Although SETI experiments have not yet picked up a signal from another world, there’s plenty of optimism among the scientists looking for ET’s pings. That’s because new telescopes, both radio and optical, will soon greatly speed up our cosmic reconnaissance. As example, the Allen Telescope Array, scheduled to begin observing this summer, will eventually accelerate the search by hundreds of times.
Join us as we talk to SETI glitterati Frank Drake and Jill Tarter about their life-long efforts to find extraterrestrials. We’ll also chat about the new Harvard optical SETI telescope, how we might converse with aliens, and join in a debate about, well, whether SETI is worth the effort.
Guests:
- Frank Drake, Senior Scientist, SETI Institute
- Jill Tarter, Director of SETI Research, SETI Institute
- Doug Vakoch, Director of Message Construction, SETI Institute
- Ben Zuckerman, Professor of astronomy and physics, UCLA
- Dave Itzkoff, writer for New York Times Review of Books
- Andrew Howard, optical SETI researcher, Harvard University physics department
