Some striking videos taken by Navy pilots (2015) show strange, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) whose flight characteristics are difficult to explain. This has led the US Congress to hold public hearings on these objects (May, 2022). The American military is now required to investigate reports of UAPs, and the scientific establishment has also taken notice of them. NASA has organized a committee to study them, and Harvard University has initiated the Galileo Project. The goal of the latter is to deploy scientific instruments that will give hard data about the nature of UAPs and their possible origin.

All this activity has stimulated widespread public discussion of UAPs, and much speculation about them. The scientific community has said little about these phenomena, and most publicly available information about them is found on websites, and television programs. These, however, tell lurid tales of alien influence in human affairs, and offer highly speculative opinions often presented as fact.

For many good reasons, my colleagues in science rarely address the many provocative questions raised on these websites and in these programs. However, someone has to! Otherwise, many will come to believe that the scientific community is too arrogant to address what they see as reasonable questions. This leads to a deep suspicion of scientists and a lack of respect for their profession.

These are serious matters if for no other reason than the fact that people with these views vote, write their representatives and often have local political influence. Those with these views also become easy prey for scam artists and political opportunists who tell self-serving half-truths and sometimes blatant lies.

There is a real need for a book that presents the picture of reality developed by modern science and the support for the claims found on the websites and television shows mentioned above. This book is my attempt to fill that need.

For the public, realistic, non-sensationalistic information about UAPs is difficult to obtain. This book is the first to treat the reports of UAP sightings and the relevant science in a coherent, interconnected way.

The scientific community has been criticized for its handling of this topic in the past. Here (in this book), there is no arrogant dismissal of the evidence, no ridicule of the witnesses, and no paternalistic denial that there really is something of a mystery here.

However, the important and illuminating role that science has to play in this mystery is emphasized. The difference between mere anecdotal evidence and the careful, independently repeated observations of astronomers is stressed, as is the difference between the statements put forth by the many who call themselves “theorists”, and an actual scientific theory.

The current interest in UAPs should attract a large number of readers to the book, many with little or no background in science. Its treatment of the subject is relaxed and conversational with reports of UAPs discussed along with the relevant findings of science. This balanced approach gives insight into the methods of science and illustrates how these methods enhance our understanding of these intriguing phenomena.

Carl L. DeVito, PhD, is a member of the emeritus faculty of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Arizona. He has developed one of the most widely-cited proposals for a language based on plausibly universal scientific concepts, and has contributed to several edited volumes on cosmic communication. His other scientific works include many papers on pure and applied mathematics, and the books Science, SETI and Mathematics (2014), Harmonic Analysis—A Gentle Introduction (2006), Functional Analysis and Linear Operator Theory (1990), and Functional Analysis (1978).

Space, Life, Science and Stories: Our Recurring Interest in the Possibility of Cosmic Visitors is available now in Hardback at a 25% discount. Enter code PROMO25 at checkout to redeem.

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