Robert P. Kirshner '70, Science A-35 "Matter in the Universe" guru and Astronomy department chair, seemed quite skeptical about the value of trying to make contact with aliens.

"Dolphins are highly intelligent forms of life," said Kirshner elliptically. "But they certainly don't use cellular phones."

Professor of Astronomy and the History of Science Owen J. Gingerich was even more doubtful. "Our chances of ever talking to extraterrestrial life are as good as ever talking to blue-green algae," Gingerich said.

And Margaret J. Geller, another Professor of Astronomy, joked that "the logistics of having a dialogue with someone thousands of light-years away is quite difficult."

Yet many scientists insisted that we owe it to ourselves to continue looking.

"Our planet hasn't even tried very hard," said Paul Horowitz, Professor of Physics, who has established a radio telescope in the hope of detecting extraterrestrial life. "We must, at least, give a good strong search."

"There are trillions and trillions of stars," Horowitz said. "The thought that there wouldn't be life on at least one of them is preposterous."

Chemistry 10 professor Dudley R. Herschbach was quite hopeful as well.

"Bacteria can survive in an enormous range of conditions and temperatures," Herschbach said. "I would be surprised if it takes more than two or three decades to find other forms of life in the universe."

For biologist Stephen Jay Gould, the mere possibility of a fruitful search rationalizes the effort.

"I must justify," Gould wrote in The Flamingo's Smile, "the attempt at such a long shot simply by stating that a positive result would be the most cataclysmic event in our entire intellectual history."

Not all scientists' comments, however, dealt with the intellectual effects extraterrestrial life.

In fact, some speculated about the dreadful horrors that could occur should we stumble across ex-tremely advanced forms of life.

According to Professor Kirshner, "if this is the case, we ought to keep our mouths shut because if they ever hear from us they might want to eat us."

And as Professor Gingerich stated, there is only one thing we could wish for once that happens: "We would have to hope that our amino acids would rotate and we would poison them."