaking Science."

Marc Millis, the researcher behind NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project and the nonprofit Tau Zero Foundation, was my guest on tonight's show, which is available as a podcast via BlogTalkRadio and iTunes.

Millis estimates that it'll take 200 years to get in position for the first missions to stars beyond our own, but he says there are lots of small steps we can take starting tomorrow to "chip away" at the challenge. Experiments with solar sails have already started, and Millis says the next step there is to figure out the business case for more ambitious light-powered trips.

There are all sorts of potential breakthroughs to consider: Could the recent reports of faster-than-light neutrinos point to a way to break the speed limit set by special relativity? Could laser experiments let scientists warp the fabric of space-time on a small scale? "What creates the properties of an inertial frame, and how does that relate to space travel?" Millis asked.

Is it worth spending money on precursor missions — for example, sending a "Super-Hubble" space telescope beyond the edge of our solar system to look outward, and inward? "What would it take to do that? How much would it cost?" Millis said.

Here's an edited transcript of my pre-show Q&A with Millis:

Cosmic Log: More people are aware that interstellar flight is on the agenda, in part because of the 100-Year Starship conference. So is anyone building a starship anytime soon? What's the next step?

Millis: No one's building a starship anytime soon, although a lot of people would like to attempt that. The workshop had about 1,000 people there. It was open to the public, and I was glad to see some very intelligent questions from the public. It was an introductory look at not only the technology, but also some of the social issues, and how you would do financing.

The next step by DARPA is that there's a competition out to award the remaining funds of about $500,000 [out of an original $1 million] as seed money to whoever can suggest the best organizational structure to carry forward with the 100-Year Starship image. That will be an organization that will work for at least a century to develop the technology and financing to ultimately enable starships.

Q: Do you see Tau Zero as that organization?

A: Tau Zero is making a proposal. To gauge our chances, I would have to know what all the other competitors are proposing, and that's hard to do.

Q: Could it be that the social issues are actually more challenging than the technological issues?

A: Theoretically, it would be possible to send a probe to the nearest neighboring star in less than a century, so you could actually get your data back. But the required expense is beyond what I think our society could commit to right now.

Q: What's the ballpark figure for the cost?

A: There isn't one, because it's so beyond what we can do.

Based on the progression of society ... if we don't change anything that we're doing, it looks as if it might take another two centuries to have an interstellar probe that's fast enough to complete a mission within a human lifespan. Not that there's people on board, but that the people who launched the mission could get the data back before they retire. We have a long way to go.

The important issue to figure out today is to make sure we have a sane comparison of the real challenges and the real state of the art, so we're proceeding wisely here. Then, from that, ask, "OK, if that's where we are, what can we start tomorrow to chip away at those issues?" We can't build the starship tomorrow, but we can identify the correct questions to ask, and begin seeking answers to those questions. When it looks more promising, and the advancements are there, fine.

On the social issues ... when you think of leaving the planet, and representing Earth, that requires a high degree of political will and collaboration. I don't consider that impossible, and things are certainly looking up in terms of nations collaborating on major space topics. But I don't know how long it will take to really bring this collaboration to bear. Now this doesn't preclude any one sufficiently able and wealthy team from launching their own mission, on their own. Would that be ethical or not?

Then, suppose we did identify a habitable planet. Is it really ours to consider colonizing?

There are a lot of huge questions: What's the optimal population for an interstellar trip? What are the governance models? What's the meaning of life? When you start thinking about "world ships," where we're sending people instead of just robotic probes, that provides a venue that's far enough out that you can rationally discuss these questions. It's an interesting opportunity that we really haven't tapped into yet.

Q: I guess one of those big questions would be, "Why travel to other star systems?" How would you answer that one?

A: The ultimate, highest-priority benefit of star flight is the survival of the human species beyond the fate of our own solar system and our home planet. In the meantime, the progress we make to try to turn all this stuff into a reality will result in profound improvements in energy conversion, transportation, self-supporting life support — things that would be very useful for life on Earth. And then there's the social aspect. This effort can give us hope for a better future, expand our opportunities — and hopefully give people a frontier to conquer, rather than being left with no option other than to conquer each other.

More about interstellar flight:

• The best options for flying to other stars
• Billionaires wanted for starship plan
• Sex poses big challenge for interstellar travel

Podcasts from 'Virtually Speaking Science':

• Download tonight's hourlong show from BlogTalkRadio or iTunes
• Sean Carroll on the puzzling frontiers of physics
• Rand Simberg on the private-enterprise vision for spaceflight
• Martin Hoffert on the future of energy policy
• George Djorgovski on science in virtual worlds
• Alan Stern on suborbital research and NASA's mission to Pluto
• Col. 'Coyote' Smith on the outlook for space solar power
• Tim Pickens on rocket ventures and the Google Lunar X Prize

Last update: 10:30 p.m. ET Nov. 2.

Many thanks to the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics for co-sponsoring tonight's Second Life talk at the Stella Nova auditorium.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

WGBH

Our own planet twists the fabric of space-time, as shown in this animation from "The Fabric of the Cosmos."

Theoretical physicist Brian Greene admits that the world he describes in his new public-TV documentary series, "The Fabric of the Cosmos," is nothing like everyday experience. He's not even sure some of the things he describes are for real. For example, how can we possibly know other universes exist? Believe it or not, there are ways to find out.

The four-part "Nova" series makes its debut on PBS stations on Wednesday night with an episode that delves into the mysteriously substantial properties of empty space. "As it turns out, empty space is not nothing," the Columbia University professor says at the start of the show. "It's something. ... So real, that empty space itself helps shape everything in the world around us, and forms the very fabric of the cosmos."

That episode is already available for watching over iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices, as well as through Amazon Prime instant video. And if you miss seeing it on TV on Wednesday, you'll be able to catch up with it later online. Over succeeding weeks, Greene addresses not only space, but also the nature of time, the weird world of quantum mechanics and the possibility that our universe is just one bubble in the cosmic ocean (or raisin-bread loaf, or cheese wedge) of the multiverse.

Most of the substance in "The Fabric of the Cosmos" comes from Greene's book of the same name — but the part about the multiverse is more speculative, and is derived from Greene's follow-up book titled "The Hidden Reality." So of course that's where I had to start when I had a chat with Greene this week. Here's an edited transcript of the Q&A:

Cosmic Log: You must get this question all the time: What sort of proof do you have that any of this stuff is true?

Brian Greene: Well, the first three episodes — focusing on space, time and quantum mechanics — are much more closely tied to observations and experiments that have already been done. Much of what we describe in those programs is firmly rooted in science that is now largely accepted, even though it's weird. The fourth program is different in that regard, because as the last program in the series, it is looking beyond what we currently know, and surveying the landscape of possibilities that may in the future become accepted science. But not yet.

That's the multiverse. The multiverse is hard to test because we have access to this universe, and the theory proposes that there are other universes. We can't directly see them. We can't visit them. So how would you ever prove that idea?

In the program, we tackle that issue head-on. We describe how the multiverse naturally emerged from investigations that were rooted in observations and experiments: things to do with questions of the origin of the universe, the cosmic microwave background radiation, issues surrounding the puzzles of the big bang that can only be resolved through an inflationary view of the universe — which then yields the multiverse. But it won't be a satisfying explanation until we have some kind of direct confirmation.

To my mind, there's really one main way that could happen in the near future: In this proposal, different universes are like different expanding bubbles in some larger cosmic environment, like bubbles in a bubble bath. And when bubbles in a bubble bath expand, they can run into each other. Similarly, expanding universes can collide. The math indicates that if and when they do, the collision can send ripple-like disturbances through the microwave background radiation — the heat signature left over from the big bang. Those temperature differences of that particular sort are something that people are looking for. Some even claim they've seen the first tentative signals of the pattern. I'm highly skeptical about that, as everybody should be. But this could be a way to subject an idea that seems so foreign to an observational test.

Q: There's also been some talk about possible observations at the Large Hadron Collider that might suggest energy was "leaking" into other dimensions.

A: Yes, the notion that there are extra dimensions provides another way in which you could have other universes. Our universe might be one piece of bread in a big cosmic loaf, where the other "slices" are displaced from ours in a new direction, and are actually other universes. One way to check that idea would be to have a very energetic collision of particles in our universe, on our slice of space. The math shows it's possible for energy from those collisions to be ejected off our slice and migrate into the wider cosmos. We would notice that here by seeing that energy was not conserved. The energy after the collision would be a little less than it was before, because some of the energy would have crossed beyond our universe.

The point is that there are strange ideas about the universe that can nevertheless yield evidence, if we know where to look.

WGBH

In "The Fabric of the Cosmos," physicist Brian Greene graphically shows how the "Mona Lisa" ... and even Brian Greene ... could exist in more than one universe.

Q: One of the points of the series is that there's a deeper level to reality that what we see in everyday life, suggested by mathematics and physics. You use all sorts of animations and graphics to convey a sense of the underlying fabric of the cosmos. Do you have some favorite tricks that you've used in the TV series?

A: When you're dealing with subjects that are abstract ... these are mind-bending ideas, but what do you point the camera at? That's a funny thing, because everything we do takes place within space, within time. The concepts of space and time are so profoundly interwoven with reality as we know it, and yet science has revealed that there are features of space and time that run completely counter to our intuition — if you examine them on non-human scales, that is, scales that are very tiny, or very big, or when you're moving very fast, or if you're near a very strong, massive gravitational object.

Since we can't actually go to those exotic realms, we use animation to show what it would be like if you could shrink down to a billionth of a billionth of a meter ... or what it'd be like if you could travel at just a tiny fraction less than the speed of light ... or what it would be like to hover near the edge of a black hole and then come back to Earth. And we use animation to show the largest bird's-eye view of the cosmos if some of these multiverse ideas are correct. That really gives you a visceral understanding of the concepts.

Q: In fact Einstein used these types of thought experiments as well when he worked on his theories of relativity. He imagined what it would be like to ride a light wave, or to be falling through space in an elevator...

A: If only Einstein had the tools of animation, who knows how far he would have gone!

But there's a serious point here: When I do my own work, I'm constantly trying to build a mental image of what's going on. I'm never comfortable if my understanding is just completely in the equations. I feel like I have a storehouse of imagery built up just from the scientific research itself, which then leads to a form that will work in a book or on TV, which requires dressing it up in various ways. The whole idea of trying to visualize abstract equations is something that many of us do as part of our second nature, as researchers.

Q: Are there any favorite visualizations you keep coming back to?

A: Well, sure. A lot of my work has to do with extra dimensions of space. And I readily admit that I cannot picture anything more than three dimensions. So in my own work, I'm constantly doing what we do in the television program, which is to use lower dimensions as analogies — two-dimensional analogies that you can draw and manipulate. You use those as a guide to what's happening in higher-dimensional settings, where the equations of string theory reside.

You have to be careful. Sometimes a lower-dimensional analogy can be misleading. But you begin to build up the art of knowing what aspects of those visualizations you can trust when you're taking the leap to higher dimensions, and which aspects make you say, "No, no, no, that won't give me insight into my real interest."

Q: What do you hope viewers will take away from the show?

A: The main goal is for people to leave the program with a more complete sense that when it comes to the universe, what you see is not what you get. There are layers upon layers of reality that we are unaware of in everyday life. Intuition is built up from experience, and our experiences since we appeared on the planet has been largely dictated by what is beneficial for our survival. Understanding the quantum world, and understanding the possibility of other universes, and understanding the deep nature of time don't help you get the next meal. So there hasn't been any real evolutionary pressure for us to gain intuition about those things. But when we have the luxury of thinking about them mathematically, we learn that there's much more to the universe than meets the eye.

It's absolutely thrilling to learn that time for me is not the same as time for you; that out there in space, time is elapsing at a different rate near the edge of a black hole; that in the depths of space, there is unavoidable, ferocious quantum activity; that the world is governed by probabilities, not certainty; and then there's entanglement, the idea that what you do over here can have a direct effect on something over there. Wow!

Wow indeed. The TV show is just the tip of the iceberg: The "Fabric of the Cosmos" website offers tons of videos, interactives, intereviews and links to online resources. More than a dozen "Cosmic Cafes" have been organized nationwide to talk about space, time and the multiverse. And the World Science Festival has organized a screening of the first episode at Columbia University at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, to be followed by a forum featuring Greene, theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind and Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter.

Even though the in-person event sold out almost immediately, you can still tune in to live streaming video and join the discussion via Facebook or Twitter. I have an alternate suggestion: Watch the episode in advance, or save it for later, and tune in to "Virtually Speaking Science" at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday for my chat with interstellar-travel expert Marc Millis. Then, at 10 p.m. ET, switch on over to the World Science Festival's forum.

More cosmic contemplations from Brian Greene:

• A black-hole fairy tale for kids
• 'Fabric' takes on the space-time continuum
• Hidden universes revealed
• String theory gets time on prime time
• Elegant physicist makes string theory sexy
• Space.com Q&A on 'The Fabric of the Cosmos'
• Read an excerpt from 'The Hidden Reality'

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds. 

Paramount Pictures

The recently released movie "Paranormal Activity 3" focuses on the boundary between dreaming and waking - which psychologist Richard Wiseman says is prime territory for perfectly normal "paranormal" experiences.

Halloween is the peak time to dwell on ghosts, spooky noises, weird premonitions and other "paranormal activities" — but despite that label, such phenomena are totally normal. You can even create them yourself.

That's the message of Richard Wiseman's latest book, "Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There." Wiseman, who began his career as a magician and is now an experimental psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, reveals the tricks of the paranormal trade — including the methods used by on-air psychics to make themselves seem, well, psychic. (To try them out, download Wiseman's "Instant Superhero Kit.") 

Wiseman wishes normal people had a better understanding of the psychology behind seemingly paranormal activities.

"There's an enormous problem," he told me today, "actually more in America than in Britain, because the level of belief in the States is huge. We're talking about more than three-quarters of the population believing in some sort of paranormal phenomena — even with the rise in technology and science over the past 20 years or so. It's really quite staggering."

There are so many stories about chilling premonitions of doom, or alien visitations, or high-tech studies of haunted houses. Surely there must be some reality behind all those scary tales. It turns out that there is, but Wiseman says you don't have to turn to supernatural explanations. Here are five examples:

1. Selective memory: Can dreams predict future events? Actually, psychologists have found that people tend to have far more dreams than they consciously remember. A significant event — say, a death or dramatic change of fortune — can trigger the memory of a past dream that may seem to relate to that event. Also, you're more likely to hear about the one seemingly prophetic dream than about the many other dreams that went nowhere. In this essay for The Guardian, Wiseman delves more deeply into the selective nature of dream recall.

The  fact that we often hear only what we want to hear, or remember only what fits our expectations, also plays into psychic readings. Wiseman refers to this as "fishing and forking": The psychic throws out some generalities as a fishing expedition, watches to see which of those observations you pick up on, and then follows that fork in the road to build up the reading. The Skeptic's Dictionary outlines the process here.

2. Ideomotor action: Sometimes zombies really are in control of our brains — but those zombies are our own mental processes that buzz along beneath our consciousness. For example, experiments have shown that unconscious muscle movements can guide your hands to rock a table during a seance, or move a Ouija board pointer to spell out a message, or twist a dousing twig to point to an underground water source (or not). But it works only if your zombie brain can process the results of the motor movements. If you're blindfolded, the effect is spoiled. The Straight Dope provides further discussion of the Ouija connection.

3. Sleep paralysis: For thousands of years, tales have been told about strange beings who visit in the middle of the night and have their way with sleepers. In the old days, these were demons known as succubi and incubi. Nowadays, they're aliens or ghosts (like the ghosts in the "Paranormal Activity" movies). Such experiences are associated with a psychological phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, in which the brain hovers at the edge of consciousness but keeps the mind-body connection turned off (except for the connection to the genitalia, which may explain why those succubi were so sex-crazed). "The body paralyzes itself," Wiseman said.

Researchers recently reported that they were able to train volunteers to experience out-of-body experiences as well as alien encounters during their semi-waking states.

4. Cold spots and infrasound: Ghostbusters often report feeling "cold spots," or suddenly becoming anxious, or getting weird readings on high-tech sensors when a specter makes its presence known. Wiseman said such sudden changes are due to natural rather than supernatural causes. Ten years ago, he and his colleagues used an array of thermal cameras and air movement detectors to figure out what was behind a "haunting" at Hampton Court Palace, near London. It turned out that chilly drafts blowing through cracks in the palace's concealed doorways created the unsettling sounds and the plummeting temperatures.

Low-frequency sounds, created by changes in the weather or even appliances such as air conditioners, can also create a sense of uneasiness in listeners, even if they can't consciously sense the sound.  Wiseman conducted an experiment on the effects of "infrasound" during a concert and found that 22 percent of the listeners felt chills or other unusual sensations when they listened to music that was laced with the low-frequency tones. 

5. Hyper-vigilance: All these effects are accentuated when visitors think they're in a haunted house. "Basically, when we become afraid, we become very vigilant. ... It feeds on itself," Wiseman said. He and many other scientists believe that such hyper-vigilance came in handy when our ancestors were in the midst of a mammoth hunt or a host of unseen threats. The same hard-wired instinct may explains why we seek out an eek by visiting a haunted house or watching a scary movie. "It's the way we've evolved," Wiseman said.

Although Wiseman doesn't see anything supernatural in paranormal activities, he does see a lot of value in studying them. "Trying to understand why people have these experiences is very instructive," he said. In fact, research has shown that some concepts, such as mind-reading and out-of-body experiences, are rooted in solid neuroscience. Just as science fiction can give rise to real-life innovations, so can tales of the paranormal.

"Whenever science has done well, so has the paranormal. ... You get this interesting relationship," Wiseman said.

More Halloween tales from the Cosmic Log files:

• 2002: Ghostly mysteries solved
• 2003: Why we seek out an eek
• 2004: Sharing your scares
• 2005: Ghosts on the rise
• 2006: Bring me your ghost stories!
• 2007: The science of spooks
• 2008: Chasing phantoms on film
• 2008: The science of bloodsuckers
• 2009: Seven ghoulish discoveries
• 2010: Spooky stuff from NASA
• 2010: How your brain handles terror scares

Check out Wiseman's "Paranormality" website for more about the book, plus lots of spooky photos and videos.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Today's countdown to the predicted end of the world was a bit like watching a rerun of reality TV … been there, done that doomsday. Nevertheless, radio preacher Harold Camping's Rapture rerun provided a good opportunity to revive the old jokes and prepare for the new doomsday hype ahead in 2012.

The hype was a lot heavier five months ago, when Camping set a high-profile date for a biblical-style ascension of the elect to heaven. Millions of dollars were spent by Camping's Family Radio International as well as followers who spent their savings to get out the word about the end of the world. During this week's spaceflight conference in New Mexico, one of my colleagues on the space beat, Jeff Foust, happened to mention that he saw a billboard that still touted Judgment Day's approach on May 21.

The hubbub sparked a backlash of black humor — ranging from animated cartoons to "Rapture bombs," which involved setting out clothes and shoes, as if the wearer had been transported (nude) to the pearly gates. The Sociolatte and Mashable websites revived some of the best of the bombs, including "Rapture Dad," a photo that shows Kyle Riesenbeck surrounded by the leavings of his luckier family members. (Kyle kept the meme going, but according to his Twitter account, Rapture Dad has "decided to take it easy on the Rapture this time around.")

That's just one of the signs that the Rapture has really run its course. Camping may well come up with yet another explanation for why prophecy failed, and yet another set of arcane calculations that reveal doomsday is just a little further down the road. But based on the weak ratings for today's Rapture rerun, the 90-year-old Camping is finished as a prophet of doom. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is even capitalizing on his past pronouncements in a new "Fool Me Once" billboard campaign.

Still more evidence of Rapture fatigue comes from a Crimson Hexagon analysis of 55,537 Twitter mentions related to Camping's October prophecy, gathered from Oct. 16 to today:

• 14 percent of the mentions expressed negativity toward Camping, many indicating they thought he was crazy or an idiot.
• 26 percent shared jokes or were sarcastic about the rapture and Camping’s predictions.
• 18 percent mentioned that Camping was at it again, and dubbed this prediction as Rapture 2.0 or Rapture2s.
• 13 percent expressed excitement for the end of the world and saw it as an excuse to throw a party.
• 14 percent shared the report that today was the predicted date of the Rapture.
• 8 percent voiced a religious response, such as saying Camping was a false prophet.
• 7 percent wondered whether the Rapture was for real this time.

For years, doomsayers have been talking about the prospects for a 2012 apocalypse foretold by the Mayan "long-count" calendar, even though there's really no scientific or even anthropological basis for the alarm. I've tried to provide some reality checks for the 2012 worries — including concerns about solar storms and the supposed return of Planet X. But today's non-Rapture may be an even more valuable lesson for anyone who's concerned about 12/21/2012: Just because someone makes a big to-do about the end of the world doesn't mean that it's coming.

So what do you think about the Rapture and other doomsdays? Heard any good end-of-the-world jokes lately? Feel free to add your comments below.

Review all of the postings from Rapture 1.0 by checking CosmicLog.com/Rapture. You can also connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to a circle on Google+. And for something completely different, check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Marko Drobnjakovic / AP

David Petrovic, 4, stands in his garden as silverware sticks on his chest in Gornji Milanovac, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Belgrade, Serbia.

After at least two episodes involving supposedly "magnetic" children in the Balkans who can hang spoons and forks from their chests, you'd think we'd wise up. But no. Yet another story about the phenomenon is going viral today: a report from Serbia about two kids with seemingly magnetic powers.

Four-year-old David Petrovic and his cousin, 6-year-old Luka Lukic, showed off the cutlery trick for journalists and doctors, and the doctors confessed that they were flummoxed.

"As far as I know, there is no medical or scientific explanation," The Associated Press quoted radiologist Mihajlo Dodic as saying.

"Nobody can tell us why this is happening," said Luka's father, Slavisa Lukic.

Benjamin Radford could tell them. He's the author or "Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries," and he's already explained the "magnetic" powers exhibited by another Serbian boy named Bogdan as well as a Croatian boy named Ivan.

"They just crank 'em out over there, don't they?" Radford said today when told about the latest case.

The explanation is that kids are particularly good at attaching things to their bodies, because you have one smooth, sticky surface (hairless skin, with a slight sheen of sweat) adhering to another smooth surface.

"When you look at the things involved in these cases, they're all smooth," Radford said. "They're glass, they're plates, they're metal. You don't see rough surfaces. You don't see steel wool."

The trick may also involve a slight backward lean, to keep the spoon from falling off the chest or the nose. Or you can set the cutlery along the collar bones, as David is doing in the photo above.

One tip-off that the magnetic claims are bogus: The effect can be done with smooth, non-magnetic items such as plates or glasses. Another tip-off: The trick works only on bare, sticky skin, and it's spoiled if talcum powder is used or the kid puts on a shirt.

The AP story quotes Patrick Regan, a physics professor at the University of Surrey in Britain, as saying "humans are made of the wrong material to be magnetic." Even surgical implants tend to be made out of non-magnetic materials, such as titanium. Otherwise, they'd cause problems for MRI scans.

It is possible to levitate small animals by taking advantage of water's diamagnetic properties, provided you have a super-strong magnet. But that's definitely not what's going on in Serbia. 

20th Century Fox

Ian McKellen played Magneto, a character who could wield magnetic powers, in three "X-Men" movies.

The real question may very well be: Why are parents and the public magnetically attracted to stories like this? There's a special allure to the idea that some humans may well have special powers, whether it's Magneto in the "X-Men" saga or the German in the "Heroes" TV series. Both those characters were known for being able to control materials with magnetism.

Are the kids or the parents bent on perpetrating a hoax? Radford said that's not necessarily the case. "It's easy to overlook the fact that you can fool yourself. ... There are people who sincerely just don't think critically about this," he said. When amazing feats are reported in regions far removed from the global media infrastructure — the Balkan countryside, for instance — it can be easier to just go with the folk tale and dial down the skepticism.

So the tale of Serbia's magnetic boys makes for a good late-summer yarn. But an unexplained scientific mystery? Not so fast.

More 'unexplained' mysteries:

• That's no chupacabra! It's a mangy old fox
• Loch Ness monster-like shape filmed in Alaska
• UFO fans latch onto underwater anomaly
• Cosmic Log's 2012 archive: DON'T PANIC

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds. 

A study that reviews a host of sci-fi scenarios for contact with extraterrestrials stirred up such a ruckus today that NASA had to step in and distance itself from the research. The controversy focuses on the idea that E.T. could well decide that we're a threat to interstellar order, and therefore we have to be stopped before we spread.

The report itself, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, covers ground that's familiar to dedicated fans of E.T. lore. For example, the premise of the 1951 sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is that universalist-minded aliens see our civilization as so rooted in violence that it's better to snuff us out than let us ruin the neighborhood. (The 2008 remake, starring Keanu Reeves, recycled that idea with an environmental theme.)

Then there's the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" scenario, in which Earth is destroyed merely to make way for a new stretch of intergalactic infrastructure.

"At the heart of these scenarios is the possibility that intrinsic value may be more efficiently produced in our absence," the researchers write.

The most familiar sci-fi scenario is the one in which the aliens are as selfish and territorial as we are, and want to wipe us out or enslave us and take our stuff. Think "War of the Worlds" or "Independence Day." In such cases, the researchers note that there's the potential for big payoffs ... if we prevail.

"Humanity benefits not only from the major moral victory of having defeated a daunting rival but also from the opportunity to reverse-engineer ETI [extraterrestrial intelligence] technology," they write. Indeed, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman joked last weekend that a fake alien invasion might be just the thing to spark an economic turnaround.

The researchers touch on more benign scenarios as well — for example, the "Star Trek" scenario, in which helpful aliens welcome us into the United Federation of Planets because we're all basically good guys (as opposed to those evil Klingons, until they become good guys, too). And then there's something like the "E.T." scenario, in which the aliens mostly just want to stay out of our way.

The 33-page study reflects at length on the potential risks.

"The possibility of harmful contact with ETI suggests that we may use some caution for METI [sending messages to extaterrestrial intelligence]," the researchers write. "Given that we have already altered our environment in ways that may be viewed as unethical by universalist ETI, it may be prudent to avoid sending any message that shows evidence of our negative environmental impact. The chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere over recent time may be a poor choice for a message because it would show a rapid accumulation of carbon dioxide from human activity. Likewise, any message that indicates widespread loss of biodiversity or rapid rates of expansion may be dangerous if received by such universalist ETI."

In short, let's keep our environmental bad habits on the down low, so as not to get the sad-Keanu E.T.'s on our case.

The basis of the brouhaha
By themselves, these ideas are not all that, um, alien. For years, sci-fi author David Brin has advised keeping quiet about our existence, and celebrity physicist Stephen Hawking agrees. U.N. officials and scientific experts also say the messages we direct toward any aliens we come across would have to be carefully managed.

So what's the big deal? Well, one of the authors of the paper, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, happens to be a postdoctoral student working at NASA Headquarters — and that highly tenuous connection to the world's most influential space agency sparked a huge wave of scare headlines. It started with The Guardian's story, and rolled onto The Drudge Report's webpage with a headline reading "NASA REPORT: Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civlizations..." Another variant was this one: "NASA: Aliens May Destroy Humanity Over Greenhouse Gases."

Eventually, NASA had to send out a Twitter update saying "Yes, @drudge and @guardiannews are mistaken about an 'alien' report. It's not NASA research. Ask the report's author...." The space agency followed up later with two more tweets, emphasizing that it was not involved in the study and saying that Fox News and CNN "have it wrong."

In each case, NASA linked to a lengthy clarification and apology from Domagal-Goldman, who made clear that the study was not a "NASA report," that no NASA funding was expended on it, and that he spent none of his working hours on writing the paper. He said his two co-authors, Seth Baum and Jacob Haqq-Misra of Pennsylvania State University, "put in the vast majority of work on it."

"It was just a fun paper written by a few friends, one of whom happens to have a NASA affiliation," Domagal-Goldman wrote.

He admitted that including the NASA affiliation turned out to be a "horrible mistake":

"I did so because that is my current academic affiliation. But when I did so I did not realize the full implications that has. I'm deeply sorry for that, but it was a mistake born out of carelessness and inexperience and nothing more. I will do what I can to rectify this, including distributing this post to the Guardian, Drudge and NASA Watch. Please help me spread this post to the other places you may see the article inaccurately attributed to NASA.

"One last thing: I stand by the analysis in the paper. Is such a scenario likely? I don't think so. But it's one of a myriad of possible (albeit unlikely) scenarios, and the point of the paper was to review them. But remember — and this is key — it's me standing for the paper ... not the full weight of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. For anything I have done to mis-convey that to those covering the story, to the public, or to the fine employees of NASA, I apologize."

This isn't the first case where the NASA connection has become entangled in scientific speculation. In March, the space agency took great pains to distance itself from NASA researcher Richard Hoover's claims to have found evidence of outer-space organisms in meteorites.

In Domagal-Gordon's case, the substance was far less controversial. As I've tried to point out above, the views expressed in the paper aren't that far off from the typical science-blog fare. I'm willing to bet a goodly sum of quatloos that Domagal-Gordon will go on to have a fine career in science ... and also that this won't be NASA's last P.R. kerfuffle over E.T.

More about aliens:

• Hollywood remakes an alien
• What would you ask the aliens?
• Why we love to fear E.T.
• The alien files on Cosmic Log

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Mafic Studios

An artist's conception shows a large phased array in orbit, soaking up solar power.

NASA is awarding $100,000 one-year grants to 30 teams for out-of-this-world ideas ranging from new kinds of spacesuits to quantum communication and space solar power.

The awards were announced today under the auspices of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, or NIAC. The space agency said the concepts were chosen on the basis of their potential for enhancing future space missions. The grants will go toward further study, to determine whether the ideas could help NASA meet future mission requirements.

"These innovative concepts have the potential to mature into the transformative capabilities NASA needs to improve our current space mission operations, seeding the technology breakthroughs needed for the challenging space missions in NASA's future," NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun said in today's announcement.

The 30 recipients were chosen from hundreds of proposals, Joe Parrish, director for early-stage innovation in NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, told journalists during a teleconference. The grants will be disbursed starting in September, and the projects will be highlighted at a conference in the spring of 2012, said Jay Falker, NIAC's program executive.

Falker said project teams will present papers on their work by the end of the year, and some will even develop hardware. The most promising concepts will be chosen for two-year Phase 2 grants amounting to $500,000 each. "We recognize that in order to achieve big gains, we are going to have to accept some risks," Parrish said.

NIAC follows up on an earlier program with the same acronym, known as the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Between 1998 and 2007, that program pioneered such concepts as space solar power and the space elevator, but it was retooled in response to recommendations from the National Research Council. Unlike the previous NIAC, the new NIAC is open to NASA centers as well as outside academic and industry teams.

"I'm just so thrilled that NIAC is back," Parrish said.

NIAC is just one part of NASA's technology development program, which also offers larger grants for more mature technologies as well as Centennial Challenge prizes that are open to all comers.

The concepts selected for NIAC support are considered to be at least 10 years away from being incorporated into actual missions, although Falker said NASA's mission directorates have already expressed interest in incorporating some of the supported concepts. Here's a rundown of the Phase 1 selections, listed along with organization and principal investigator:

• Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration, Draper Laboratory, Kevin Duda. NASA says this spacesuit would use flywheels to stabilize and assist astronauts as they work in microgravity.
• Enabling All-Access Mobility for Planetary Exploration Vehicles via Transformative Reconfiguration, North Carolina State University, Scott Ferguson.
• The Potential for Ambient Plasma Wave Propulsion, Ohio Aerospace Institute, James Gilland.
• Space Debris Elimination (SpaDE), Raytheon BBN Technologies, Daniel Gregory. NASA's Falker said this project would look into the possibility of using a balloon-lofted, high-altitude air gun to change the course of potentially hazardous orbital debris.
• Regolith-Derived Heat Shield for a Planetary Body Entry and Descent System with In-Situ Fabrication, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Michael Hogue.
• Atmospheric Breathing Electric Thruster for Planetary Exploration, Busek Co. Inc., Kurt Hohman.
• Economical Radioisotope Power, Universities Space Research Association, Steven Howe.
• Contour Crafting Simulation Plan for Lunar Settlement Infrastructure Build-Up, University of Southern California, Behrokh Khoshnevis.
• Entanglement-assisted Communication System for NASA's Deep-Space Missions: Feasibility Test and Conceptual Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Paul Kwiat. This project proposes using quantum entanglement to create more capable communication systems in space.
• SPS-ALPHA: The First Practical Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array, Artemis Innovation Management Solutions, John Mankins. This study could lead to a demonstration project for space-based solar power satellites.
• High-temperature superconductors as electromagnetic deployment and support structures in spacecraft, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Miller.
• Non-Radioisotope Power Systems For Sunless Solar System Exploration Missions, Pennsylvania State University, Michael Paul.
• Spacecraft/Rover Hybrids for the Exploration of Small Solar System Bodies, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Marco Pavone.
• Ultra-Light “Photonic Muscle” Space Structures, University of Hawaii, Joe Ritter. This project could lead to the development of telescopes and other space-based structures whose shapes can be altered by light beams.
• Low-Power Microrobotics Utilizing Biologically Inspired Energy Generation, Naval Research Laboratory, Gregory Scott. This study would focus on adapting biological models for space robots.
• Printable Spacecraft, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Kendra Short. This project would look into using 3-D printing technology to create small spacecraft or components for a planetary outpost.
• In-Space Propulsion Engine Architecture based on Sublimation of Planetary Resources: from exploration robots to NEO mitigation, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Laurent Sibille.
• Metallic Hydrogen: A Game-Changing Rocket Propellant, Harvard University, Isaac Silvera.
• Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy, MSNW LLC, John Slough.
• Interplanetary CubeSats: Opening the Solar System to a Broad Community at Lower Cost, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Robert Staehle.
• Ghost Imaging of Space Objects, NASA Jet Propulsion, Dmitry Strekalov. NASA says this technology culd eventually be applied to observations of extrasolar planets or black holes.
• Laser-Based Optical Trap for Remote Sampling of Interplanetary and Atmospheric Particulate Matter, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Paul Stysley.
• Steering of Solar Sails Using Optical Lift Force, Rochester Institute of Technology, Grover Swartzlander.
• Aneutronic Fusion Spacecraft Architecture, University of Houston at Clear Lake, Alfonso Tarditi.
• Radiation Shielding Materials Containing Hydrogen, Boron, and Nitrogen: Systematic Computational and Experimental Study, NASA Langley Research Center, Sheila Thibeault.
• Meeting the Grand Challenge of Protecting Astronaut's Health: Electrostatic Active Space Radiation Shielding for Deep Space Missions, NASA Langley Research Center, Ram Tripathi.
• Proposal for a Concept Assessment of a Fission Fragment Rocket Engine (FFRE) Propelled Spacecraft, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Robert Werka.
• Radiation Protection and Architecture Utilizing High Temperature Superconducting Magnets, NASA Johnson Space Center, Shayne Westover.
• Technologies Enabling Exploration of Skylights, Lava Tubes and Caves, Astrobotic Technology Inc., William Whittaker. The Google Lunar X Prize entrant has long talked about using caves on the moon as low-cost shelters for rovers and astronauts.
• Optimal Dispersion of Near-Earth Objects, Iowa State University, Bong Wie. In the past, Bong Wie has suggested that subsurface nuclear explosions could provide a feasible option for dispersing a threatening near-Earth object. Maybe "Armageddon" wasn't that far off....

More about innovation at NASA:

• NASA offers $5 million for new feats
• NASA will need new ways to do everything
• The next giant leaps for NASA technology
• From 2004: NASA investigates way-out ideas

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen's new book, "Area 51," suggests that the Soviets stirred up the Roswell UFO incident in 1947 by sending flying disks into New Mexico with child-size aviators on board, as a warning that they could spark a UFO panic if they wanted to.

But will that explanation fly?

Jacobsen's revelation is based on an account from just one unnamed source. This source said he was an engineer with the company EG&G at Area 51,  the hush-hush military research site in Nevada. He told Jacobsen that he studied the remnants of the Roswell crash in 1951, along with four other EG&G engineers.

There are no documents to confirm the account — because, Jacobsen says, this was one of the most tightly held secrets of the Cold War. Even though that confirmation is lacking, Jacobsen says she stands by her source's amazing account. "He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by telling me," she told me, "but it was a matter of conscience for him."

Michael Hiller

Annie Jacobsen is the author of "Area 51."

Jacobsen's source recounted what he says he saw, as well as what he was told and what he surmised based on that information. Here's the scenario presented in "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base," based on the source's account:

• After World War II, the Soviets capitalized on the work being done on stealthy flying-wing aircraft by a group of Nazi German engineers headed by two brothers, Walter and Reimar Horten. They developed disk-shaped flying machines that could sporadically evade radar detection. The U.S. military perfected such technology at Area 51 over the decades that followed to produce planes such as the F-117 stealth attack aircraft.
• Soviet leaders were spooked by the U.S. military's use of the atom bomb to bring the war to a quick close. They were a couple of years away from developing their own atomic weapons, based on secrets stolen from the U.S. bomb effort. The Roswell incident was aimed at warning the Truman administration that the Soviets could create a UFO hoax, stirring up fears similar to those that were sparked inadvertently by the fictional "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast in 1938.
• Jacobsen's source believes that the Soviets dispatched flying-disk drone aircraft from a mothership flying near Alaska. Intermittent radar signals were picked up by U.S. installations, but the disks were nevertheless able to enter U.S. airspace and come down near Roswell, N.M.
• "Child-size aviators" were aboard the disks: humans, seemingly about 13 years old, who may have been surgically or biologically altered to give them enlarged heads and eyes. Jacobsen quotes her source as saying he was told that the alien look-alikes were the result of experiments conducted by Nazi mad scientist Josef Mengele. The bodies were recovered from the wreckage, and two of them were alive but comatose.
• The wreckage and the bodies were transported from New Mexico to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for study, then transferred again to Area 51 in Nevada. This is where Jacobsen's source saw them in 1951. The source is quoted as saying he saw Russian writing stamped on a ring that went around the inside of the aircraft, and that he saw the child-size bodies on a life support system.
• When Jacobsen asked why President Harry Truman didn't report all this in 1947, she said the source replied, "Because we were doing the same thing." She notes in the book that the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Department carried out human experiments on the effects of radiation, and suggests that the hundreds of experiments revealed in 1995 were just the tip of the iceberg. "I believe that a lot of what the Atomic Energy Commission did was reckless and dangerous," she told me.

This latest explanation runs counter to the scenarios put forward by the federal government — first, that the Roswell wreckage came from a weather balloon, and then that it was debris from a crash-test dummy drop as well as a balloon-borne experiment to monitor nuclear blasts. It also runs counter to the long-held claims by UFO activists that the crash actually represented a covered-up visitation by extraterrestrials.

Drawing fire from both sides
As such, Jacobsen's Roswell account is taking fire from UFO skeptics as well as those who give the alien scenario more credence. In a novel twist, Clifford Clift of the Mutual UFO Network told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the linkage to German aerospace technology was too tenuous to be believed.

Little, Brown & Co. / Hachette

"Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base" delves into decades' worth of hush-hush programs.

"After researching the claim, I found little truth in this theory," he said. "It is a stretch. One of my concerns is if they wanted to create panic, why in New Mexico and not in New York where there are more people to panic? I would suggest it is another conspiracy theory, and heavens, MUFON knows about conspiracy theories. They do sell books."

Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center said he also was skeptical about Jacobsen's account, although he stressed that he hasn't yet read the entire book.

"People have been studying the Roswell case for decades now," he told the New Mexican. "They've got deathbed testimony. They've got testimony from military officers who were involved, eyewitnesses. I think I'll go with the latter, rather than this young lady who penned this new book."

Investigator Kal Korff — who took aim at the alien claims in his 1997 book, "Roswell UFO Crash" — said he wasn't buying the "Area 51" story either. "Of all the crazy ideas as to what is behind Roswell, this is one of the most extreme out there," he told me in an email.

Beyond the substance of the story, there's the issue of basing such a dramatic story on one person's account. "I would never report anything related to UFOs based on only one unnamed source!" journalist Leslie Kean, the author of "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record," wrote in a Facebook update.

Jacobsen told me that getting the story out of even one of the five engineers who were involved in the Area 51 follow-up to the Roswell incident was a months-long job.

"What's important to understand is that all of the top five EG&G engineers had top secret clearances and also Q clearances. ... So you're dealing with the most upper-echelon clearances you could possibly have within the federal government, in the Atomic Energy Commission. Your 'need-to-know' is so strict that you only know what you know. ... To suggest that the five engineers could stand around and discuss, 'Hey, what do you think is,' is a bit naive," she said. "It's 'take this craft apart and put it back together ... take these bodies and move them over here.' And that is about the extent of it."

It's also important to understand that there's a lot more to "Area 51" than Roswell. The Roswell tale, which takes up about 30 pages of the 544-page book, is the only one that depends on a single unnamed source, Jacobsen said. Most of the book focuses on the stories behind formerly secret programs ranging from nuclear bomb tests to the development of the U-2 and A-12 Oxcart spy planes. To this day, military officials avoid referring to Area 51 by that name.

The gorilla-mask scenario
So if the Roswell UFO wasn't an alien (or Soviet) intruder, and if you don't buy the official explanation that it was a balloon experiment, what else might it have been? One of the alternate explanations is that the "UFO" was indeed a flying disk, but that it was a U.S. rather than a Soviet experimental craft. In this scenario, the alien-looking bodies might have been dummies designed to create a preposterous cover story.

Jacobsen herself refers to a similar disinformation strategy that the Air Force used in 1942, when the first jet aircraft were being developed at California's Muroc dry lake bed. She said one of the test pilots for the Bell XP-59A jet plane, Jack Woolams, put on a gorilla mask when he went on a flight — just in case other pilots training on different planes came flying nearby to take a look.

"Instead of seeing Woolams, the pilot saw a gorilla flying an airplane — an airplane that had no propeller," Jacobsen wrote. "The stunned pilot landed and went straight to the local bar and ordered a stiff drink. He told the other pilots what he'd definitely seen with his own eyes. His colleagues told him he was drunk, that he was an embarrassment, that he should go home."

Thus was the secret of the Bell XP-59A preserved, even from the other fliers at the Muroc base (now known as Edwards Air Force Base).

Were the Roswell aliens actually dummies, the equivalent of pilots wearing gorilla masks? Or is Jacobsen's source correct? Is the truth more monstrous than people thought? Even though the eyewitnesses are dying off, Jacobsen believes the real story may be contained within the hundreds of millions of documents about "black" projects that are still said to be classified.

She notes that all of the sources she consulted while researching "Area 51" told her they knew much more than they were telling. "Everyone always ends with, 'Well, Annie, I've actually told you 5 percent of what I know,'" Jacobsen said.

Is the truth out there? Or will it remain mired in reams upon reams of conjecture and disinformation? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.

More about UFOs:

• UFO reports come from Russia ... right on time
• Why we love to fear E.T.
• Jerusalem videos stir UFO buzz
• Year of the UFO? Let's get real
• Still more from Cosmic Log's UFO files
• Search for UFOs on msnbc.com

You can connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. Also, give a look to  "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

As the talk of a world-ending Rapture turns to ridicule, a new set of worries is coming to the fore: How will the followers of Family Radio preacher Harold Camping react to their failure to ascend to heaven? What about all those millions of dollars that were contributed to Camping's cause, including the life savings that were exhausted in the effort? And what does this portend for next year, when an even more highly publicized date with doomsday is due?

First, about the failed prophecy: With just a few hours before Rapture Saturday goes into the history books, this day turned out to be pretty normal, all in all. No cataclysmic earthquakes (although there was an Icelandic eruption and a couple of significant shakers in Japan and a New Zealand island chain). No global strife (except for the usual mayhem in the usual places). And no snatching up of millions of believers into heaven (although a good number of pranksters made it look as if clothes and shoes were "left behind").

Also, no sign of Camping himself. The minister's California-based broadcasting concern has collected and spent millions of dollars over the past few years to promote his prophecy that Judgment Day would come on May 21, 2011, based on his own idiosyncratic interpretation of Bible numerology. He and other church leaders are likely to avoid making a public appearance until Sunday at the earliest. (The Family Radio website has been offline for most of the day today.)

Some of Camping's are already returning to their daily lives. The Associated Press highlighted the case of Keith Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver who hung around Family Radio's Oakland headquarters today waiting for the end. "I had some skepticism, but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," Bauer told AP. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

Then he added, "It's God who leads you, not Harold Camping."

Bauer and his family took a week off to make the cross-country drive from their home in Maryland, and they'll start the drive back home on Sunday.

Anthea Butler, a professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, told NBC News that the ordeal is far from over for Camping's followers. For some of them, who have spent their life savings to spread the word of the Rapture, the worst days could well lie ahead.

"I think it's important to watch out for people who were in the midst of this group, to make sure that they don't harm themselves, or that they don't harm others," she said.

When prophecy fails
The Oakland connection brought to mind the case of Rev. Jim Jones, who got his start as a charismatic religious leader in that city, brought his followers to a People's Temple religious community set up in the jungles of Guyana ... and touched off a mass suicide there in 1978. The 1997 mass suicide of Heaven's Gate UFO cultists in the San Diego area serves as yet another cautionary tale from California.

But unlike People's Temple and Heaven's Gate, Family Radio did not isolate its supporters under cultlike conditions. Rather, these are regular Christians who sent in millions of dollars in contributions but continued to be engaged in their communities. A better analogy might be found in the case of the "Planet Clarion" UFO cult, which was the subject of the 1956 book "When Prophecy Fails." 

In the early 1950s, a Chicago housewife named Dorothy Martin attracted followers who believed her claim that a great flood would destroy the earth on Dec. 21, 1954. Only Martin's followers would be saved, supposedly by the alien beings that had alerted her to the threat via automatic writing. The authors of the book infiltrated the group and saw firsthand how the group reacted when the promised rescue (and flood) did not come. 

The group waited until past the bitter end for the aliens' arrival, experiencing deep disappointment at the prophecy's failure. But a few hours after the deadline, Martin transmitted the message that the cataclysm had actually been called off due to divine intervention. This re-energized the group to reach out and spread the word once more. The episode helped lay the foundation for the concept of cognitive dissonance, pioneered by social psychologist Leon Festinger, one of the co-authors of "When Prophecy Fails."

A great disappointment
In the case of Family Radio, there are additional factors in play: One has to do with the huge amounts of money collected and spent by the non-profit organization. Although verifiable figures on Family Radio's current finances are not available, the organization had $72 million in net assets at the end of 2009. How much of that remains, especially considering that Camping apparently expected to have shuffled off this mortal coil by now? Could contributors make legal claims on those funds?

The highly publicized failure of the prophecy could generate a backlash among the wider public as well. It's strange to think that the non-end of the world would spark an angry response, but there is a precedent: When Baptist preacher William Miller's prediction of a Second Advent on Oct. 22, 1844, failed to pay off, the "Great Disappointment" led to violence against Miller's followers in some quarters.

I can guarantee that there won't be any tarring-and-feathering of Camping or his supporters, as there was in the case of the Millerites. Nevertheless, there is some understandable resentment over this episode, as expressed in some of the postings to the Cosmic Log Facebook page.

At least one good thing may come out of today's non-Rapture: More folks are likely to realize that there's nothing to numerological mumbo-jumbo, whether it comes from the Bible or the Maya calendar. If fewer people are freaked out about the supposed predictions that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, that's a very good thing. The end will come, whether it's tomorrow or several billion years from now. But as a famous man once said, we do not know the day or the hour. Until then, make the most of every day, have your disaster kit ready ... and for heaven's sake, DON'T PANIC!  

Update for 9:15 a.m. ET May 22: Rapture Saturday is now history all over the world, and Camping's prophecy is now a total fail. Journalists caught up with Staten Island retiree Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world and wrote a book about "The Doomsday Code." The Associated Press quoted him as saying, "I can't tell you what I feel right now. ... Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."

After spending five years preparing for a Rapture that didn't come, Fitzpatrick said he didn't know what his next move would be. "I'm tired," the Staten Island Advance quoted him as saying. "I was working hard trying to get the word out. I'm very surprised. I fully expected that something would happen."

There's still no word from Camping himself, but things are getting ugly on his Facebook page.

More about the Rapture rumblings:

• All quiet on the Rapture front
• 'Left behind' by humorgeddon
• Why we're enraptured by the Rapture hype
• Rapture prophet says he'll be watching the action on TV
• Digital Life: Post-rapture video reveals stunning lack of zombies
• The Last Word: Only hours to go until the (fake) Rapture
• End of Days? Believers enter the final stretch
• End of the world? How about a party instead?
• Slate: 144 scenarios for America's apocalypse
• Pet sitting offered during Rapture
• Doomsday facts (or fictions)

Review all the Rapture weekend updates by checking CosmicLog.com/Rapture. You can also connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. And for something completely different, check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.