The Eerie Silence

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.

ISBN 1846141427   Pages 256 ISBN13 9781846141423 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 492 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Allen Lane   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 04 Mar 2010   Spine width (mm) 26 DEWEY 576.839   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC23

1		Is anybody out there?		1
2		Life : freak side-show or cosmic imperative?		24
3		A shadow biosphere		42
4		How much intelligence is out there?		66
5		New SETI : widening the search		93
6		Evidence for a galactic diaspora		116
7		Alien magic		140
8		Post-biological intelligence		153
9		First contact		169
10		Who speaks for Earth?		196
App		A brief history of SETI		209
		Bibliography		211
		Notes		213
		Index		231

A magnificent cosmic tour d'horizon of what we know, and what we might yet encounter out there, in the apparent emptiness of deep space -- Christoper Hart Sunday Times An immensely readable investigation of the SETI enterprise -- Michael Hanlon New Scientist Davies is the most engaging of writers -- Clive Cookson FT In an area more given to fabulation than fact, [Paul Davies'] level-headedness is positively refreshing. If you ever start worrying about why no one is talking to us, this is the book to calm you down -- David Papineau Observer

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