Are humans alone in the universe? Three philosophers from Oxford University have studied the existing scientific literature to conclude that we probably are.

This seems to have upset some people. “I’ve already got many emails from people who say I’m wrong because we’ve already met aliens,” says Anders Sandberg, who led the work.

Contrary to dour headlines about our isolation , however, Sandberg says scientists are quite optimistic that we have galactic neighbours. Of some 80 papers the team examined, 64 per cent estimated there were at least …