From: Dr. H. Paul Shuch (n6tx_at_setileague.org)
Date: Sat Jan 08 2005 - 12:12:39 PST
LARRY KLAES posted:
> Enrico Fermi, an atomic scientist back in the 1940s once posed a question to a
>group of like scientists when the discussion turned to extraterrestrial life.
>"So where is everybody?"
Actually, that was in the early 1950s, at Los Alamos. I heard the
story second-hand from Edward Teller, who was at that lunch. According
to Dr. Teller, Dr. Fermi's exact words (without preamble or explanation)
were simply, "Where are they?"
The circumstances surrounding the Fermi Paradox are detailed in one of
my columns: <http://www.setileague.org/askdr/hungary.htm>. There is,
however, an historical inaccuracy in my account. I was informed by one
of Szilard's graduate students that he was not in fact at Los Alamos at
the time, so he could not have uttered the quote attributed to him by
McPhee. So, the comment about Hungarians, if actually made, must have
come from one of the several other Hungarian scientists who were there
at the time. (Teller? Wigner? Von Neumann? Sadly, none of them is
still here to ask.)
-- H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D. Executive Director, The SETI League, Inc. 433 Liberty Street, PO Box 555, Little Ferry NJ 07643 USA voice (201) 641-1770; fax (201) 641-1771; URL http://www.setileague.org email work: n6tx_at_setileague.org; home: drseti_at_cal.berkeley.edu "We Know We're Not Alone!"
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