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Times are weird. If you're looking for something to think about that's the *exact opposite* of COVID-19, my new book "Extraterrestrals" is out today from @mitpress. Win a free copy! Details in the thread --> https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/extraterrestrials
Obviously when I started working on the book back in 2018 I couldn't have known it would come out in the middle of a global pandemic. But since you're stuck at home, what better time to learn about the science of the search for aliens? 
The poetic summary of the book is that it's about our unfinished story arc as a species and which direction that arc will go. As we grow up, leave the planet, and explore the stars, will we remain forever alone, or will we eventually learn that we have company?
We've been wondering whether other worlds might be home to other beings for at least 2,600 years. But for most of that time, the existence of aliens was a question for philosophers, not scientists. Things finally changed around 1960.
Since then we've been using radio and optical telescopes to search for beacons from other technological civilizations. We've examined thousands of stars at millions of frequencies. And we've found ZERO credible, repeated evidence that anyone is trying to contact us.
Which leads to the central question in the book: Where is everybody? That's also known as the Fermi Paradox, after the brilliant nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi, who was the first to state it crisply, back in 1950.
It goes like this: 1. Life should not be unique to Earth. 2. There's been plenty of time for other civilizations to spread across the galaxy. 3. It seems that we're utterly alone. These three premises can't all be true—that's the paradox. But which one is flawed?
Everything astrobiologists and exoplanet researchers are learning reinforces the first two premises. Planets are common; lots of them are habitable; life is creative and tenacious. The longer we go without finding life or intelligence off-world, the more urgent the paradox grows.
Many ingenious "solutions" to the paradox have been proposed. SOOO many. One well-known book in this area catalogs 75 of them! https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY-ebook/dp/B00XVTG1NC/
My book summarizes the proposed solutions in a chapter and a half. Speaking as a journalist and a historian, I can tell you which ones I think are least and most credible. (Go read the book.) But I really can't predict which one will turn out to be correct.
I don't think we're alone. But I also don't think we're going to find aliens anytime soon. Something tells me radio searches aren't going to be enough. We just aren't thinking about the question the right way—as I argued today in a column for @sciam https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/life-as-we-dont-know-it/
So here's how you can win a free copy of Extraterrestrials and we can all have some much-needed fun. Respond to this thread with your own solution to the Fermi Paradox (aka "Where is everybody?"). I'll pick the WITTIEST one & send the winner a print or Kindle copy, your choice.
Meanwhile, go buy the book, and prove to all of us struggling freelancers that there's still a market for smart, entertaining writing about deep nonfiction topics! (That's the focus of @mitpress's Essential Knowledge series, of which this book is a part.) https://www.amazon.com/Extraterrestrials-MIT-Press-Essential-Knowledge-dp-0262538431/dp/0262538431/
BTW I'm so pleased to see that Extraterrestrials is one of today's top new releases in Astronomy at Amazon.
If you'd like to hear an audio conversation about the book, check out Paul Carr's Wow! Signal Podcast @podcastwow, where I was a guest last weekend. https://www.wowsignalpodcast.com/2020/04/episode-46-extraterrestrials.html
And please subscribe to Soonish, my podcast about technology, culture, and the future, where I'll soon share an episode about extraterrestrials. First I have to finish the Season 4 opener, which is about the coronavirus pandemic, of course. @soonishpodcast http://www.soonishpodcast.org
Thanks, remember to reply here with your funniest Fermi Paradox solutions, and good luck! Over and out.
