Re: SETI public: Are we alone?: College offers course that seeks universal truth

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From: Dr. H. Paul Shuch (n6tx_at_setileague.org)
Date: Sat Jan 08 2005 - 16:49:28 PST

  • Next message: Dr. H. Paul Shuch: "Re: SETI public: Are we alone?: College offers course that seeks universal truth"

    William Edmondson wrote:

    > Hi Paul
    >
    > Stephen Webb's book has it that Fermi posed his question in 1950, and
    > that he was at Los Alamos that summer. The people at lunch with Fermi
    > were Teller, Herbert York, and Emil Konopinksi.
    >
    > But maybe that information is suspect too?

    Summer of 1950 is certainly plausible, as when I asked Teller about it,
    he remembered it as early 1950s. Los Alamos is certainly the correct
    venue. The names seem right, if incomplete (I believe there were others
    in the lunchroom at the time). My suspicion is that the response
    credited by McPhee to Szilard was probably actually spoken by Teller
    (McPhee didn't really know either, so could easily have been mistaken).
      I regret that I never asked Teller about it when he was alive -- I had
    plenty of opportunities, but it never crossed my mind until too late. 

    -- 
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!"
  • Next message: Dr. H. Paul Shuch: "Re: SETI public: Are we alone?: College offers course that seeks universal truth"
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