Extraterrestrials and the Search for Life

Introduction

We Might Not Be Alone
by Jesse Emspak

Section 1: Where is Everybody?

1.1   The Fermi Paradox Is Not Fermi’s, and It Is Not a Paradox
        by Robert H. Gray

1.2   It’s the End of the World … Somewhere
        by Caleb A. Scharf

1.3   Social Distancing on a Cosmic Scale
        by Avi Loeb

1.4   Alone in a Crowded Milky Way
        by Caleb A. Scharf

1.5   Galactic Extremism
        by Caleb A. Scharf

1.6   Are Alien Civilizations Technologically Advanced?
        by Abraham Loeb

1.7   No E.T. Life Yet?
        by Kelsey Johnson

1.8   Stellar Smashups May Fuel Planetary Habitability, Study Suggests
        by Marcus Woo

Section 2: How Do We Find Them?

2.1   How to Search for Dead Cosmic Civilizations
        by Abraham Loeb

2.2   How to Search for Life as We Don’t Know It
        by Avi Loeb

2.3   Believable Extraterrestrials
        by Caleb A. Scharf

2.4   Quantum SETI
        by Caleb A. Scharf

2.5   Want to Talk to Aliens? Try Changing the Technological Channel beyond Radio
        by Adam Mann

Section 3: Where Do We Look?

3.1   Hardy Microbes Hint at Possibilities for Extraterrestrial Life
        by Brianne Palmer

3.2   How Many Aliens Are in the Milky Way? Astronomers Turn to Statistics for Answers
        by Anil Ananthaswamy

3.3   Aliens Might Already Be Watching Us
        by Tess Joosse

3.4   Intelligent Aliens May Know about Us Well before We Find Out about Them
        by Steve Mirsky

Section 4: Are We Doing It Wrong?

4.1   Life as We Don’t Know It
        by Wade Roush

4.2   Let’s Search for Alien Probes, Not Just Alien Signals
        by Avi Loeb

4.3   Is Biology Best?
        by Caleb A. Scharf

4.4   The Technosignature Challenge
        by Caleb A. Scharf

Section 5: Are the Neighbors Closer to Home?

5.1   Until Recently, People Accepted the ‘Fact’ of Aliens in the Solar System
        by Caleb A. Scharf

5.2   Maybe the Aliens Really Are Here
        by John Gertz

5.3   It’s Time to Go to Europa
        by Van R. Kane

5.4   Water Ice on Ceres Boosts Hopes for Buried Ocean
        by Noah Taylor Tillman

5.5   Ultracold-Resistant Chemical on Titan Could Allow It to Harbor Life
        by Diana Crow

5.6   New Approach Could Boost the Search for Life in Otherworldly Oceans
        by Natalie Eliot

5.7   Water, and Maybe Life, in Places We Never Expected
        by John Armstrong

Section 6: Unidentified Flying Objects

6.1   A Word about Those UFO Videos
        by Katie Mack

6.2   What Linguistics Can Tell Us about Talking to Aliens
        by Adam Mann

6.3  The ‘Oumuamua Legacy
        by Caleb A. Scharf

6.4   Harvard’s Avi Loeb Thinks We Should Study UFOs—and He’s Not Wrong
        by Seth Shostak

Section 7: The Day After Contact

7.1   Extraterrestrial Intelligence
        by John Matson

7.2   Contact: The Day After
        by Tim Folger