Abstract
This article introduces the issue of extraterrestrial life to the study of disasters, their prevention and their management. Up until now, major journals in the field of risk and disaster research have ignored the potential threats posed by the existence of extraterrestrial life. With increasing scientific support for the existence of planets able to support life, and the rapid development of scientific disciplines such as astrobiology, the article argues that limiting the scope of disaster research to terrestrial matters is increasingly intellectually untenable. In order to rectify this situation, and begin a debate within the field, the article develops five theoretical scenarios concerning the likelihood of, and the threats posed by, extraterrestrial life forms. Doing so highlights possible new themes in disaster and risk management research. It is thus hoped that subsequent researchers may close the gap between scholarly discourse about risk management, and the scientific findings of disciplines such as astrobiology.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Three notable exceptions to this have been US Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton; and former Canadian Defence Minister, Paul Hellyer. On several occasions, Ronald Reagan observed that Earth’s political conflicts would soon be overcome if its populations were faced with an extraterrestrial threat (Sala, 2009). On 3 May 2013, senior Canadian politician, Paul Hellyer, made a formal statement to the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure, in Washington DC, claiming that at least four species of aliens have been visiting earth for thousands of years. He further stated that ‘aliens are living among us and that it is likely at least two of them are working with the US government’ (Removing the Shackles, 2013). Both Reagan and Hellyer experienced widespread ridicule in the media. There was also the case of the discovery of an atypical meteorite, 84001 in Allan Hills, Antarctica in 1984. Scientific research on the object appeared to find traces of extraterrestrial microorganisms within the rock. These findings stirred up major media and public interest, and on 7 August 1996, President Bill Clinton made a formal statement on the matter, including the following passage (NASA, 1996):
Today, rock 84001 speaks to us across all those billions of years and millions of miles. It speaks of the possibility of life. If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined. Even as it promises answers to some of our oldest questions, it poses still others even more fundamental. We will continue to listen closely to what it has to say as we continue the search for answers and for knowledge that is as old as humanity itself but essential to our people‘s future.
Subsequent research on the rock has indicated non-microbiological origins of the structures. Bill Clinton has not publicly commented on this matter since.
Some journals do now publish realist social/political research and commentary concerning space issues. The Elsevier Journal, Acta Astronautica, examines issues to do with space travel and exploration, and has published articles on SETI, some of which are cited in this article (for example, Almár, 2011). Another scholarly publishing outlet is the Taylor and Francis journal, Astropolitics: The International Journal of Space Politics and Policy, which concentrates on human-centric issues to do with space, property rights and jurisdiction. Likewise, Elsevier’s journal Space Policy explores such issues, including some articles about SETI (Atri et al, 2011). The International Journal of Astrobiology, published by Cambridge University Press, has published realist articles on ETI (see Shostak, 2013). Outside mainstream academic publishers, there is the Exopolitics Journal, which approaches the issues of extraterrestrial life from a thoroughly realist standpoint. In 2014, a further publication, the Journal of Astrosociology, is being launched.
References
Adie, W. et al (2005) Safety culture and accident risk control: Perceptions of professional divers and offshore workers. Safety Science 43 (2): 131–145.
Agassi, J. (2007) What collapse, exactly? Philosophy of the Social Sciences 37 (1): 74–84.
Alexander, D. (1997) The study of natural disasters, 1977–97: Some reflections on a changing field of knowledge. Disasters 21 (4): 284–304.
Almár, I. (1995) The consequences of a discovery: Different scenarios. In: S. Shostak (ed.) Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life. Vol. 74, San Francisco, California, USA: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, pp. 499–505.
Almár, I. (2011) SETI and astrobiology: The Rio scale and the London scale. Acta Astronautica 69 (9): 899–904.
Almár, I. and Race, M.S. (2011) Discovery of extra-terrestrial life: Assessment by scales of its importance and associated risks. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369 (1936): 679–692.
Archer, M.S. (1995) Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Atkinson, N. (2013) 22% of sun-like stars have earth-sized planets in the habitable zone, Universe Today, http://www.universetoday.com/106121/22-of-sun-like-stars-have-earth-sized-planets-in-the-habitable-zone/#ixzz2lN7bgedZ.
Atri, D., DeMarines, J. and Haqq-Misra, J. (2011) A protocol for messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence. Space Policy 27 (3): 165–169.
Austin, P. (2010) Man, the State, and aliens: An investigation of unifying threats in structural realism. Unpublished Senior Thesis, Claremont McKenna College: Claremont, CA, http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/keck/research/AustinThesis2010[1].pdf.
Bainbridge, W.S. (2011) Cultural beliefs about extraterrestrials: A questionnaire study. In: D.A. Vakoch and A.A. Harrison (eds.) Civilizations Beyond Earth: Extraterrestrial Life and Society. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 118–140.
Bankoff, G. (2001) Rendering the world unsafe: ‘Vulnerability’ as Western discourse. Disasters 25 (1): 19–35.
Barbeito, P.F. (2005) ‘He’s making me feel things in my body that I don’t feel’: The body as battleground in accounts of alien abduction. The Journal of American Culture 28 (2): 201–215.
Barrow, J. and Tipler, F.J. (1986) The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. New York: Oxford University.
Baum, S.D., Haqq-Misra, J.D. and Domagal-Goldman, S.D. (2011) Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity? A scenario analysis. Acta Astronautica 68 (11): 2114–2129.
Baxter, S. and Elliott, J. (2012) A SETI metapolicy: New directions towards comprehensive policies concerning the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence. Acta Astronautica 78: 31–36.
Beard, J. (1998) Science fiction films of the eighties: Fin de Siècle before its time. The Journal of Popular Culture 32 (1): 1–13.
Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. (1991) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. (No. 10). London: Penguin.
Bhaskar, R. (2008) A Realist Theory of Science. Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis.
Bhattacharya, A.B., Sarkar, A. and Pandit, J. (2011) Some computations on the Drake equation to encapsulate the probable number of broadcasting civilizations. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, Dindigul 2 (2): 590–594.
Biba, E. (2012) Viruses from outer space: How will scientists protect the planet from extraterrestrial diseases? Take Part, http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/07/25/virus-outer-space-how-will-scientists-protect-planet-extraterrestrial-diseases.
Bick, I.J. (1989) Aliens among us: A representation of children in science fiction. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 37 (3): 737–759.
Billingham, J. and Benford, J. (2011) Costs and difficulties of large-scale ‘messaging’, and the need for international debate on potential risks. arXiv:1102.1938.
Billingham, J., Heyns, R., Milne, D. and Shostak, S. (1999) Social Implications of the Detection of an Extraterrestrial Civilization. Mountain View, CA: SETI Press.
Billings, L. (2012) Astrobiology in culture: The search for extraterrestrial life as ‘science’. Astrobiology 12 (10): 966–975.
Bostrom, N. (2013) Existential risk prevention as global priority. Global Policy 4 (1): 15–31.
Capova, K.A. (2013) The detection of extraterrestrial life: Are we ready? In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Astrobiology, History, and Society. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 271–281.
Chaisson, E.J. (2003) A unifying concept for astrobiology. International Journal of Astrobiology 2 (2): 91–101.
Cirkovic, M.M. (2004) The temporal aspect of the Drake equation and SETI. Astrobiology 4 (2): 225–231.
Clavin, W. and Harrington, J.D. (2013) Planck mission brings universe into sharp focus. Jet Propulsion Laboratory: California Institute of Technology, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-109&rn=news.xml&rst=3739.
Cocconi, G. and Morrison, P. (1959) Searching for interstellar communications. Nature 184 (4690): 844–846.
Comfort, L.K. (2005) Risk, security, and disaster management. Annual Review of Political Science 8: 335–356.
Crichton, M. (2003) Aliens cause global warming. Cal Tech Michelin Lecture, 17 January.
Crowe, M.J. and Dowd, M.F. (2013) The extraterrestrial life debate from antiquity to 1900. In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Astrobiology, History, and Society. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 3–56.
Cukrov, C. (2010) Is space spam sending the wrong message? PSFK, http://www.psfk.com/2010/01/is-space-spam-sending-the-wrong-message.html.
Dagnall, N., Drinkwater, K. and Parker, A. (2011) Alien visitation, extra-terrestrial life, and paranormal beliefs. Journal of Scientific Exploration 25 (4): 699.
Davies, P.C.W. (2003) Does life’s rapid appearance imply a Martian origin? Astrobiology 3 (4): 673–679.
Davis, W. (2000) Heaven’s gate: A study of religious obedience. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 3 (2): 241–267.
Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (1989) SETI League Policy Manual, http://www.setileague.org/general/protocol.htm, accessed 23 February 2014.
De la Torre, G.G. (2014) Toward a new cosmic consciousness: Psychoeducational aspects of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Acta Astronautica 94 (2): 577–583.
de Vladar, H.P. (2013) The game of active search for extra-terrestrial intelligence: Breaking the ‘great silence’. International Journal of Astrobiology 12 (1): 53–62.
De Wit, J. and Seager, S. (2013) Constraining exoplanet mass from transmission spectroscopy. Science 342 (6165): 1473–1477.
Dick, S. (1995) Consequences of success in SETI: Lessons from the history of science. In: S. Shostak (ed.) Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life. Vol. 74, Bioastronomy Symposium; 16–20 August 1993, San Francisco, CA: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, p. 521.
Dick, S.J. (1984) Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Dominik, M. and Zarnecki, J.C. (2011) The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369 (1936): 499–507.
Ellis, G.F. and Brundrit, G.B. (1979) Life in the infinite universe. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 20: 37–41.
Finney, B., Lytkin, V. and Finney, L. (2000) Tsiolkovsky and extraterrestrial intelligence. Acta Astronautica 46 (10): 745–749.
Gardner, J. (2007) The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos. New Jersey: New Page Books.
Goldberg, C. (2000) The general’s abduction by aliens from a UFO: Levels of meaning of alien abduction reports. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 30 (3): 307–320.
Gross, M. (2012) The search for life on earth and other planets. Current Biology 22 (7): R207–R211.
Grossman, L. (2013) Drake equation gets a reboot based on planet hunter’s bounty. New Scientist 218 (2918): 6–7.
Halley, J.W. (ed.) (2012) Colonization and panspermia. In: How Likely is Extraterrestrial Life? Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 67–79.
Haqq-Misra, J., Busch, M.W., Som, S.M. and Baum, S.D. (2013) The benefits and harm of transmitting into space. Space Policy 29 (1): 40–48.
Harrison, A.A. (2002) After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life. New York: Basic Books.
Harrison, A.A. (2005) Overcoming the image of little green men: astrosociology and SETI. Astrosociology.com, http://www.astrosociology.com/library/pdf/submissions/overcoming%20lgm_harrison.pdf.
Harrison, A.A. (2011) Fear, pandemonium, equanimity and delight: Human responses to extra-terrestrial life. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369 (1936): 656–668.
Harrison, A.A. (2014) Cosmic evolution, reciprocity, and interstellar tit for tat. In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Extraterrestrial Altruism. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 3–22.
Harrison, A.A. and Dick, S.J. (2000) Contact: Long-term implications for humanity. In: A. Tough (ed.) When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact. Bellevue, Washington DC: Foundation for the Future, Section II, pp. 7–31.
Harrison, A.A. and Elms, A.C. (1990) Psychology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Behavioral Science 35 (3): 207–218.
Hart, M.H. (1975) Explanation for the absence of extraterrestrials on earth. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 16: 128–135.
Hawking, S. (2010) Transcript for Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe, http://dotsub.com/view/b27cafe0-10b1-4160-8f56-59f630033228/viewTranscript/eng, accessed 23 February 2014.
Hickman, L. (2010) Stephen Hawking takes a hard line on aliens, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/26/stephen-hawking-issues-warning-on-aliens.
Huang, S.S. (1959) Occurrence of life in the universe. American Scientist 47 (3): 397–402.
Impey, C., Lunine, J. and Funes, J. (eds.) (2012) Frontiers of Astrobiology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Irwin, L.N. and Schulze-Makuch, D. (eds.) (2011) Biocomplexity in the Cosmos. In: Cosmic Biology. New York: Springer, pp. 273–294.
Jones, M. (2013) Mainstream media and social media reactions to the discovery of extraterrestrial life. In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Astrobiology, History and Society. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 313–328.
Joseph, R. and Schild, R. (2010) Biological cosmology and the origins of life in the universe. Journal of Cosmology 5: 1040–1090.
Jung, C.G. (1981) The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious. Vol. 9. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kaiser, R.I., Stockton, A.M., Kim, Y.S., Jensen, E.C. and Mathies, R.A. (2013) On the formation of dipeptides in interstellar model ices. The Astrophysical Journal 765 (2): 111.
Karon, B.P. (1996) On being abducted by aliens. Psychoanalytic Psychology 13 (3): 417.
Kasting, J.F., Whitmire, D.P. and Reynolds, R.T. (1993) Habitable zones around main sequence stars. Icarus 101 (1): 108–128.
Kaveney, R. (2005) From Alien to The Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film. London: IB Tauris.
Kelley-Romano, S. (2006) The modern mythmaking of alien abductions. Communication Quarterly 54 (3): 383–406.
Khan, A. (2010) Scientists weigh in on Hawking’s alien warning, Los Angeles Times, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/07/science/la-sci-hawking-aliens-20100508.
Korbitz, A. (2014) The precautionary principle: Egoism, altruism, and the active SETI debate. In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Extraterrestrial Altruism. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 111–127.
Kuhn, T.S. (2012) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Leake, J. (2010) Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking. The Sunday Times, p. 25, http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Science/article272392.ece.
Lemarchand, G.A. (2000) Detectability of intelligent life in the Universe: A search based in our knowledge of the laws of nature. In: J. Chela-Flores, G.A. Lemarchand, and J. Oró (eds.) Astrobiology: Origins from the Big-Bang to Civilisation Proceedings of the Iberoamerican School of Astrobiology Caracas, Venezuela, 28 November–8 December 1999. New York: Springer. pp. 13–32.
Lettieri, E., Masella, C. and Radaelli, G. (2009) Disaster management: Findings from a systematic review. Disaster Prevention and Management 18 (2): 117–136.
Lineweaver, C.H., Fenner, Y. and Gibson, B.K. (2004) The galactic habitable zone and the age distribution of complex life in the milky way. Science 303 (5654): 59–62.
Lubick, N. (2012) Alien encounters. Nature 484 (7394): 405–406.
Luokkala, B.B. (ed.) (2014) What lies ahead? In: Exploring Science Through Science Fiction. New York: Springer, pp. 177–200.
Maccone, C. (2011) SETI and SEH (statistical equation for habitables). Acta Astronautica 68 (1): 63–75.
Manyena, S.B. (2006) The concept of resilience revisited. Disasters 30 (4): 434–450.
McGettigan, T. (2013) On the wings of a fantasy. Contexts 12 (2): 55–57.
Moorbath, S. (2005) Palaeobiology: Dating earliest life. Nature 434 (7030): 155–155.
Morrow, B.H. (1999) Identifying and mapping community vulnerability. Disasters 23 (1): 1–18.
Musso, P. (2012) The problem of active SETI: An overview. Acta Astronautica 78: 43–54.
NASA Exoplanet Archive (2014) http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/ExoTables/nph-exotbls?dataset=planets, accessed 10 April 2014.
NASA (1996) President Clinton Statement Regarding Mars Meteorite Discovery, http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/clinton.html, accessed 20 March 2014.
Nield, T. (2007) Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Offit, P.A. and Coffin, S.E. (2003) Communicating science to the public: MMR vaccine and autism. Vaccine 22 (1): 1–6.
Paglen, T. (2013) Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Or, why talk to aliens even if we can’t. Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context, and Enquiry 32 (1): 8–19.
Patomaki, H. (2006) Realist ontology for futures studies. Journal of Critical Realism 5 (1): 1–31.
Paton, D. and Johnston, D. (2001) Disasters and communities: Vulnerability, resilience and preparedness. Disaster Prevention and Management 10 (4): 270–277.
Perry, R.W. and Lindell, M.K. (2003) Preparedness for emergency response: Guidelines for the emergency planning process. Disasters 27 (4): 336–350.
Peters, T. (2013) Would the discovery of ETI provoke a religious crisis? In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Astrobiology, History, and Society. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 341–355.
Petigura, E.A., Howard, A.W. and Marcy, G.W. (2013) Prevalence of Earth-Size Planets Orbiting Sun-Like Stars. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (48): 19273–19278.
Petigura, E.A. and Marcy, G.W. (2011) Carbon and oxygen in nearby stars: Keys to protoplanetary disk chemistry. The Astrophysical Journal 735 (1): 41.
Pinotti, R. (1990) Contact: Releasing the news. Acta Astronautica 21 (2): 109–115.
Prantzos, N. (2013) A joint analysis of the Drake equation and the fermi paradox. International Journal of Astrobiology 12 (03): 246–253.
Reijnen, G.C.M. (1990) Basic elements of an international terrestrial reply following the detection of a signal from extraterrestrial intelligence. Acta Astronautica 21 (2): 143–148.
Removing the Shackles (2013) Transcription of Paul Hellyer testimony: People’s Disclosure, http://removingtheshackles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/transcription-of-paul-hellyer-testimony.html, accessed 20 March 2014.
Rose, A. (2004) Defining and measuring economic resilience to disasters. Disaster Prevention and Management 13 (4): 307–314.
Roy, K.I., Kennedy, III R.G. and Fields, D.E. (2012) Shell worlds. Acta Astronautica 82 (2): 238–245.
Ruppersburg, H. (1987) The alien messiah in recent science fiction films. Journal of Popular Film and Television 14 (4): 158–166.
Sagan, C. and Drake, F. (1975) The search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Scientific American 232: 80–89.
Sala, M. (2009) Reagan’s extraterrestrial fixation – Will records reveal UFO briefing? Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/article/reagan-s-extraterrestrial-fixation-will-records-reveal-ufo-briefing.
Sandywell, B. (2006) Monsters in cyberspace, cyberphobia and cultural panic in the information age. Information, Community and Society 9 (1): 39–61.
Schenkel, P. (2006) SETI requires a skeptical reappraisal. Skeptical Inquirer 30 (3): 26.
Schipper, L. and Pelling, M. (2006) Disaster risk, climate change and international development: Scope for, and challenges to, integration. Disasters 30 (1): 19–38.
Seager, S. (2013) Exoplanet habitability. Science 340 (6132): 577–581.
Sharov, A.A. (2010) Genetic gradualism and the extraterrestrial origin of life. Journal of Cosmology 5: 833–842.
Shklovskii, I.S. and Sagan, C. (1966) Intelligent Life in the Universe. San Francisco, CA: Holden-Day.
Shostak, S. (2010) Talk to the aliens. New Scientist 207 (2767): 26–27.
Shostak, S. (2013) Are transmissions to space dangerous? International Journal of Astrobiology 1 (1): 1–4.
Slater, T.F. (2006) Capturing student interest in astrobiology through dilemmas and paradoxes. Journal of College Science Teaching 35 (6): 42–45.
Stableford, B. (1998) Science fiction in the seventies. Vector: The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association 200: 21–4.
Stupple, D. and Dashti, A. (1977) Flying saucers and multiple realities: A case study in phenomenological theory. The Journal of Popular Culture 11 (2): 479–493.
Tarter, J. (2001) The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 39 (1): 511–548.
Tarter, J.C. (2013) Who will speak for Earth and should they? In: C. Impey, A.H. Spitz and W. Stoeger (eds.) Encountering Life in the Universe: Ethical Foundations and Social Implications of Astrobiology. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, pp. 178–199.
Tipler, F.J. (1981) A brief history of the extraterrestrial intelligence concept. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 22: 133–145.
Tough, A. (2000) When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-information Contact. Bellevue, Washington DC: Foundation for the Future.
Trushell, J.M. (2004) American dreams of mutants: The X-Men – ‘Pulp’ fiction, science fiction, and superheroes. The Journal of Popular Culture 38 (1): 149–168.
Uitto, J.I. (1998) The geography of disaster vulnerability in megacities: A theoretical framework. Applied Geography 18 (1): 7–16.
Vakoch, D.A. (2013) Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Vakoch, D.A. and Lee, Y.S. (2000) Reactions to receipt of a message from extraterrestrial intelligence: A cross-cultural empirical study. Acta Astronautica 46 (10): 737–744.
Von Daniken, E. (1970) Chariots of the Gods. London: Penguin.
Von Daniken, E. (1973) The Gold of the Gods. London, UK: Souvenir Press.
Walton, M. (2013) The dark side of transformational leadership: A critical perspective. Industrial and Commercial Training 45 (6): 369–370.
Waltz, K.N. (2000) Structural realism after the cold war. International Security 25 (1): 5–41.
Weichselgartner, J. (2001) Disaster mitigation: The concept of vulnerability revisited. Disaster Prevention and Management 10 (2): 85–95.
Weigel, M.M. and Coe, K. (2013) Impact of extraterrestrial life discovery for third world societies: Anthropological and public health considerations. In: D.A. Vakoch (ed.) Astrobiology, History, and Society. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 283–299.
Welham, R. (2010) Scientists warn about attempting to contact aliens, English News. CN, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-04/26/c_13267950.htm.
Wesson, P.S. (2010) Panspermia, past and present: Astrophysical and biophysical conditions for the dissemination of life in space. Space Science Reviews 156 (1–4): 239–252.
Whitehouse, D. (2007) Meet the neighbours: Is the search for aliens such a good idea? The Independent, p. 25.
Wickramasinghe, N.C. and Wickramasinghe, J.T. (2008) On the possibility of microbiota transfer from Venus to Earth. Astrophysics and Space Science 317 (1–2): 133–137.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Neal, M. Preparing for extraterrestrial contact. Risk Manag 16, 63–87 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/rm.2014.4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/rm.2014.4