This Week in Science: Three Whistleblowers Said Under Oath, ‘UFOs Are Real’

It’s time for “Nerd News,” covering the most important news for your brain.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week in science . . .

1.  Congress had its big UFO hearing on Wednesday.  The wildest claim was that the U.S. government has recovered alien spaceships, and maybe even DEAD ALIENS.  (NBC News posted a list of the five biggest moments.)

David Grusch is a retired intelligence officer with the Air Force.  He said under oath that people with first-hand knowledge have told him we’ve recovered UFOs before . . . or “UAPs” as they’re called now.  When asked if we’ve also recovered bodies, he said yes but used the term “non-human biologics.”  (Here’s the video.  He was high up on a Pentagon team tasked with tracking down all this stuff, and basically had the highest clearance possible.  So he’s not just some random schmo.)

Two pilots also testified under oath:  Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves said he, and other pilots he flew with, saw UFOs.  He said they looked like “dark grey or black cubes” inside a “clear sphere.”

He claims they weren’t normal aircraft, because they’d hover in place in hurricane-force winds, then dart off faster than the speed of sound. (Here’s the video.)

The third guy was former Navy commander David Fravor, who re-told his story about seeing the famous “Tic Tac” UFO off the coast of San Diego in 2004.  He’s openly talked about it before, including on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2019.  But again, this was all under oath.  (Here are some clips.)

All three think the government is hiding information about UFOs, even from Congress.  They called for a new centralized way for pilots to report sightings without worrying about being called crazy, or losing their jobs.

2.  People went nuts googling stuff about UFOs after the hearing.  The top searches this week included stuff like “What is a UAP?” and “Do UFOs exist?”  But this one’s our favorite:  The fifth most-asked question about aliens was, “What do aliens EAT?”  (???)  (Hopefully not humans.)

3.  In other space news:  NASA is working on a nuclear-powered rocket that could cut the trip to Mars in half.  And an asteroid described as “the size of over 100 Barbie dolls” buzzed past Earth yesterday.

4.  In brain news:  A study found that deepfake videos are capable of creating false memories.  Some people thought they remembered Will Smith doing a remake of “The Matrix”, and even said it was better than the original movies.

5.  And a team in Australia is now growing brain cells on computer chips to see if we can merge our brains with A.I. to make it even more powerful.