Space is a Sound: Searching for Extraterrestrial Life

We explore how astronomers are listening for new signs of life in space, visit the annual Aliencon conference and discuss when we might meet E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Featuring exciting interviews with Seth Shostak from SETI Institute and Dan Werthimer from SETI@home.

SETH SHOSTAK:

Seth Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Inspired by a book about the solar system he read at the age of ten, he began his career with a degree in physics from Princeton University and a PhD in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology before working with radio telescopes in the US and the Netherlands to uncover how the universe will end. In 1999, he produced twelve 30-minute lectures on audio-tape and video titled “The Search for Intelligent Life in Space” for the Teaching Company and has hosted SETI’s Big Picture Science podcast since 2002. In 2010, he was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and is the Chair of the International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Study Group. He has published four books, nearly 300 popular articles on astronomy, technology, film and television and gives frequent talks to both young and adult audiences.

DAN WERTHIMER:

Dan Werthimer is co-founder and chief scientist of the SETI@home project and directs other UC Berkeley SETI searches at radio, infrared and visible wavelengths, including the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations (SERENDIP). He is also the principal investigator for the worldwide Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER).

Werthimer was associate professor in the engineering and physics departments of San Francisco State University and a visiting professor at Beijing Normal University, the University of St. Charles in Marseille, Eotvos University in Budapest. His father, Jerrold Werthimer, was Professor of Journalism at San Francisco State University for many years.

Werthimer has taught courses at universities in Peru, Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya. He has published numerous papers in the fields of SETI, radio astronomy, instrumentation and science education; he is co-author of “SETI 2020” and editor of “Astronomical and Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe”.