For Release Upon Receipt — May 3, 2000
Contact: Professor Nathan Cohen, 617-353-0940

(Boston, Mass.) — A series of presentations
and discussions on Sunday, May 7 will cap a weekend celebration
of four decades of science and technology focused on one of the
world’s most intriguing explorations, the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence, popularly known as SETI. The Sunday afternoon presentations
will begin at 2:15 p.m. at Boston University’s Morse Auditorium
and feature talks on the latest advances in SETI, the search for
new planets, and current and future activities in the exploration
of our own solar system.

The conference, "SETI Beyond Ozma", is part of a joint, two-day
celebration of the 40th anniversary of Dr. Frank Drake’s
effort, dubbed "Project Ozma," and of Drake’s 70th
birthday.

Since 1960, when Dr. Drake first used a radio telescope to look for
radio signals from possible "ET’s", researchers have conducted
elaborate observations with radio and optical telescopes to search out
cosmic neighbors. Professor Nathan Cohen, at Boston University’s Metropolitan
College, has been one of the leading scientists in defining the approaches
used.

Noting that “it’s a big universe and we’ve only sifted through a thimbleful
of stars,” Cohen states that SETI researchers eschew the UFO craze (“aliens
aren’t among us; there is no compelling evidence to support the Roswell
mania”) but feel that, in the next generation, the odds are high that
we will find a signal from a distant, cosmic civilization.

Public Event: Sunday, May 7

On Sunday at 2:15 the public is invited to a series of lectures and
panel discussions by the luminaries of the SETI and related fields.
Participants include: Frank Drake of the SETI Institute and University
of California; Philip Morrison from MIT; Dan Werthimer from the University
of California. Several other renowned scientists will also speak.

For more information, visit the SETI site at www.seti-inst.edu/general/fd70/index.htm
or contact Boston University Professor Nathan Cohen, Drake/Ozma Symposia
Chairman, at 617-353-0940.

Morse Auditorium is at 602 Commonwealth Avenue, Green "B"
Line to the Blandford Street stop.