His essay “Incredible Journey,” about the state of the art of interstellar exploration, was recently reprinted in Scientific American’s anthology The Best Science Writing Online 2012. He is also the author of the upcoming book “Five Billion Years of Solitude”, about the search for other Earth-like planets. Mr. Billings will speak to the Empiricist League about the methodologies that astronomers and planetary scientists use to someday find extraterrestrial, extrasolar life.