Are movies distracting us from an incoming alien invasion? Oxford scientists have been researching to see just exactly what aliens look like and they have discovered that they could look just like us. This could explain why some of us think that our families are from other planets. The truth is, they just might actually be an alien sent to Earth to learn more about the human race as well as annoying us and asking us to fix electronic devices. One of the keys to unlocking the universe and the possibilities of aliens is an understanding of biological evolution and natural selection.

As it turns out, biological evolution should be the same across the entire universe, according to Sam Levin, a researcher in Oxford's Department of Zoology. This means that natural selection on any planet could have led aliens to look exactly like the human race. The scientists at Oxford are the first to apply the evolutionary theory to predict what aliens could actually look like. One of the hurdles about making predictions of what the aliens may look like is that our only frame of reference is what we know from Earth and our experiences here.

We've all seen the giant almond-eyed, big headed humanoids that are the usual suspects for what we know to be aliens. Even when looking at what we are used to seeing, the aliens look very much like an exaggerated version of a human. And that's completely normal and may actually be on the right path except for the exaggerated characteristics. Sam Levin had this to say.

"Past approaches in the field of astrobiology have been largely mechanistic, taking what we see on Earth, and what we know about chemistry, geology, and physics to make predictions about aliens. In our paper, we offer an alternative approach, which is to use evolutionary theory to make predictions that are independent of Earth's details. This is a useful approach, because theoretical predictions will apply to aliens that are silicon based, do not have DNA, and breathe nitrogen, for example."

The team hypothesize that alien life may be influenced by the same environmental factors that take place on Earth, where complex life arises from major transitions. These extreme events force a group of separate organisms to evolve in to one higher level organism such as cells becoming multi-cellular organisms. This is where the knowledge of biological evolution come into play. Levin explains.

"By predicting that aliens undergone major transitions, which is how complexity has arisen in species on earth, we can say that there is a level of predictability to evolution that would cause them to look like us. Like humans, we predict that they are made-up of a hierarchy of entities, which all cooperate to produce an alien."

Sam Levin went on to say that there are "potentially hundreds of thousands" of planets in our galaxy alone, leading one to believe that it is nearly impossible for us to be alone. Levin concluded by saying this.

"We can't say whether or not we're alone on Earth, but we have taken a small step forward in answering, if we're not alone, what our neighbors are like."

Someone better get that dude from Blink-182 on the phone as soon as possible... He probably already has the information any way, but he can't leak it out just yet due to National Security. For more information on what the aliens may look like, check out Oxford Mail U.K..