The Role of the Public in Open Analysis

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David Spurgle: I think one of the opportunities are to use the three to four billion cell phones that we have. Most events will turn out to be pictures of airplanes and balloons, but every now and then there might be some profound discovery. If you do find something that looks like it's from another planet, what's the process for making that information public? Or do you just cross that bridge if and when you come to it?

Last week, Nasa held the first public meeting of a panel established to investigate sightings of UFOs. It came just before a whistleblower former intelligence official told the Debrief that the US government had ‘intact and partially intact’ craft of non-human origin. Ian Sample talks to Prof David Spergel, the independent chair of Nasa’s panel, about why this is happening now, what they hope to find and why there is so much stigma attached to this field. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod