In his latest book, which will excite everyone, Paul Davies introduces you to the latest results of the search for extraterrestrial life. On April 8, 1960, a young American astronomer, Frank Drake, turned a radio telescope towards the star Tau Ceti and listened for hours to see if he could detect any artificial signal. This humble beginning marked the birth of a project of worldwide and potentially immeasurable importance. SETI - an acronym formed from the English equivalent of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence - is a mixture of science, technology, adventure, curiosity and bold visions for the fate of humanity. SETI has not been able to show results so far. We've spent millions of hours listening, yet the astronomers have been met with nothing but eerie silence. Paul Davies asks what does this silence mean? Are we alone in the vast Universe? Or maybe extraterrestrials are there, just not sending us messages? Or are we surrounded by messages, but we simply don't notice them? Is SETI a waste of money and time, or should we continue the search with newer and more sensitive antennas? Or are we looking in the wrong direction? And what would happen if we did pick up a signal? Should we respond, and if so, how?
The eerie silence guides you into the world of close encounters between past and present, looks ahead to the future, examines the physical and chemical background of carbon-based life on our planet and asks if we will ever find something similar anywhere else in the Universe. Paul Davies is a world-renowned physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist at Arizona State University. Chairman of SETI's Post-Discovery Task Force, if scientists ever find intelligent extraterrestrial life, Davies will be the first to know about it. In addition to his numerous academic honors and awards, in 1995 he was awarded the Templeton Prize, the most significant annual award for the advancement of intellectual development. He is the author of more than twenty books. The asteroid 1992 OG was officially named Pauldavies in his honor.