In 1964 Walter Sullivan, science editor of The New York Times, published a book titled "We Are Not Alone: Is there life on other planets?" in which he very thoroughly dives into the apparently recent shifted perception within a small group of the scientific community at that time on the subject of life on other planets.
The first page is transcribed below with bolding added by me for emphasis:
AT THIS VERY MOMENT SIGNALS FROM OTHER PLANETS MAY BE IMPINGING UPON EARTH!
Wild speculation? No--a very possible scientific theory. So possible that it's probability has been seriously discussed by no less reputable an organization as the National Academy of Sciences...Even now some of America's top scientists are engaged in trying to predict how an advanced civilization from another galaxy might go about sending signals to an alien planet. Even now scientists are trying to devise a code that would be comprehensible to beings with whom we may have nothing in common except intelligence.
In WE ARE NOT ALONE Walter Sullivan explores every facet of science's search for life on other planets. From the ancient Greeks to our latest secret projects, he takes you on a century by century tour of the background ad experiments in this field. Among the topics he covers are: Is there life on Mars? Have there been visitors from outer space? Can we develop an interstellar language? Will our religious and philosophical concepts need revising if indeed we are not alone in the universe? And he tells how the final answer to the life process itself may lie within our grasp---or that of our grandchildren.
"The most stimulating scientific reportage and speculation to be published in recent years...A narrative with the pace of fiction and the challenge of the new mathematics." ---Harrison Salisbury, The New York Times
WALTER SULLIVAN is one of the best known journalists in the United States. He is Science Editor of The New York Times and the author of Quest for a Continent, the story of the four final American expeditions to the Antarctic, and Assault on the Unknown, a full account of the International Geophysical Year. Mr. Sullivan's coverage of the I.G.Y. won him the George Polk Memorial Award for Journalism.
A few things stand out to me. One is the attitude that speculation is acceptable in scientific reporting. The author is one of the best known journalist in the US at the time. I find the fact that he is an editor at The New York Times very interesting. I also find it interesting that he authored two books on Antarctica. In fact, he was one of the only journalists to actually go to Antarctica during Admiral Byrd's Operation High Jump! Very interesting...
Below is a link to the entire book in electronic format for free.
https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.133944/2015.133944.We-Are-Not-Alone_djvu.txt
So why is this relevant? Well many people in "ufology" are surely familiar with some of the theories involving Antarctica and of course the most popular hypothesis for ufo's is in fact the ET hypothesis. So, it is a bit interesting that the most popular science journalist of his time and New York Times editor published books on both subjects. Perhaps this very clear node in the network of memes is relevant to where some of the mythology within ufology has come from. Followers of Sullivan's work (of which he had many) would've been fascinated by both subjects.
I haven't had a chance to dig into this book yet, but I do find it interesting that it states "And he tells how the final answer to the life process itself may lie within our grasp---or that of our grandchildren." It's been 60 years since the book was written so it would be interesting to dissect that statement.
Submitted January 17, 2023 at 02:42PM by efh1 https://ift.tt/ZftqLQj
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