Course Description

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This course does not claim to teach established facts such as physics or mathematics: this is not currently possible in the field of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The purpose of this sequence of lectures is instead to stimulate discussion on a series of very important factors, starting with the survey methodology. Scientific rigor does not rhyme with rigidity. In the case of the study of UAPs, if we really want to expand our scientific knowledge, it is inevitable to marry Galilean rigor with a healthy and balanced mental openness. Otherwise, important aspects may escape us. In this field we all have only to learn, and no one, starting with myself, has the right to take the chair.

With this approach in mind, I will discuss what in my opinion are the most important aspects of UAP research, seen from the point of view of a physical scientist, and the most crucial actions that scientists should take in order to obtain concrete results, not focusing on a particular theory but exclusively on the methodology to obtain data of an acceptable level using well-calibrated measuring instruments. Regardless of this, no theory or hypothesis with its own internal consistency should be arbitrarily neglected. Only data that can be turned into numbers can tell what we are dealing with.

This seminar will be split in eight parts, of university introductory level, of which I mention here the main points in broad terms. Many of the listed references (some descriptive and some technical) can be found online.