In 1960 a young American astronomer, Frank Drake, turned a radio telescope toward the star Tau Ceti and listened for several hours to see if he could detect any artificial radio signals. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), an amalgam of science, technology, adventure and curiosity, has detected only the eerie sound of silence after millions of hours of cosmos eavesdropping.

In his new book, The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe?, Professor Paul Davies, Director of BEYOND: Centre for Fundamental Concepts in Science, asks: “Is ET out there, but not sending any messages our way? Is SETI a waste of time and money, or should we press ahead with new and more sensitive antennas? And if a signal were to be received, what then? How would we — or even should we — respond?”

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #foieeriesilence

Special competition!

To link in with our Paul Davies event on 18th March, we are promoting a special competition from Penguin UK and National Science and Engineering Week…

Is there anybody out there? What would you say if you could send a message into space? Would you say hello, ask the meaning of life, share an insight or just complain about the weather?

Penguin UK together with National Science and Engineering Week are creating a rare opportunity to beam up to 5000 messages into space to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SETI, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, which is the subect of Paul Davies’ new book, The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe? Seize this chance. Get your thinking cap on, make your message funny, thoughtful or wise and do something extraordinary.

Click here to find out more…