BARELY a month goes by today with out the detection of a tantalising “signal of life” in an alien environment. With the James Webb Area Telescope’s unmatched means to probe the chemistry of distant worlds – and so many promising exoplanets to set our sights on – at present’s astronomers are more and more assured that their era would be the one to find life past Earth.

That could be a thrilling risk, little question. However with it comes nice accountability. Given the magnitude of the query of whether or not life exists elsewhere within the universe, and the general public curiosity that goes with it, we have to be…