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St Andrews academics receive over £190,000 to study ALIENS

Just go look in Area 51 lmao


A project at the University of St Andrews exploring the existence of life on other planets has been awarded nearly £200,000.

As part of the Leverhulme Trust, which offers research grants across the United Kingdom, academics have received £195,402 towards the search for other life forms in the solar system.

Dr Claire Cousins, Dr Aubrey Zerkle and Dr Mark Fox-Powell from the University of St Andrews will collaborate with Glasgow University and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, USA will be conducting the research.

The study will investigate living microorganisms in salt deposits from Artic springs which have a similar composition to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.

This research will be used to explore the possibility of launching a mission to land a space probe in Europa's crust, furthering the search for extraterrestrial beings.

The Leverhulme Trust, formed to honour businessman and philanthropist William Hesketh Lever whose company later merged into Unilever, is one of the largest research fund provider.

Other grants awarded to academics at the University of St Andrews include research into British imperialism, particularly in India, and furthering works of naturalists such as Darwin into the human impact on ecosystems and biodiversity.

In total, the University has been granted £620,000 in funding for academic research.

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