The SETI Observer

Dear SETI Enthusiast,

Earth Day is an international celebration of life on our small and fragile planet – a day when we pay particular attention to the state of the environment shared by all terrestrial residents, and consider our role as the primary custodians of the planet’s health.

In many ways, every day is “Earth Day” at the SETI Institute. Searching for life beyond Earth inherently requires searching for “life as we understand it”. Thus, one aspect of our research involves a keen focus on Earth as a point of reference. We also find that the global thinking promoted by Earth Day organizers is inherent in the goals of the Institute.

Recognition that Earth is one locality in an enormous universe that may be ripe with biology is a powerful driver, unifying disparate fields under the umbrella of astrobiology. Whether the field is SETI and the researcher is Dr. Jill Tarter, or the field is humpback whale communication and the researcher is Dr. Laurance Doyle, SETI Institute scientists are concerned with – and for – their terrestrial home.

I invite you now to learn more about some of the remarkable people of the SETI Institute as you explore the links of the SETI Observer.

Thomas Pierson
CEO, SETI Institute

We’ve often said our scientists are world leaders, and this week, TIME magazine formally acknowledged Dr. Jill Tarter as such, naming her one of their Top 100 most influential and important people in the world at this time. Read the story http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/04/15/tarter/

This month, our feature is an ensemble rather than a solo. Hear what those who work with Jill Tarter have to say about their colleague in this special edition of Voices http://www.seti.org/about_us/voices/tarter_time_top_100.php

What is a Zipf plot?

1. A graph of shipping noise in Glacier Bay, Alaska.
2. A statistical tool that can be used to study non-human communication.
3. An international conspiracy.
4. A common method of identifying individual dolphin and whales.

In last month's Challenge, we asked you to choose the phrase that best completed this sentence:

The Allen Telescope Array

1. will be located in Chile.
2. is a joint project of the SETI Institute and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
3. begin construction of a 206-dish iteration of the full-up array this summer.
4. will begin conducting scientific research at a 32-dish configuration.

The correct answer was D.