The Eerie Silence

eBook

English language

Published 2010 by Penguin Publishing.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-194405-0

On April 8, 1960, a young American astronomer, Frank Drake, turned a radio telescope toward the star Tau Ceti and listened for several hours to see if he could detect any artificial radio signals. With this modest start began a worldwide project of potentially momentous significance. Known as SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - it is an amalgam of science, technology, adventure, curiosity and a bold vision of humanity's destiny. Drake has said that SETI is really a search for ourselves - who we are and what our place might be in the grand cosmic scheme of things. Yet with one tantalizing exception, SETI has produced only negative results. After millions of hours spent eavesdropping on the cosmos astronomers have detected only the eerie sound of silence. What does that mean? Are we in fact alone in the vastness of the universe? Is ET out there, but not sending …

On April 8, 1960, a young American astronomer, Frank Drake, turned a radio telescope toward the star Tau Ceti and listened for several hours to see if he could detect any artificial radio signals. With this modest start began a worldwide project of potentially momentous significance. Known as SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - it is an amalgam of science, technology, adventure, curiosity and a bold vision of humanity's destiny. Drake has said that SETI is really a search for ourselves - who we are and what our place might be in the grand cosmic scheme of things. Yet with one tantalizing exception, SETI has produced only negative results. After millions of hours spent eavesdropping on the cosmos astronomers have detected only the eerie sound of silence. What does that mean? Are we in fact alone in the vastness of the universe? Is ET out there, but not sending any messages our way? Might we be surrounded by messages we simply don't recognize? Is SETI a waste of time and money, or should we press ahead with new and more sensitive antennas? Or look somewhere else? And if a signal were to be received, what then? How would we - or even should we - respond?

2 editions

ilk reviewed The Eerie Silence by Davies Paul

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Mainly a primer on the science informing SETI's search for life, rather than about SETI itself. Covers a lot of territory familiar to any science-oriented Youtube viewer, such as the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, the Kardashev scale. SETI as an organization/movement itself is barely touched on, which is disappointing, especially when you consider that the author is an insider. I did learn that the rate of species extinction on Earth is heavily determined by the solar system's oscillation above and below the galactic plane over a 62 million-year cycle. It has to do with the galactic 'halo' of protons being skewed to the underside of the galactic plane, whereas the 'north' top side faces the direction of Andromeda, the galaxy the Milky Way is hurtling towards. The closer the solar system is to the edge of the halo, the higher the extinction rates. Supposedly has to do with electromagnetic …

Mainly a primer on the science informing SETI's search for life, rather than about SETI itself. Covers a lot of territory familiar to any science-oriented Youtube viewer, such as the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, the Kardashev scale. SETI as an organization/movement itself is barely touched on, which is disappointing, especially when you consider that the author is an insider. I did learn that the rate of species extinction on Earth is heavily determined by the solar system's oscillation above and below the galactic plane over a 62 million-year cycle. It has to do with the galactic 'halo' of protons being skewed to the underside of the galactic plane, whereas the 'north' top side faces the direction of Andromeda, the galaxy the Milky Way is hurtling towards. The closer the solar system is to the edge of the halo, the higher the extinction rates. Supposedly has to do with electromagnetic weirdness where the halo meets the interstellar medium. Fuckin neat.