83 Seth Shostak Quotes for You to Enjoy

Seth Shostak

American Scientist

Alien Science Space Time Will You

Related authors: Ben Carson Carl Sagan E. O. Wilson George Washington Carver Isaac Asimov Margaret Mead Neil deGrasse Tyson W. Edwards Deming

Disasters happen. We still have no way to eliminate earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, floods or droughts. We cope as best we can by fortifying ourselves against danger with building codes and levees, and by setting aside money to clean up afterwards. Seth Shostak

Best Money Building Setting Way Danger Earthquakes Ourselves Hurricanes Clean Clean Up Droughts Disasters Still Up Happen Afterwards Against Aside Codes Floods Cope Levees Eliminate

The stars look the same from night to night. Nebulae and galaxies are dully immutable, maintaining the same overall appearance for thousands or millions of years. Indeed, only the sun, moon and planets - together with the occasional comet, asteroid or meteor - seem dynamic. Seth Shostak

Together Space Moon Stars Asteroid Indeed Sun Thousands Immutable Seem Only Maintaining Overall Look Comet Occasional Meteor Years Same Dynamic Galaxies Planets Appearance Millions Night Millions Of Years

The math is dead simple: it seems that the frequency of planets able to support life is roughly one percent. In other words, a billion or more such worlds exist in our galaxy alone. That's a lot of acreage, and it takes industrial-strength credulity to believe it's all bleakly barren. Seth Shostak

Life Alone Words Simple Space Believe Other Worlds Our One Percent Able Percent Seems More Takes Support Dead Frequency Math Exist Lot In Other Words Galaxy Planets Billion Barren Roughly Credulity

Faith is a personal matter, and should never be a cudgel to stifle inquiry. We tried that approach about 1,200 years ago. The experiment was called the Dark Ages. Seth Shostak

Faith Dark Matter Experiment Approach Inquiry Dark Ages Tried About Never Stifle Years Years Ago Personal Ages Should

If the cosmos isn't finite, then far, far away, floating duplicates of your brain - with all its experiences, thoughts, and emotions - are occasionally (and temporarily) thrown together by the random combining of atoms. Such 'Boltzmann brains,' as they're called, are a disturbing consequence of an unlimited universe. Seth Shostak

Thoughts Together Emotions Random Atoms Universe Unlimited Disturbing Temporarily Cosmos Finite Thrown Combining Occasionally Brain Brains Experiences Far Far Away Then Your Floating Away Consequence

We're not just any star stuff, most of which is humdrum hydrogen and listless helium. Our bodies include fancier ingredients like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, and a few other herbs and spices. Seth Shostak

Forecasting Armageddon has become trendy of late, with a great deal of attention being given to an interpretation of the Mayan Calendar suggesting that Mother Earth is destined for doom in December of 2012. Seth Shostak

Like prospecting in the 19th century, reconnaissance of the asteroids would of necessity take place in an arena where trouble is likely and help is distant. Heroic stories of individual triumph and failure, set on landscapes never seen by humankind, are in the cards. Seth Shostak

Failure Seen Trouble Heroic Distant Would Triumph Arena Individual Take Never Like Likely Where Stories Place Century Landscapes Help Humankind Cards Necessity Set

It will be the mother of all telescopes, and you can bet it will do for astronomy what genome sequencing is doing for biology. The clumsy, if utilitarian, name of this mirrored monster is Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LSST. You can't use it yet, but a peak in the Chilean Andes has been decapitated to provide a level spot for placement. Seth Shostak

You Mother Will Biology Monster Telescope Astronomy Has-Been Bet Name Genome Spot Doing Been Provide Survey Placement Clumsy Use Sequencing Large Utilitarian Peak Level

While I have always thought that the motivation for looking for E.T. was both self-evident and patently worthy, it's possible that I'm a victim of my own job description. Others don't inevitably agree. Some will opine that there are better ways to spend the money. Seth Shostak

Money Better Will Job Thought Looking Own Victim Others Spend Ways Job Description Possible Worthy Some My Own Both Better Ways Self-Evident Always Inevitably Motivation Patently While Agree Description

Ever since the Second World War, television signals (as well as FM radio and radar) have served as Homo sapiens' emissaries into deep space. High-frequency, high-power broadcasts have filled an Earth-centered bubble more than 60 light-years in radius with signals. Seth Shostak

War World Space Television Signals More Bubble Since Well Than Radar Sapiens Radio Deep Filled Deep Space Ever Served Homo Homo Sapiens Second World War Second World War

If you could drive straight down, into a tunnel bored through the crust of the planet, you'd hit this molten mess in about an hour. It's called the asthenosphere - a sluggish sea, several hundred miles thick, on which floats the Earth's cool epidermis - the so-called tectonic plates. Seth Shostak

You Drive Down Hundred Earth Several Bored Sluggish About About An Hour Could Through Crust Hour Mess Hit So-Called Tunnel Which Straight Planet Miles Sea Cool Plates Floats Thick

Junk, redundancy, and inefficiency characterize astrophysical signals. It seems they characterize cells and sea lions, too. These biological constructions have lots of superfluous and redundant parts, and are a long way from being optimally built or operated. Seth Shostak

The ideas of science germinate in a matrix of established knowledge gained by experiment; they are not lonesome thoughts, born in a rarified realm where no researcher has ever gone before. Seth Shostak

Thoughts Knowledge Science Lonesome Before Experiment Gone Born Ideas Matrix Established Where Gained Realm Researcher Ever

Mars still remains the astrobiology community's number one choice for 'nearest rock with life,' but there are many researchers who argue that the moons of Jupiter are better bets. In particular, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are all thought to hide vast oceans of liquid water beneath their icy, outer skins. Seth Shostak

Life Water Hide Better Thought Community Beneath Mars Outer Bets Vast Remains Argue Particular Rock Still Oceans Liquid Jupiter Icy Choice Skins Researchers Who Many Nearest Number

Recent results from astronomers who study the occasional gravitational lensing of unknown worlds by intervening stars suggest that orphan planets could be at least as numerous as the stars. In other words, there could be hundreds of billions of orphan worlds shuffling through our galaxy. Seth Shostak

Words Stars Numerous Other Worlds Unknown Intervening Our Hundreds Results Could Through Study Occasional Least In Other Words Galaxy Planets Who Billions Orphan Shuffling Gravitational Suggest Recent

By 2020, most home computers will have the computing power of a human brain. That doesn't mean that they are brains, but it means that in terms of raw processing, they can process bits as fast as a brain can. So the question is, how far behind that is the development of a machine that's as smart as we are? Seth Shostak

Home Smart Will Power Machine Bits Computers Computing Raw Development Most Terms How How Far Brain Question Brains Behind Human Human Brain Process Processing Mean Far Means Fast

Consider that the overwhelming majority of those 40,000 near-Earth asteroids are small enough to fit on the parking lot at the mall. And while these rocky runts won't cause Armageddon, they could still flatten such popular hominid hangouts as Manhattan or downtown Des Moines. Seth Shostak

Cause Overwhelming Enough Consider Those Small Parking Parking Lot Could Armageddon Majority Still Lot Fit Rocky Mall Manhattan Flatten While Des Moines Popular Downtown Hominid

The Moon is a ball of left-over debris from a cosmic collision that took place more than four billion years ago. A Mars-sized asteroid - one of the countless planetesimals that were frantically churning our solar system into existence - hit the infant Earth, bequeathing it a very large natural satellite. Seth Shostak

Natural Solar Moon Took Asteroid Our Solar System Earth Churning System Cosmic Collision More Countless Ball Were Years Years Ago Existence Infant Debris Very Hit Than Place Billion Large Satellite Four

Even if the Moon didn't exist - even if it had been vaporized billions of years ago by cantankerous Klingons - there would still be (somewhat lower) tides raised by the Sun. For creatures dependent on the oceans' ebb and flow, life could go on. Seth Shostak

Admittedly, it would take industrial-grade chutzpah and a massive dose of malevolence for anyone to bulldoze the spot where Neil Armstrong stepped off the Eagle lander. But even innocent visits could be damaging. Seth Shostak

Innocent Neil Visits Would Admittedly Could Take Stepped Massive Armstrong Spot Bulldoze Off Where Anyone Dose Even Eagle Damaging

We can no better imagine what will be happening on the moon 500 years from now than Columbus could imagine contemporary Manhattan. Except to say that it will be a place familiar to billions of people. Seth Shostak

People Better Will Moon Say Except Could Columbus Contemporary Years Familiar Than Manhattan Happening Place Billions Now Imagine

In the 19th century, if you had a basement lab, you could make major scientific discoveries in your own home. Right? Because there was all this science just lying around waiting for somebody to pick it up. Seth Shostak

We're interested in things that have big teeth, and you can see the evolutionary value of that, and you can also see the practical consequences by watching 'Animal Planet.' You notice they make very few programs about gerbils. It's mostly about things that have big teeth. Seth Shostak

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