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Seth Shostak Biography

Astronomer

Seth Shostak is an astronomer born on July 20, 1943. He is known for his extensive research and contributions to the field of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), being one of the founding members of the SETI Institute.

Humor Science Astronomy Aliens Crop Circles

Book:Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Source: Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

“While about one-third of Americans believe in ghosts, you won't find many exhibits on these spooky beings down at the local science museum. Why? Well, one explanation that you might consider, ghosts are just figments of our highly fertile imaginations!”

Believe Wells Might Imagination Thirds Ghost Locals Explanation Museums Exhibits Fertile Spooky Figments

Author:Seth Shostak

“Our brains are wired to interpret shapes as faces and bodies. That's why people see the Virgin Mary in the clouds or even in cheese sandwiches. It's your cytoplasm, not some strange ectoplasm.”

People Body Faces Brain Strange Shapes Clouds Mary Cheese Virgins Sandwiches Virgin Mary Cheese Sandwiches

Author:Seth Shostak

“Odors can be highly transitory, depending on the air currents. If this is happening in your house, ask if there are any possessions of that deceased loved one still around. If it happens elsewhere, consider just how many millions of people use the same perfume or smoke the same brand of cigar as someone you knew.”

People Ifs Stills Use Happens Asks House Millions Air Happenings Currents Possession Brands Smoke Loved Ones Elsewhere Perfume Cigar Transitory Odor Deceased

Author:Seth Shostak

“We're hard-wired by 200,000 years of evolution to be sensitive to the idea that someone might be watching us. They might be predators, after all. An uneasy feeling is perfectly natural if you suspect that someone has you in their ocular sights, whether it's a ghost or just some guy at the bus stop.”

Ifs Years Ideas Hard Feelings Might Guy Natural Evolution Sight Ghost Sensitive Suspects Bus Predator Uneasy Perfectly Natural Bus Stops Uneasy Feelings

Author:Seth Shostak

“No heating system can deliver perfectly uniform temperatures throughout a house, and drafts can magnify the perceived difference in temperatures. Try walking around with a thermometer.”

Trying House Differences Walking Uniforms Temperature Heating Thermometers

Author:Seth Shostak

“Despite the impression you may have from watching too much TV, movies are not about reproducing reality. Theyre about telling stories.”

May Stories Reality Too Much Tvs Impression Despite Telling Stories Reproducing

Author:Seth Shostak

“If this is the only planet on which not only life, but intelligent life, has arisen, that would be very unusual.”

Ifs Would Be Planets Intelligent Unusual Intelligent Life

Author:Seth Shostak

“If you took all the sand from all the beaches, all the desserts, and all the oceans and called that the Universe, our whole solar system would be less than one grain of sand.”

Ifs Whole Would Be Universe Ocean Beach Sand Grain Dessert Solar System Grains Of Sand

Author:Seth Shostak

“Five centuries from now - barring unimaginable catastrophe - the moon will be developed real estate. There's economic incentive to exploit the moon - the helium-3 will be useful in powering fusion reactors, and the rare earth elements could supplant the limited terrestrial supply of these materials.”

Real Earth Five Economic Century Materials Moon Elements Estates Catastrophe Incentives Exploits Unimaginable Fusion Helium

Author:Seth Shostak

“Neil Armstrong was no Christopher Columbus. In most respects, he was better. Unlike the famous fifteenth century seafarer, Armstrong knew where he landed. He also spent his time in public service, not in jail, and his passing was marked by world-wide encomiums. He ended his days as a celebrated explorer rather than a royal inconvenience.”

World Century Wide Passing Passings Jail Royal Public Service Explorers Inconvenience Columbus Armstrong

Author:Seth Shostak

“The split between religion and science is relatively new. Isaac Newton, who first worked out the laws by which gravity held the planets and even the stars in their traces, was sufficiently impressed by the scale and regularity of the universe to ascribe it all to God.”

Firsts Law Universe Stars Planets Scales Gravity Splits Impressed Science And Religion Newton Regularity Isaac

Author:Seth Shostak

“Like prospecting in the 19th century, reconnaissance of the asteroids would of necessity take place in an arena where trouble is likely and help is distant. Heroic stories of individual triumph and failure, set on landscapes never seen by humankind, are in the cards.”

Helping Stories Individual Trouble Century Cards Landscape Triumph Heroic Humankind Arena 19th Century Asteroids Prospecting

Author:Seth Shostak

“There is little chance that aliens from two societies anywhere in the Galaxy will be culturally close enough to really 'get along.' This is something to ponder as you watch the famous cantina scene in Star Wars. ... Does this make sense, given the overwhelmingly likely situation that galactic civilizations differ in their level of evolutionary development by thousands or millions of years? Would you share drinks with a trilobite, an ourang-outang, or a saber-toothed tiger? Or would you just arrange to have a few specimens stuffed and carted off to the local museum?”

“There is a point of view among astronomical researchers that is generally referred to as the Principle of Mediocrity. ... If the Sun and its retinue of worlds is only one system among many, then many other systems will be like ours: home to life. Indeed, to the extent that this is true, we should be prepared for the possibility that, even in the Milky Way galaxy, billions of planets may be carpeted by the dirty, nasty business known as life.”

Ifs World Way Life Should May Home Science Views Known Principles Sun Possibility Planets Prepared Point Of View Billions Dirty Mediocrity Nasty Be Prepared Galaxy Researchers Milky Way

Author:Seth Shostak

“The search for extra-terrestrial life is a failure until that moment when it suddenly becomes a success.”

Moments Success Science Life Is Failure Extras That Moment

Author:Seth Shostak

“[O]ne might ask why, in a galaxy of a few hundred billion stars, the aliens are so intent on coming to Earth at all. It would be as if every vertebrate in North America somehow felt drawn to a particular house in Peoria, Illinois. Are we really that interesting?”

Ifs Might Would Be Earth America Science Asks House Stars Felt Interesting Particular Hundred Billions Aliens Galaxy North America Illinois Vertebrates Peoria

Author:Seth Shostak

“The number of habitable worlds in our galaxy is certainly in the tens of billions, minimum, and we haven't even talked about the moons. And the number of galaxies we can see, other than our own, is about 100 billion.”

World Numbers Havens Moon Billions Minimum Galaxy

Author:Seth Shostak

About the Author

Born: July 20, 1943
Known for: Astronomer
Quotes: 18

Books & Sources

Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial IntelligenceRelated source material

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