There is, according to scientists paid simply to churn out random made-up statistics for publication in journals read only by other scientists – who then steal and recycle the bogus figures to inflate their own nonsense – a theory that our galaxy may contain as many as 38,000 intelligent civilisations. The Scotsman here.

Scottish scientists (ah, not a convincing start there) including a Mr Duncan Forgan (note: not identified as Dr) thinks that there are between 361 and 37,964 inhabited planets out there.

This is based on some statistics and number crunching which almost certainly involved beer and the back of the pub quiz scribble-pad during the mid-session interval. In that Scotsman article Professor Keith Horne (see, there’s a title) politely questioned “uncertainties” in the work, and then goes on to say nicely that its a crock.

TheEye actually bothered to find a link to the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, and where it is published in the International Journal of Astrobiology. You have no idea how lucky you all are to have me here.

There is a nagging suspicion that the taxpayer (that’ll be us, then) has funded at least parts of this.

Anyway, where are these other 37,999 intelligent civilisations? Not down TheEye’s local tax office – that’s for damn sure. The regular readers of this blog certainly count as one but that’s about it.

Mars and France are right out as options.