WEBVTT - Why Do Scientists Want You to Say 'UAPs', not 'UFOs'? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.880 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:11.920 brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb Here. You're in good company 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.840 if you often look up into the dark night, into 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.520 the glittering specs of space and sky, and think you 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:25.040 see something extraordinary, fantastic, or even inexplicable streak across the sky. 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.840 People have been reporting unexplainable objects this guy since at 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.240 least the time of the ancient Greeks. One of the 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.400 earliest known discussions of the possibility of alien life appears 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.760 in a book written around fifty BC. These days, we're 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.720 used to hearing these objects, called unidentified flying objects or 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.720 UFOs A. NASA now even has an independent team of 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.760 sixteen scientists and astrophysicists who will be studying and attempting 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.600 to understand more about these mysterious observations in the sky, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.800 which they call Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or u A p 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:05.280 ease four nine months, starting in October two, The team 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.920 is pouring over the unclassified data collected by civilian stargazers 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.520 and national intelligence and security departments. The purpose is to 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.399 discover new ways to collect and understand UAP data in 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.680 the future, and to determine the best ways to use 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.600 that information to ensure the safety of aircraft. They'll release 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:30.600 their findings to the public in mide This isn't the 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.720 first time a US government agency has studied UFOs. One 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.479 of the most famous is Project Blue Book, which went 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.800 on in the nineteen fifties and sixties, but this might 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.840 be the first time they focused on U A p 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:47.480 S instead of UFOs. We know we were confused to 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.760 at first. The acronyms UFO and u AP both refer 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.960 to the same unidentified events reported in our sky unidentified 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.360 objects and balls of light. The issue with using the 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:01.960 term uf OH is that you can't say it or 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:06.320 hear it without also thinking about extraterrestrials, you know, aliens 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.520 from outer space. And that's because we've been calling those 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.840 flying saucers, hovering lights, and floating disks that suddenly zip 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.200 off disappearing into the night UFOs since the late nineteen forties. 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.600 One of the first and most notable discussions of unusual 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:29.160 flying objects happened after June ninety seven, when pilot Kenneth 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.800 Arnold flew over Mount Rainier on his way to neighboring Oregon. 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:38.360 Arnold reported seeing nine bright circular discs moving and what 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.480 appeared to be an organized echelon formation in the sky 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.160 at speeds as fast as one thousand, two hundred miles 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.880 an hour. That's one thousand, nine hundred kilometers an hour. 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.200 It was the first time in reported history that the 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:55.320 terms flying saucer or flying discs were used to describe 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:00.839 unexplained events. After seven, the US government created some investigation 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.480 task forces as more sightings like Arnold's were reported around 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.440 the US and the world. These events became known by 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.760 the term UFOs, and the term morphed out of flying 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.240 saucer and was coined by civilians and government officials in 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:20.200 the nineteen fifties. Since then, UFOs have fostered a fascination 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.560 with the unexplained world of space and sky for generations, 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.359 and have always been tied to aliens. But if we're 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.440 all familiar with UFOs, why would the government bother to 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:36.160 rename them first? U a P s are considered unexplained 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:41.040 sights in the sky rather than unidentified flying objects. U 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.400 a P is a pretty new term. It came into 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.800 our lexicon in the twenty teens when the U. S 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.480 Department of Defense declassified several Navy videos that showed U 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:54.160 a P s. Then in the Office of the Director 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.640 of National Intelligence released it's much anticipated report called Preliminary 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:04.120 Assessment Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, without a single mention of extraterrestrials. 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.160 Here's a brief quote from the report. Most of the 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.240 U a P reported probably do represent physical objects, given 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.880 that a majority of U a P were registered across 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:20.080 multiple sensors to include radar, infrared, electro optical, weapons, seekers, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:26.160 and visual observation. It might be easy to dismiss eyewitness reports, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.600 but it's much more difficult to reject a u a 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:33.960 P observed by eyewitnesses and corroborated on radar. This is 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.360 also allowing researchers to apply the scientific method to study 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.600 U a P s, similar to what study has been 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:44.000 doing since the nineteen seventies. This is all to say 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.279 that the renewed focus on U a P s in 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.279 government intelligence circles is a good thing. It indicates that 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.720 they're taking unexplained aerial activities and our skies seriously, the 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.600 Navy videos were well alarming, so it's good news that 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:03.159 they're being investigated. And all of this does not mean 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.480 that extraterrestrials are being completely left out of the picture 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:11.680 or scientific investigations. The UAP moniker might be the scientific 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.200 and intelligence communities way of finally admitting that these objects 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.680 are out there and saying that it's okay to talk 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:23.560 about unexplained aerial phenomena without the concern of being alienated 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:32.360 for sounding bonkers. Today's episode is based on the article 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.200 Scientists Want You to Say U A p S not 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.799 UFOs on house toff works dot com, written by Alison Troutner. 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.799 Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio and partnership 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:43.919 with house toffworks dot com, and it's produced by Tyler 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.200 klang A. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.960 i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:51.120 to your favorite shows.