Would we know if we were contacted by extraterrestrial intelligence from another planet? Would we be willing or ready to admit it to ourselves?

I have to wonder first if scientists would ever accept a signal that is an anomaly as an intelligent signal, and more importantly if they would tell us. The questions came to mind when I read a science story by Walt Bonner titled "Radio Bursts from Space Reveal Strange Mathematical Pattern" on the Fox News science website (http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/04/06/radio-bursts-from-space-reveal-strange-mathematical-pattern).Briefly scientists have intercepted a radio pattern of 11 bursts that have repeated for the past decade, having been first discovered in 2001. They have been studied for the past 14 years before the current study was released.The first live capture of these bursts only occurred last year, which indicates the previous instances were found in recordings of signals that are scanned by scientists each day. The unusual part of these signals is they have dispersion measures that are exact multiples of 187.5.This dispersion measure in simplistic terms is a measure of electrons that delay the radio wave of a pulsar. The article I read describes the dispersion measure as the amount of noise that affects the signal in a sense.The farther the signal has to travel the more noise it would have while the closer the signal is to us the cleaner it is and the lower the interference. The number in this particular case leads scientists to believe this signal is coming from outside our galaxy but relatively close to our planet.Pulsars are neutron stars that release radio waves at regular intervals, but apparently in this case the energy was baffling to scientists because of the regularity and period of the bursts, each set containing 11 signals spaced at a factor of 187.5.Unlike pulsar bursts though, what puzzled scientists was these radio bursts were much faster in nature and lasted only a few milliseconds, but each burst releases enough energy to equal our sun's monthly output of energy. This type of signature led them to speculate the source of the signal was quite small, an estimated few hundred miles wide.While there are several theories about the origin of these signals, one of them proposed this was a signal created by an extraterrestrial intelligence due to its regularity, indicating it could be a message. Most of the scientific community dismisses this theory, claiming it would only hold credibility after every other theory has been dismissed and disproven.There are some good reasons for this theorizing. The article claims it would take the energy of several suns to produce this pulse, and in addition the bandwidth it occupies is much larger than what scientists would expect to see if it was an "intelligent" message.Another theory is that the signal may be generated by none other than transmissions originating from our own planet. In this theory, some scientists speculate the signals are originating from our own satellites or some type of terrestrial transmission. In this scenario the signal would transmit into space and then be reflected back to the radio telescopes apparently as a signal from "outer space." This has happened other times.In 1977, a volunteer named Jerry Ehman spotted on a printout a signal that was anomalous coming from a section of space devoid of stars. The signal was so unique that he wrote "WOW!" on the printout and led scientists to briefly believe they discovered an extraterrestrial intelligence looking for life, looking for worlds like ours.Unfortunately the radio signal was unique and never heard again even though that area of space has been scanned regularly for years. The leading explanation for this signal was that it was an earthbound signal that was reflected back to our planet by a piece of space debris, although proponents of an extraterrestrial source believed it might have been a ship seeking life on planets like ours. Today the reflected radio signal is the accepted explanation.Interestingly a science-fiction movie that closely mirrored this event called "The Arrival" was release in 1996 starring Charlie Sheen as the SETI radio astronomer (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) that hears a signal that appears to be an intelligent transmission.Of course being a science fiction movie, this signal leads to a conspiracy, cover-up and ultimately evidence of a secret society of aliens with ill intentions living on this planet already. The movie received some critical acclaim but unfortunately lost money in its release.It is not far-fetched to believe in my opinion that if life is out there with the technological know-how and some experience with radio technology and space travel, they would be seeking others like themselves or us. After all, we are doing the same thing.Every transmission on this planet beams out into space like a massive pulse of radio noise. If someone is listening they are bound to find us sooner or later, which is the same reason we scan the heavens as well. Sooner or later if life is out there, the needle in the haystack will be discovered, proved and verified.That will be a landmark day in astronomy and our understanding of the universe. Unfortunately that day may be hundreds or thousands of years from now. Likewise if other planets are beaming signals to us, eventually we will find them as well.I would not worry about alien invasions anytime soon. A radio signal is a far cry from the type of space travel needed to get here or go wherever "there" is, but the speculation can be fascinating.Till next time …