"More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. In American Cosmic, D.W. Pasulka examines the mechanisms that foster a thriving belief in extraterrestrial life. Her work takes her from Silicon Valley to the Vatican Secret Archive and reveals how media has supplanted religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life"-- Provided by publisher.

In Cosmic Company, Seth Shostak and Alex Barnett ponder the possibility of aliens visiting the Earth, as well as the consequences of receiving a signal from the cosmos proving we're neither alone, nor the most intelligent life forms. They explain why scientists think life might exist on other worlds, and how we might contact it. Shostak and Barnett, experienced writers of popular astronomy, provide an accessible overveiw of the science and technology behind the search for life in the universe. Seth Shostak is a Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute where he is involved in many of the outreach activities of the Institute, including editing the newsletter, overseeing the Web site, giving talks and writing magazine articles about SETI. He also teaches several informal education classes on astronomy and other topics in the Bay Area. Before coming to SETI, Seth did research work on galaxies using radio telescopes at observatories and universities in America and Europe. Alex Barnett is Programme Director at the National Space Centre. She is well-known in the science centre, planetarium and media worlds, particularly for public and educational programmes involving space and astronomy. She presents BBC's Final Frontier a space and astronomy programme.