The Year's Best Science Fiction 10

And of course, science sometimes does “catch up with science fiction.” All of a sudden, everybody’s racing into space, and nobody’s writing about it: at least not science fiction. (Don’t hardly get much sci-fi about helicopters or television any more, either.) But—

“The universe that lies about us, visible only in the privacy, the intimacy of night, is incomprehensibly vast. Yet the conclusion that life exists across this vastness seems inescapable. We cannot yet be sure whether or not it lies within reach, but in any case, we are a part of it all; we are not alone!”

So ends the all-time best nonfiction SF-adventure book, We Are Not Alone, by Walter Sullivan, science editor of The New York Times.

Here’s how it begins: “In November, 1961, the most august scientific body in the United States convened a meeting at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. While it was not held in secret, in the official sense, every effort was made to avoid publicity because of the sensational nature of the question to be discussed.

“The subject was ‘intelligent Extraterrestrial Life.’ Yet this was no gathering of wild-eyed dreamers. The convener was the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. The host was one of the world’s most distinguished astronomers, and several others among the eleven men present were internationally recognized leaders in their highly diverse fields.

“The subjects in which the conferees were expert all bore, in some way, on the problem of whether there is intelligent life elsewhere than on earth and, if so, how to communicate with such beings. The participants shared a strong feeling that such civilizations exist. ...”