Abstract

Recent research indicates that hundreds of billions of planets may be scattered throughout the vast starfields of the Milky Way. Biology, once thought to be a miracle, is increasingly believed to be as commonplace as a cheap motel. Many worlds could be carpeted by life.

But could some of these distant planets have spawned intelligent beings? The SETI Institute, a research group in Mountain View, California, is using massive radio telescopes to try and eavesdrop on alien broadcasts. What are the chances that they will succeed, what would the aliens be like, and what would be the impact on earthly society if they do?

About the speaker

Dr. Seth Shostak is a Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, California. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University, and a doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. For much of his career, Dr. Shostak conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately fifty papers in professional journals. During more than a decade, he worked at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, in Groningen, The Netherlands, using the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope. He also founded and ran a company producing computer animation for TV.

Dr. Shostak has written several hundred popular magazine and web articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television. He now lectures on astronomy and other subjects at the California Academy of Sciences, and gives approximately 70 talks annually at both educational and corporate institutions. For the last five years, Seth has been a Distinquished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Frequently interviewed for radio and TV, Dr. Shostak has recently been seen and/or heard on Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, History Channel, the BBC, “Nightline,” “The O'Reilly Factor,” “Coast to Coast AM,” NPR, CNN News, and National Geographic Television.

Dr. Shostak has edited and contributed to a half dozen books. His first popular tome, “Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life” (Berkeley Hills Books) appeared in 1998. He has since co-authored “Life in the Universe” (an astrobiology textbook) and “Cosmic Company.”