On 19 September 1959, an article entitled “Searching for Interstellar Communication” by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published in the journal Nature, concluding that “the probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search the chance of success is zero”.
Web Resources
Image of article available online at:
http://www.coseti.org/morris_0.htm
Text of article available online at:
http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/interste.htm
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Book References
Text of article reprinted in “Interstellar Communication : A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions” (1963) (edited by A G W Cameron) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 160-164 (in Chapter 15) of the W A Benjamin hardback edition.
Complete text of article reprinted in “The Quest For Extraterrestrial Life : A Book of Readings” (1980) (edited by Donald Goldsmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 102-104 (in Chapter 20) of the University Science Books hardback edition.
For discussion of the Morrison/Cocconi article see the following:
Year |
Discussion by:
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No. of Pages |
Achenbach, Joel in his “Captured by Aliens” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 278 (in Chapter 28), 391 (in the Notes) of the Simon and Schuster hardback edition. |
2 |
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Aczel, Amir in his “Probability 1” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 11-13 (in Chapter 1) of the Little Brown hardback edition. |
3 |
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Allen, Tom in his “The Quest: A Report on Extraterrestrial life " (1965) at pages 22-23, 24 (in Chapter 2) of the Chilton hardback edition. |
3 |
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Angelo, Joseph A in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia: Man’s Search for Life in Outer Space” (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 167 (in the entry entitled “search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)”) of the revised 1991 Fact on File hardback edition. |
1 |
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Asimov, Isaac in his “Extraterrestrial Civilizations” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 260 (in Chapter 13) of the Crown hardback edition, at page 294 of the Pan paperback edition. |
1 |
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Baird, John C in his “The Inner Limits of Outer Space” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 70 (in Chapter 5) of the |
1 |
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Billingham, John and Pierson, Thomas in “SETI 2020 : A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (2002) (edited by Elkers, Ronald D and Cullers, Kent D and Billingham, John and Scheffer, Louis K) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages xxxiii (in the Preface), 17 (in Chapter 1) of the SETI Press softcover edition. |
2 |
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1 |
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Blum, Howard in his “Out There“ (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 84-98 (in Chapters 10, 11 and 12) of the Simon & Schuster hardback edition, pages 81-98 of the Pocket Star paperback edition. |
15 |
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Boyce, Chris in his Extraterrestrial Encounter (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 81 (in Chapter 6) of the David & Charles hardback edition, at pages 72-73 of the 1980 revised NEL paperback edition. |
1 |
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Bracewell, Ronald in his “The Galactic Club” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 59, 60, 66-67 (in Chapter 7) of the Heinemann softcover edition. |
4 |
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Bracewell, Ronald N in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 141-142, 144 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Ronald N Bracewell”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
3 |
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Clark, Andrew J H and Clark, David H in their “Aliens“ (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 27, 31-32 (in Chapter 1), 62 (in Chapter 2) of the Fromm hardback edition. |
4 |
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Clark, Stuart in his “Life on Other Worlds and How to Find It” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 133-134 (in Chapter 10) of the Springer hardback edition. |
2 |
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Cocconi, Giuseppe in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 51 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Giuseppe Cocconi”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
1 |
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Darling, David in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 79 (in the entry entitled “Cocconi, Giuseppe (1914- )”), 284-285 (in the entry entitled “Morrison, Philip (1915- )”), 285 (in the entry entitled “Morrison, Philip (1915- )”) of the Three Rivers softcover edition. |
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Darling, David in his online encyclopedia, “The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Spaceflight” (2003) in the entry entitled “Morrison-Cocconi Conjecture”. The relevant entry is available online at: “http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/MCconj.html |
1 |
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Davidson, Keay in his “Carl Sagan: A Life” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 124 (in Chapter 5) of the Wiley softcover edition. |
1 |
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Davies, Paul in his “Are we Alone?“ (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 10-11 (in Chapter 1) of the Penguin paperback edition. |
2 |
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Dick, Steven J in his “Life on Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 201, 203-204, 212 (in Chapter 7) of the |
4 |
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Dick, Steven J in his “The Biological Universe” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 414-418, 432 (in Chapter 8) of the |
6 |
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Drake, Frank and Sobel, Dava in their “Is Anyone Out There?“ (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 31-32 (in Chapter 2), 46 (in Chapter 3), 201-202 (in Chapter 9) of the Pocket Books paperback edition. |
2 |
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Drake, Frank D in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 62, 67-68, 77-78 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Frank D Drake”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
5 |
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Dyson, Freeman in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 322 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Freeman Dyson”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
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Dyson, Freeman in his “Disturbing the Universe” (1979) at pages 206-207 (in Chapter 19) of the Harper & Row hardback edition. |
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Dyson, Freeman J in “Interstellar Communication : A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions” (1963) (edited by A G W Cameron) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 111 (in Chapter 11) of the W A Benjamin hardback edition. The relevant chapter is a reprint of F J Dyson “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation”, Science, Volume 131 (1960.0603), pages 1667-1668. |
1 |
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Edelson, Edward in his “Who Goes There?” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 105-107, 111 (in Chapter 9) of the NEL paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the NEL paperback edition combining this book and Chris Boyce’s “Extraterrestrial Encounter). |
4 |
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Fairley, Peter in his “Is there Life in Outer Space?” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 50-51 (in Chapter 4) of the Look-In softcover edition. |
2 |
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Goldsmith, Donald and Owen, Tobias in their “The Search for Life in the Universe” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 390 (in Chapter 20) of the Benjamin Cummings softcover edition, at page 458 (in Chapter 19) of the 1992 Addison Wesley softcover revised second edition. |
1 |
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Goodwin, Simon with John Gribbin in their “XTL” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 160 (in Chapter 5) of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson softcover edition. |
1 |
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Guthke, Karl S in his “The Last Frontier : Imagining Other Worlds From the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction: Imagining Other Worlds From the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 6 (in Chapter 1.1) of the Cornell University softcover edition. |
1 |
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Halpern, Paul in his “The Quest For Alien Planets” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 243, 244 (in Chapter 8) of the Plenum Trade hardback edition. |
2 |
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Heidmann, Jean in his “Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages xvi (in the Preface), 112 (in Chapter 6) of the |
2 |
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Heidmann, Jean in his “Life in the Universe" (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 27-28 (in Chapter 1), 74 (in Chapter 7) of the |
3 |
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Hennessey, Roger in his “Worlds Without End : The Historic Search for Extraterrestrial Life” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 110-111 (in Chapter 11) of the Tempus hardback edition. |
2 |
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Hoagland, Richard in his “The Monuments of Mars” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 221 (in Chapter 13) of the 1992 revised |
1 |
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Horowitz, Paul in “Alien Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T.” (1994) (edited by Andrea Pritchard et al.) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 417-418 (in Chapter 5, unnumbered sub-chapter entitled “Radio Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence”) of the North Cambridge Press hardback edition. |
2 |
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Horowitz, Paul in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 407 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Paul Horowitz”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
1 |
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Hyams, Ron in “UFOs: Where Do They Come From?” (1984) (edited by Peter Brookesmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 82 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Is there anybody out there?”) of the Black Cat hardback edition. The relevant chapter is an article reprinted from the weekly partwork “The Unexplained” , Volume 1, page 248. |
1 |
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Hyams, Ron in “UFOs: Where Do They Come From?” (1984) (edited by Peter Brookesmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 78 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Reach for the stars”) of the Black Cat hardback edition. The relevant chapter is an article reprinted from the weekly partwork “The Unexplained” , Volume 1, page 224. |
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Jakosky, Bruce in his “The Search for Life on Other Planets” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 286-287 (in Chapter 17) of the |
2 |
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Kardashev, Nikolai S in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 182, 183 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Nikolai S Kardashev”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
2 |
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Koerner, David & LeVay, Simon in their “Here Be Dragons” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 161 (in Chapter 7) of the |
1 |
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Lamb, David in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence : A Philosophical Inquiry” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 16 (in Chapter 1) of the Routledge softcover edition. |
1 |
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Landsburg, Alan in his “In Search of Extraterrestrials” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 93-94 (in Chapter 7) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
2 |
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Lemonick, Michael in his “Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 51-53 (in Chapter 2) of the Simon & Schuster hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Simon & Schuster softcover edition). |
3 |
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McConnell, Brian in his “Beyond Contact : A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 11 (in Chapter 2), 75 (in Chapter 6), 187 (in Chapter 11), 387 (in Appendix C, entitled “SETI Program Timeline”) of the O’Reilly hardback edition. |
4 |
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McDonough, Thomas R in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - Listening for Life in the Cosmos” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8 (in Chapter 1), 46 (in Chapter 3), 105-110 (in Chapter 7) of the Wiley softcover edition. |
8 |
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Morrison, Philip in an article entitled “Twenty years after …” in Cosmic Search Magazine, Volume 1, number 1 – available online at: http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/twenty.htm |
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Morrison, Philip in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 22-26, 35-36, 42, 44, 45-46 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Philip Morrison”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
11 |
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Nicolson, Iain in his “The Road to the Stars” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 195 (in Chapter 11) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
1 |
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O’ Neill, Gerard in his “The High Frontier” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 188 (in Chapter 9) of the revised Corgi paperback edition. |
1 |
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Oliver, Bernard and Billingham, John et al in “Project Cyclops : A Design Study of a System for Detecting Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life : NASA Contractor Report 114445 (“NASA CR |
1 |
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Papagiannis, Michael in “Are We Alone in the Cosmos” (1999) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 206 (in Chapter 5) of the ibooks softcover edition. |
1 |
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Papagiannis, Michael in “First Contact” (1990) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 182 (in Chapter 5) of the NAL Books hardback edition, at page 232 of the Headline paperback edition. |
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Papgiannis, Michael in “Alien Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T.” (1994) (edited by Andrea Pritchard et al.) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 411 (in Chapter 5, unnumbered sub-chapter entitled “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence And The Possibility of its Presence On Earth”) of the North Cambridge Press hardback edition. |
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Poundstone, William in his “Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 50 (in the chapter entitled “Berkeley 1960-1963”) of the Owl Books softcover edition. |
1 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “Alien Contact – The First Fifty Years” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 41 (in the chapter entitled “1960”) of the Collins and Brown hardback edition. |
1 |
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Regis, Edward in “Extraterrestrials: Science and alien intelligence” (1985) (edited by Edward Regis) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 231 (in Part 6) of the Cambridge University Press softcover edition. |
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Ridpath, Ian in his “Life Off Earth” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 105 (in Chapter 9) of the |
1 |
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Ridpath, Ian in his “Messages from the Stars” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 24 (in Chapter 1), 114 (in Chapter 7) of the |
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Ridpath, Ian in his “Worlds Beyond” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 123-124 (in Chapter 7) of the Wildwood House softcover edition. |
2 |
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Rood, Robert and Trefil, James in their “Are We Alone?“ (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 2-3 (in Chapter 1) of the Scribners hardback edition. |
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Roulet, Alfred in his “The Search for Intelligent Life in Outer Space” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 29-32 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Hello, Out There”) of the |
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Sagan, Carl in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 223 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Carl Sagan”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
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Shkloskiy, Iosif S in “Interstellar Communication : A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions” (1963) (edited by A G W Cameron) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 12, 16 (in Chapter 1) of the W A Benjamin hardback edition. The relevant chapter is a translation of “Is Communication Possible with Intelligent Beings on Other Planets”, Priroda, Number 7, 21 (1960). |
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Shklovskii, Iosef S in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 172 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Iosef S Shklovskii”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
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Shklovskii, Iosef Shmuelovich and Sagan, Carl in their “Intelligent Life in the Universe” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 380, 388, 391 (in Chapter 27) of the Picador softcover edition. |
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Shklovskii, Iosif in his “Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 250 (in Chapter 24) of the Norton hardback edition. |
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Shostak, Seth in his “Sharing the Universe” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 151-152 (in Chapter 7), 158 (in Chapter 8) of the Berkeley Hills softcover edition. |
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Sullivan, Walter in his “We Are Not Alone” (1964) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 178, 180, 189-196 (in Chapter 13) of the Signet paperback revised editions. |
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Swift, David W in his “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8, 10 (in the Introduction), 19 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Philip Morrison”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
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Tarter, Jill Cornell in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 357, 365-366 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Jill Cornell Tarter”) of the Arizona hardback edition. |
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Tarter, Jill in “Extraterrestrials: Science and alien intelligence” (1985) (edited by Edward Regis) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 173 (in Part 5) of the Cambridge University Press softcover edition. |
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Webb, Stephen in his “Where is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 95-98 (in Chapter 4) of the Copernicus hardback edition. |
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White, Frank in his “The SETI Factor” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 4 (in Chapter 1), 50-52 (in Chapter 5) of the |
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White, Michael in his “Life Out There” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 91, 93 (in Chapter 5) of the Little, Brown & Co hardback edition. |
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Wilkinson, David in his “Alone in the Universe?” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 67 (in Chapter 4) of the Monarch softcover edition. |
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Zubrin, Robert in his “Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 258-259 (in Chapter 11) of the Tarcher Putnam hardback edition. |
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Other Material
Cocconi, G, and Morrison, P "Searching for Interstellar Communication," Nature, Volume 184 Number 4690, pages 844-846 (September 19, 1959).