| CONFESSIONS OF AN ALIEN HUNTER A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Seth Shostak Frank Drake (Fwd.) Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2009 |
Rating: 4.5 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-4262-0392-3 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-4262-0392-6 | 309p. | HC/BWI | $27.00 | |
| Page vii: | "The existence of other inhabitable worlds and extraterrestrial life has for hundreds of years been one of the few very prime questions in science." |
| Yes, it's almost completely unique. But seriously, folks, this is just words transposed: S/B "one of the very few prime questions." |
| Page viii: | "His description here of this history, and the remarkable people involved, comes directly from much first-hand personal experience, and can be counted on to be true." |
| Yes, folks, everything here is extremely true. Totally. |
| Page ix: | "Will we even be able to recognize them, let along understand them?" |
| Probably a transcription error: S/B "let alone". |
| Page 6: | "This is pleasant news because jumbo worlds are often swathed in smelly, thick atmospheres of methane, ammonia, and other heavy gases. These ingredients are more suitable for fueling buses or making fertilizer than powering biology. |
| Except on Titan, apparently. |
| Page 10: | "...(physicist Enrico Fermi pointed out this conflict between expectation and observation in 1950.)" |
| I would have said "expectation and experience". |
| Page 18: | "The scientist would shout 'Eureka!' like Archimedes stepping into the bathtub." |
| According to legend, Archimedes shouted this as he stepped out of the tub, forgetting everything but his discovery, before running naked through the streets of Syracuse. But the truth of the whole account is disputed, according to Scientific American and other sources. |
| Pages 22-23: | "While usually remembered for inventing high school math, we should also credit the Greeks with being first in print with the idea of 'other worlds'." |
| Dangling participle. |
| Page 34: | "As the 1920s dawned, the Westinghouse Corporation quickly put four AM transmitters on the air, including KDKA in Pittsburgh—the first commercial radio station in the world." |
| This too is disputed. The staff of KCBS will say that their predecessor, an early station in San Jose, was first. As this article notes, there are many candidates, depending on how "commercial radio station" is defined. |
| Page 42: | "Microwaves are high-frequency radio signals, with wavelengths that are typically a thousand times shorter than those of commercial radio broadcasts (hence the name)." |
| Technically, this would cause them to be called "milliwaves." But that is the standard usage, and Shostak is correct regarding wavelengths: Microwaves run from one meter to one millimeter in wavelength, while the wavelengths of AM broadcast stations are a thousand times longer. (Hence the great height of antennas for AM stations.) |
| Page 44: | "...where they're known as microwave ovens and used to resurrect leftover pot roast." |
| Pizza. |
| Page 44: | "...an additional steady background hiss that came from much farther away—from the gas clouds of the Milky Way." |
| I believe there are two meanings for "Milky Way" (besides the candy bar.) One means the band of stars we can see overhead on a clear dark night. When we see them, we are looking at the center of our galaxy; and by this meaning Shostak is correct, for Jansky detected the static from galaxy center (specifically in the constellation Sagittarius.) But we also say "Milky Way" when we mean the whole galaxy, of which we are a part. |
| Page 46: | "A physicist at Cornell University, Philip Morrison, was among the first, to not just think of the idea, but also to publish it." |
| Extra comma: S/B "was among the first to not just think". |
| Page 48: | "But for the first time, it was based on real science." |
| Missing comma: S/B "But, for the first time". |
| Page 54: | "As planned, the antenna was swung toward the other star in Project Ozma's short list: Epsilon Eridani. This was also a Southern Hemisphere object, a star slightly dimmer than our Sun..." |
| Puzzling: They were in West Virginia; how could they monitor a Southern Hemisphere object? Wikipedia has the answer: With a declination of -9.45°, it is below the equator. However, it can be seen from the northern hemisphere at latitudes south of 80°N. |
| Page 66: | "From Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, the task of espying Earth would be equivalent to noticing a mosquito circling a light bulb 25 feet (7.6 meters) away, as seen from 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) off." |
| Clumsy phrasing: S/B "circling a light bulb at a distance of 25 feet (7.6 meters)". |
| Page 66: | "Assumptions might be appealing to Titian..." |
| I think this is a joke that only art lovers will get. |
| Page 75: | "...HARMS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planetary Search)..." |
| Playing fast and loose with acronyms (PFLWA). At the very least, it should read "Radial-velocity" since by convention (ignored in book titles) only the first word of a hyphenated term is capitalized. |
| Page 87: | "...which is 400°F (204°C) hotter than french fry oil." |
| Capitalization: S/B "French fry". |
| Page 91: | "...and few of them are convinced that ALH 84001 (or any of the other three dozen meteorites known to have come from Mars) make a compelling case..." |
| Number error: S/B "makes". |
| Page 113: | "But despite the disappointment, these revelations hardly leached the public's firm belief in extraterrestrials." |
| Usage: S/B "leached out" or "leached away". |
| Page 136: | "The formidable problems of rocketing between the stars hasn't been lost on folks who think alien-operated UFOs are dropping into our skies." |
| Number error: S/B "problem". I'd prefer "problems" and "haven't", but in this context the singular subject seems to fit better. |
| Page 150: | "A challenge Carl Sagan often threw at the feet of those who thought aliens were gadding the globe..." |
| Usage: S/B "were gadding about". |
| Page 176: | "It all added up to a pretty complex helping of computers, custom circuit boards, and analogue electronics." |
| English usage: S/B "analog" in American-speak. (Shostak spells it this way two or three times more in the book.) |
| Page 181: | "They imagine scientists sitting around dutifully monitoring static from dusk to dawn, an activity as monotonous as Bolero." |
| De gustibus non est disputandum. |
| Page 244: | "...where aliens pick up our sitcoms, follow the signal back to Earth, and blast our planet into a cloud of clods." |
| Wearing clogs, no doubt. Even I tire of this — and I'm an aficionado of alliteration. |
| Page 261: | "The Pyramids of Giza are built of limestone, but it's hardly true that everywhere you find limestone you also find ponderous, pointy edifices." |
| This is a goofy analogy. |
| Page 288: | "...by the evil Cardassian union." |
| Capitalization: S/B "Cardassian Union". Give Dr. Shostak credit, though; he capitalizes Sun and Earth when they refer to our home star and planet. Many writers don't. |
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