Making contact
Subtitle: Jill Tarter and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
By: Sarah Scoles
Edition: First Pegasus Books edition.
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 275
ISBN-13: 9781681774411
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Extraterrestrial beings; Women astronomers; Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Study group : U.S.); Biography; Research
Description: "Jill Tarter is a pioneer, an innovator, an adventurer, and a controversial force. At a time when women weren't encouraged to do much outside the home, Tarter ventured as far out as she could -- into the three-Kelvin cold of deep space. And she hasn't stopped investigating a subject that takes and takes without giving much back. Today, her computer's screensaver is just the text "SO ... ARE WE ALONE?" This question keeps her up at night. In some ways, this is the question that keep us all up at night. We have all spent dark hours wondering about our place in it all, pondering our "aloneness," both terrestrial and cosmic. Tarter's life and her work are not just a quest to understand life in the universe: they are a quest to understand our lives within the universe. No one has told that story, her story, until now. It all began with gazing into the night sky. All those stars were just distant suns-were any of them someone else's sun? Diving into the science, philosophy, and politics of SETI - searching for extraterrestrial intelligence - Sarah Scoles reveals the fascinating figure at the center of the final frontier of scientific investigation. This is the perfect book for anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if we are alone in the universe."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-266) and index.
Table of contents: title: How'd a nice girl like you get into a field like this?; title: Babies, brown dwarfs, and big moves; title: Making the Allen Telescope Array; title: The future of the alien-hunting telescope; title: A question for our time; title: The politics of science and new projects; title: The quest for contact; title: the last chapter; title: Extremophiles and exoplanets; title: Shouting into the void; title: A timeline of SETI.