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| Personal background |
I live in New Jersey, but I am a Texan by birth and inclination. I am an Advanced Practice Nurse specializing in burns and wound care. I have been a nurse since 1977. I am married (to a truly wonderful woman) and we have 3 children: a son, 18, a daughter, 16, and another daughter, just turned 14. I love to read (mostly science fiction), garden (vegetables - I grow some mean Habanero peppers), play with the PC, and sing. I am a long time follower of Star Trek (I wrote a letter to NBC to keep broadcasting it after the second year), and all the spin offs since (including Enterprise).
I fully support President Bush's call for a return to the Moon and manned exploration of Mars. The time of the Space Shuttle's passing is fast approaching. I look forward to more novel ways of getting into space (Arthur C. Clarke's space elevator comes to mind) and moving out into the Solar System. Sure, there's more to be discovered here on Earth, but the limitless expanse of space offers so much more! |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
With the universe being infinite, the odds that another star (or stars) has (have) habitable planets with life are pretty good. When will we discover them (or be discovered)? Tomorrow, 100 years from tomorrow, or sometime in between, who knows? When it happens, we might find ourselves as the peoples of the New World found themselves after the Spaniards followed Columbus. Or we night find ourselves confronting an enlightened people more interested in discovery and sharing than exploitation. First contact! Wow, it will be something. Will it be like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" or like "War of the Worlds?" Who knows? Therein lies the thrill of exploration and discovery. I'm betting it will be more like "Star Trek."
Should we transmit a beacon for others to find? Well, we already have. Broadcast radio started trasmitting signals that radiated out in a spherical direction travelling at the speed of light some 80 years ago. We can only wonder what ET will think when hearing Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny, the Shadow, Fibber McGee and Molly, and the other shows of radio's Golden Era, not to mention TV and I Love Lucy. We have already started the beacon and have sent much of what constitutes human culture.
I have run SETI@home for a few years, and even introduced it to my colleagues at work ( a university and a university hospital). Some of them derided me (and still do), others commiserated with me. I have followed SETI for many years as I am a long term member of the Planetary Society (I wear the lapel pin on my lab coat every day) and I am really pleased to be aiding it in my own small way. I look forward to the expansion of the project, to covering more of the sky. |
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