Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Ever since the Second World War, television signals (as well as FM radio and radar) have served as Homo sapiens' emissaries into… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
We can no better imagine what will be happening on the moon 500 years from now than Columbus could imagine contemporary Manhattan.… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Estimates are that at least 70 per cent of all stars are accompanied by planets, and since the latter can occur in… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The total number of people that do a job that has the same description as mine in the entire world is fewer… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
When it comes to brains, size matters. It's not all that matters, of course. Whales and dolphins have brains that are larger… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The principal reason for the universe's poker face is that its constituents are far away. Stars careen through space, and galaxies spin… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
In 1908, there was a persuasive demonstration of the power of high-speed, low-mass asteroids in rural Siberia. The Tunguska impactor iced millions… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
There's no doubt that the Moon is more than a handy night light and a hair restorer for werewolves. It's responsible for… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Nine out of 10 Hollywood aliens look like us. Oh, sure, they might be short, big-eyed and hairless - decked out in… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Jupiter, a world far larger than Earth, is so warm that it currently radiates more internal heat than it receives from the… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
It's hard to imagine anything more interesting than learning how we're woven into the enormous tapestry of existence. Where did our universe… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Data from orbiting telescopes like NASA's Kepler Mission hint that the tally of habitable planets in our galaxy is many billion. If… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Once typecast as the indispensable altarpiece of a well-appointed living room, TVs have infected every human environment. The average American household has… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Humans have existed only for the last 0.001 percent of cosmic time. All of which says that - unless the Homo sapiens… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Since the Renaissance, a concept called 'progress' has been baked into our society. Progress - founded on an accumulation of knowledge through… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
On Mars, where the air is spare - a hundred times less dense than on Earth - someone could hear you scream.… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The Moon is a ball of left-over debris from a cosmic collision that took place more than four billion years ago. A… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The central region of the Milky Way, known as the bulge, is stuffed with literally tens of billions of stars. And most… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Are two eyes, four appendages and an upright posture really essential for any creature that can ace the galactic SAT's? Maybe not.… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable - research… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Some pundits have proposed that the aliens have come here to breed with us. Apparently, too much bike riding or something similar has rendered… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
As far as I can tell, the only unambiguous consequence of the claimed invasion of Earth by beings from another star system has been… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that's the result of 400… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio signals, despite… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
In a movie, it's often important to have aliens whose gestures and facial expressions can be 'read' by humans. And in the days before… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Sure, nobody will make a fortune if we figure out why the Big Bang happened. But just about everyone would like to know. — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
If you could drive straight down, into a tunnel bored through the crust of the planet, you'd hit this molten mess in about an… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
While I have always thought that the motivation for looking for E.T. was both self-evident and patently worthy, it's possible that I'm a victim… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
I studied Latin in high school, and I was reading stuff from Cicero. And that signal took a few thousand years to get to… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
About the only things that are unique to Earth are our biota and our culture. If aliens ever come here, they'd most likely be… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
This plucky NASA telescope is able to find planets en masse. If you compare planet hunting to prospecting for gold, then Kepler is equivalent… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
