seti_1
Cocconi/Morrison article
On 19 September 1959, an article entitled “Searching for Interstellar Communication” by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison published in the journal Nature, concluding that “the probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search the chance of success is zero”.

 

 

 

Sections below

1. Web Resources

2. Book References

3. Other material

 

Web Resources

Image of article available online at:

http://www.coseti.org/morris_0.htm

Text of article available online at:

http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/interste.htm

There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...

 

The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.

 

 

 

Book References

Text of article reprinted in “Interstellar Communication : A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions” (1963) (edited by A G W Cameron) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 160-164 (in Chapter 15) of the W A Benjamin hardback edition.

Complete text of article reprinted in “The Quest For Extraterrestrial Life : A Book of Readings” (1980) (edited by Donald Goldsmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 102-104 (in Chapter 20) of the University Science Books hardback edition.

The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.

Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.

For discussion of the Morrison/Cocconi article see the following:

 

Year

Discussion by:

 

No. of Pages

1999

Achenbach, Joel in his “Captured by Aliens” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 278 (in Chapter 28), 391 (in the Notes) of the Simon and Schuster hardback edition.

2

1998

Aczel, Amir in his “Probability 1” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 11-13 (in Chapter 1) of the Little Brown hardback edition.

3

1965

Allen, Tom in his “The Quest: A Report on Extraterrestrial life " (1965) at pages 22-23, 24 (in Chapter 2) of the Chilton hardback edition.

3

1985

Angelo, Joseph A in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia: Man’s Search for Life in Outer Space” (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 167 (in the entry entitled “search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)”) of the revised 1991 Fact on File hardback edition.

1

1979

Asimov, Isaac in his “Extraterrestrial Civilizations” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 260 (in Chapter 13) of the Crown hardback edition, at page 294 of the Pan paperback edition.

1

1987

Baird, John C in his “The Inner Limits of Outer Space” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 70 (in Chapter 5) of the Dartmouth hardback edition.

1

2002

Billingham, John and Pierson, Thomas in “SETI 2020 : A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (2002) (edited by Elkers, Ronald D and Cullers, Kent D and Billingham, John and Scheffer, Louis K) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages xxxiii (in the Preface), 17 (in Chapter 1) of the SETI Press softcover edition.

2

1990

Billings, Linda in “First Contact” (1990) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 224 (in Chapter 7) of the NAL Books hardback edition, at pages 280-281 of the Headline paperback edition.

1

1990

Blum, Howard in his “Out There“ (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 84-98 (in Chapters 10, 11 and 12) of the Simon & Schuster hardback edition, pages 81-98 of the Pocket Star paperback edition.

15

1979

Boyce, Chris in his Extraterrestrial Encounter (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 81 (in Chapter 6) of the David & Charles hardback edition, at pages 72-73 of the 1980 revised NEL paperback edition.

1

1974

Bracewell, Ronald in his “The Galactic Club” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 59, 60, 66-67 (in Chapter 7) of the Heinemann softcover edition.

4

1990

Bracewell, Ronald N in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 141-142, 144 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Ronald N Bracewell”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

3

1999

Clark, Andrew J H and Clark, David H in their “Aliens“ (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 27, 31-32 (in Chapter 1), 62 (in Chapter 2) of the Fromm hardback edition.

4

2000

Clark, Stuart in his “Life on Other Worlds and How to Find It” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 133-134 (in Chapter 10) of the Springer hardback edition.

2

1990

Cocconi, Giuseppe in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 51 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Giuseppe Cocconi”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

1

2000

Darling, David in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 79 (in the entry entitled “Cocconi, Giuseppe (1914- )”), 284-285 (in the entry entitled “Morrison, Philip (1915- )”), 285 (in the entry entitled “Morrison, Philip (1915- )”) of the Three Rivers softcover edition.

4

2003

Darling, David in his online encyclopedia, “The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Spaceflight” (2003) in the entry entitled “Morrison-Cocconi Conjecture”. The relevant entry is available online at: “http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/MCconj.html

1

1999

Davidson, Keay in his “Carl Sagan: A Life” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 124 (in Chapter 5) of the Wiley softcover edition.

1

1995

Davies, Paul in his “Are we Alone?“ (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 10-11 (in Chapter 1) of the Penguin paperback edition.

2

1998

Dick, Steven J in his “Life on Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 201, 203-204, 212 (in Chapter 7) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

4

1996

Dick, Steven J in his “The Biological Universe” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 414-418, 432 (in Chapter 8) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

6

1991

Drake, Frank and Sobel, Dava in their “Is Anyone Out There?“ (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 31-32 (in Chapter 2), 46 (in Chapter 3), 201-202 (in Chapter 9) of the Pocket Books paperback edition.

2

1990

Drake, Frank D in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 62, 67-68, 77-78 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Frank D Drake”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

5

1990

Dyson, Freeman in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 322 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Freeman Dyson”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

1

1979

Dyson, Freeman in his “Disturbing the Universe” (1979) at pages 206-207 (in Chapter 19) of the Harper & Row hardback edition.

2

1963

Dyson, Freeman J in “Interstellar Communication : A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions” (1963) (edited by A G W Cameron) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 111 (in Chapter 11) of the W A Benjamin hardback edition. The relevant chapter is a reprint of F J Dyson “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation”, Science, Volume 131 (1960.0603), pages 1667-1668.

1

1978

Edelson, Edward in his “Who Goes There?” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 105-107, 111 (in Chapter 9) of the NEL paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the NEL paperback edition combining this book and Chris Boyce’s “Extraterrestrial Encounter).

4

1975

Fairley, Peter in his “Is there Life in Outer Space?” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 50-51 (in Chapter 4) of the Look-In softcover edition.

2

1980

Goldsmith, Donald and Owen, Tobias in their “The Search for Life in the Universe” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 390 (in Chapter 20) of the Benjamin Cummings softcover edition, at page 458 (in Chapter 19) of the 1992 Addison Wesley softcover revised second edition.

1

2001

Goodwin, Simon with John Gribbin in their “XTL” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 160 (in Chapter 5) of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson softcover edition.

1

1990

Guthke, Karl S in his “The Last Frontier : Imagining Other Worlds From the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction: Imagining Other Worlds From the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 6 (in Chapter 1.1) of the Cornell University softcover edition.

1

1997

Halpern, Paul in his “The Quest For Alien Planets” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 243, 244 (in Chapter 8) of the Plenum Trade hardback edition.

2

1995

Heidmann, Jean in his “Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages xvi (in the Preface), 112 (in Chapter 6) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

2

1995

Heidmann, Jean in his “Life in the Universe" (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 27-28 (in Chapter 1), 74 (in Chapter 7) of the Cambridge softcover edition.

3

1999

Hennessey, Roger in his “Worlds Without End : The Historic Search for Extraterrestrial Life” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 110-111 (in Chapter 11) of the Tempus hardback edition.

2

1987

Hoagland, Richard in his “The Monuments of Mars” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 221 (in Chapter 13) of the 1992 revised North Atlantic softcover edition.

1

1994

Horowitz, Paul in “Alien Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T.” (1994) (edited by Andrea Pritchard et al.) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 417-418 (in Chapter 5, unnumbered sub-chapter entitled “Radio Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence”) of the North Cambridge Press hardback edition.

2

1990

Horowitz, Paul in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 407 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Paul Horowitz”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

1

1984

Hyams, Ron in “UFOs: Where Do They Come From?” (1984) (edited by Peter Brookesmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 82 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Is there anybody out there?”) of the Black Cat hardback edition. The relevant chapter is an article reprinted from the weekly partwork “The Unexplained” , Volume 1, page 248.

1

1984

Hyams, Ron in “UFOs: Where Do They Come From?” (1984) (edited by Peter Brookesmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 78 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Reach for the stars”) of the Black Cat hardback edition. The relevant chapter is an article reprinted from the weekly partwork “The Unexplained” , Volume 1, page 224.

1

1998

Jakosky, Bruce in his “The Search for Life on Other Planets” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 286-287 (in Chapter 17) of the Cambridge University softcover edition.

2

1990

Kardashev, Nikolai S in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 182, 183 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Nikolai S Kardashev”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

2

2000

Koerner, David & LeVay, Simon in their “Here Be Dragons” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 161 (in Chapter 7) of the Oxford softcover edition.

1

2001

Lamb, David in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence : A Philosophical Inquiry” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 16 (in Chapter 1) of the Routledge softcover edition.

1

1976

Landsburg, Alan in his “In Search of Extraterrestrials” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 93-94 (in Chapter 7) of the Corgi paperback edition.

2

1998

Lemonick, Michael in his “Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 51-53 (in Chapter 2) of the Simon & Schuster hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Simon & Schuster softcover edition).

3

2001

McConnell, Brian in his “Beyond Contact : A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 11 (in Chapter 2), 75 (in Chapter 6), 187 (in Chapter 11), 387 (in Appendix C, entitled “SETI Program Timeline”) of the O’Reilly hardback edition.

4

1987

McDonough, Thomas R in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - Listening for Life in the Cosmos” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8 (in Chapter 1), 46 (in Chapter 3), 105-110 (in Chapter 7) of the Wiley softcover edition.

8

 

Morrison, Philip in an article entitled “Twenty years after …” in Cosmic Search Magazine, Volume 1, number 1 – available online at: http://www.bigear.org/vol1no1/twenty.htm

1

1990

Morrison, Philip in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 22-26, 35-36, 42, 44, 45-46 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Philip Morrison”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

11

1988

Nicolson, Iain in his “The Road to the Stars” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 195 (in Chapter 11) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition.

1

1976

O’ Neill, Gerard in his “The High Frontier” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 188 (in Chapter 9) of the revised Corgi paperback edition.

1

1971

Oliver, Bernard and Billingham, John et al in “Project Cyclops : A Design Study of a System for Detecting Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life : NASA Contractor Report 114445 (“NASA CR 114445”)” (1971) (edited by Oliver, Bernard and Billingham, John) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 4 (in Chapter 2) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration softcover edition.

1

1999

Papagiannis, Michael in “Are We Alone in the Cosmos” (1999) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 206 (in Chapter 5) of the ibooks softcover edition.

1

1990

Papagiannis, Michael in “First Contact” (1990) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 182 (in Chapter 5) of the NAL Books hardback edition, at page 232 of the Headline paperback edition.

1

1994

Papgiannis, Michael in “Alien Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T.” (1994) (edited by Andrea Pritchard et al.) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 411 (in Chapter 5, unnumbered sub-chapter entitled “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence And The Possibility of its Presence On Earth”) of the North Cambridge Press hardback edition.

1

1999

Poundstone, William in his “Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 50 (in the chapter entitled “Berkeley 1960-1963”) of the Owl Books softcover edition.

1

1997

Randles, Jenny in her “Alien Contact – The First Fifty Years” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 41 (in the chapter entitled “1960”) of the Collins and Brown hardback edition.

1

1985

Regis, Edward in “Extraterrestrials: Science and alien intelligence” (1985) (edited by Edward Regis) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 231 (in Part 6) of the Cambridge University Press softcover edition.

1

1983

Ridpath, Ian in his “Life Off Earth” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 105 (in Chapter 9) of the Granada hardback edition.

1

1978

Ridpath, Ian in his “Messages from the Stars” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 24 (in Chapter 1), 114 (in Chapter 7) of the Fontana paperback edition.

2

1975

Ridpath, Ian in his “Worlds Beyond” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 123-124 (in Chapter 7) of the Wildwood House softcover edition.

2

1980

Rood, Robert and Trefil, James in their “Are We Alone?“ (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 2-3 (in Chapter 1) of the Scribners hardback edition.

2

1973

Roulet, Alfred in his “The Search for Intelligent Life in Outer Space” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 29-32 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Hello, Out There”) of the Berkley paperback edition.

4

1990

Sagan, Carl in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 223 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Carl Sagan”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

1

1963

Shkloskiy, Iosif S in “Interstellar Communication : A Collection of Reprints and Original Contributions” (1963) (edited by A G W Cameron) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 12, 16 (in Chapter 1) of the W A Benjamin hardback edition. The relevant chapter is a translation of “Is Communication Possible with Intelligent Beings on Other Planets”, Priroda, Number 7, 21 (1960).

2

1990

Shklovskii, Iosef S in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 172 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Iosef S Shklovskii”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

1

1966

Shklovskii, Iosef Shmuelovich and Sagan, Carl in their “Intelligent Life in the Universe” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 380, 388, 391 (in Chapter 27) of the Picador softcover edition.

3

1991

Shklovskii, Iosif in his “Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 250 (in Chapter 24) of the Norton hardback edition.

1

1998

Shostak, Seth in his “Sharing the Universe” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 151-152 (in Chapter 7), 158 (in Chapter 8) of the Berkeley Hills softcover edition.

2

1964

Sullivan, Walter in his “We Are Not Alone” (1964) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 178, 180, 189-196 (in Chapter 13) of the Signet paperback revised editions.

10

1990

Swift, David W in his “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8, 10 (in the Introduction), 19 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Philip Morrison”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

3

1990

Tarter, Jill Cornell in an interview in David W Swift’s “SETI Pioneers : Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 357, 365-366 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Jill Cornell Tarter”) of the Arizona hardback edition.

3

1985

Tarter, Jill in “Extraterrestrials: Science and alien intelligence” (1985) (edited by Edward Regis) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 173 (in Part 5) of the Cambridge University Press softcover edition.

1

2002

Webb, Stephen in his “Where is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 95-98 (in Chapter 4) of the Copernicus hardback edition.

4

1990

White, Frank in his “The SETI Factor” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 4 (in Chapter 1), 50-52 (in Chapter 5) of the Walker hardback edition.

4

1998

White, Michael in his “Life Out There” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 91, 93 (in Chapter 5) of the Little, Brown & Co hardback edition.

2

1997

Wilkinson, David in his “Alone in the Universe?” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 67 (in Chapter 4) of the Monarch softcover edition.

1

1999

Zubrin, Robert in his “Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 258-259 (in Chapter 11) of the Tarcher Putnam hardback edition.

2

 

Other Material

Cocconi, G, and Morrison, P "Searching for Interstellar Communication," Nature, Volume 184 Number 4690, pages 844-846 (September 19, 1959).

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