In a rather interesting study, published in Live Science magazine on May 18, a scientist established a possible link between the size of an organism and its population. He noted that animals have a relation between their size and their number, that is, the smaller the species is, the more individuals of that species tend to exist.

Fergus Simpson, a cosmologist from the University of Barcelona, presented his results wherein he claimed that if at all Aliens exist, they would weigh about 660 lbs or 300 kgs. He also asserted that there, in fact, did exist an extraterrestrial planet that is habitable and houses as many as 50 million aliens.

However, he calculated statistically that a planet supporting alien life form would be smaller than the Earth, which would mean the population would be less than Earth’s population. On applying the number and size theorem that Simpson devised, the aliens then had to be bigger than humans. This is how he came up with the weight of 660 lb. for an alien.

What Simpson applied was a model called Bayes’ theorem, coming from a branch of mathematics called Bayesian statistics. Bayes’ Theorem basically estimates the probabilities that change depending on the information available. A probability curve of the size-population relationship yielded a median weight of about 314 kgs for an alien. The median weight meant that about half of the aliens would weigh more than that and half would weigh less than 314 kgs.

However, Simpson’s theory has been flanked by enough criticism. The major one has come from Michael Kopp, a professor at Aix-Marseille University in France, who argues the statistical relationship drawn by Simpson by stating that, as yet, it is not even clear if humans are a random sample of intelligent beings.

Nevertheless, Simpson must be lauded for calling attention from scientists worldwide and stimulating their grey matter.