Mazlan Othman, the Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) made a mistake. The mistake she made was while giving a speech to fellow scientists in September 2010, she said, ''The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that someday human kind will receive signals from some extraterrestrials… When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.''

From any sensible person's viewpoint, the comment of Mazlan Othman was nothing improper, and quite logical, however, the media, always looking to create sensations, read more into her words than she ever intended. Within hours of the statement by Mazlan Othman, Telegraph, UK, reported ''UN to appoint space ambassador to greet alien visitors.'' From there on, it was mayhem.

Internet social networks and news agencies promptly appointed Mazlan Othman as ambassador for extraterrestrials, and the World Wide Web ran rife with rumors. Prof Richard Crowther from the UK Space Agency added a handful of spice to the concoction by remarking to Sunday Times, that in the occurrence of an event like receiving extraterrestrials, Mazlan Othman, in her capacity as the head of UNOOSA, would be the ''nearest thing we have to a take-me-to-your-leader [person].''

Mazlan Othman herself, sent out a prompt email to The Guardian to disperse the rumors, mentioning, ''It sounds really cool, but I have to deny it'' referring to the new imaginary persona of ''Mazlan Othman, ambassador to extraterrestrials.''

So, the tide of spurious news took a new turn. While Mazlan Othman stood on the sidelines dumbstruck by her unofficial role blessed by social network rumormongers, the new spate of news started to decry the assumption of Mazlan Othman as ambassador to extraterrestrials as a hoax, and continued to generate more news. The story of Mazlan Othman, as ambassador to extraterrestrials became a classic case of landfill news fuelled by speculation.

All of this attention, of course, does no justice to Mazlan Othman, or her achievements that started with her being the first woman to attend a Ph.D. in physics from New Zealand's University of Otago. The university was established in 1869 and it took Mazlan Othman and 112 years to break the glass ceiling. Until now, Mazlan Othman's exemplary work and contributions have made her twice the director of UNOOSA.

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