Book Description
By the author, Cliff Pickover

If extraterrestrials ever landed on Earth, they would find us extremely strange. Their first intimation of our existence might well be a presidential speech or the Olympic Games, a mud wrestling match or perhaps a T.V. show like Ally McBeal or 3rd Rock From the Sun. But, of course, they might seem equally strange to us. How strange? Their senses could be entirely different from ours-they might see in the infrared or "hear" radio waves-and they might look completely different from us.

What would aliens look like? An intelligent octopus-like creature is certainly plausible. What about odd numbers of limbs-a three-legged alien with three arms and three eyes? What about an entire planet of immobile, silicon-based "trees" that communicate with each other via electrical signals? The Science of Aliens gets weirder still. Could a giant interstellar cloud be "alive" and intelligent? Could creatures live at extremely high pressures and temperatures?

And which of these many possibilities would be similar enough to us that they could communicate with them, or they with us? Would they have any interest in abducting us? Would they want to have sex with us?

Here is scientifically-based speculation at the far edge of knowledge-and beyond.

Clifford A. Pickover, Ph.D., is on the research staff of the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He is a regular columnist for Discover Magazine and an Associate Editor for Computers and Graphics, Computers in Physics, Odyssey, and Theta. Previous books include Strange Brains and Genius, Keys to Infinity, Computers and the Imagination, Time: A Traveler's Guide, Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide, and The Alien IQ Test. Dr. Pickover lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.

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