One of the most significant events for human kind will be the detection of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. This kind of ‘contact’ is bound to have a profound impact on human culture, society and technology.
The question of how to handle such an event has been widely discussed. Indeed, the international community agreed on a ‘Detection Protocol’ in 1990 that sets out the steps that a research group should take in the event of a contact.
Today, Alan Penny at the University of St Andrews in Scotland tells the story of a real life incident in which the possibility of contact with an intelligent civilisation was seriously considered. Penny draws together various first hand recollections of the event to show how researchers handled the possibility.
The event in question is the 1967 discovery of pulsars, which we now know are rotating neutron stars that produce regular radio pulses. The team that made the discovery was led by Anthony Hewish, who later won a Nobel prize for the work, and famously included Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who did not win the prize.
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