I've often fantasized about visiting the Bahamian beach where Columbus first stumbled ashore in 1492. Sadly, no one knows where that beach… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The most attractive habitats for synthetic sentience might be the vicinities of exceptional sources of energy - for example black holes, or… — 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… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
We're not just any star stuff, most of which is humdrum hydrogen and listless helium. Our bodies include fancier ingredients like carbon,… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Astronomers still can't decide what the shape of our universe is. Is it closed and finite, which is to say, is there… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The era during which only governments could put hardware on the Moon is coming to an end. There are 26 private teams… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
The idea of close encounters of the zero'th kind - which is to say, not a close encounter at all, but simply… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
When I was a kid, which was just after Edison invented moving pictures, there were films that involved aliens coming to Earth… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
If this is the only planet on which not only life, but intelligent life, has arisen, that would be very unusual. — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
America's popular heroes have seldom been its great thinkers, and even less its scientists. The success of TV's 'Big Bang Theory,' which… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
Of course there is still unexplored terrestrial territory, but most of it is waterlogged. Submersed secret places, such as the Challenger Deep,… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
In the four years since its launch, Kepler has chalked up 122 new and confirmed planets. It's also caught the scent of… — 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
Each year, thousands of UFOs are sighted and reported, which is an impressive tally of unidentified aerial phenomena. Surveys show that roughly… — Seth Shostak Copy Share Image
I got interested in astronomy at the age of 8 because I was looking at an atlas of the planets in my… — 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
