The best way to contact me is via email at astrowright@gmail.com
Pre-2017
Some press coverage of grant from the New Frontiers program funded by the John Templeton Foundation to hunt for advanced alien civilizations in mid-infrared data:
- An episode of Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon
- An episode of Stardate
- An article in New Scientist (free login required, or go here) and a followup post here.
- An article in The Atlantic online
- “Astronomers assume aliens are more open to solar power than Mitt Romney” (title not based on actual quote, obviously)
- An article at the Register
- An article at astronomy.com
- Steinn Sigurðsson’s blog has mentioned this project and has more links
- The Eberly College of Science Faculty/Staff weekly newsletter
- A mention in this Popular Mechanics article
- Our work is mentioned in passing in this Washington Post article about my thesis adviser, Geoff Marcy,
- An Aeon article (which isn’t entirely accurate)
- The project is mentioned in this issue of Astronomy Magazine (which is only available as a hard-copy back issue).
- GEO magazine did a quick Q&A with me (article is in German)
- LiveScience has a nice writeup here, including quotes from Freeman Dyson.
- I contributed a post to Centauri Dreams on the subject, which was syndicated to Gizmodo.
- A very nice writeup at Discovery News.
- A review of our first paper at the MIT Technology Review.
- A review in the Samstag/Sonntag, 30/31 August 2014 edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
- And, most importantly,Slashdot.
Our press release was picked up widely including:
- PBS: “Searching for Advanced Engineering“
- CBS: “Search for alien life comes up empty“
- NBC: “Among Millions of Galaxies, Survey Finds No Obvious Signs of Life” (it was 100,000, actually)
- Fox News: “100,000 Galaxies: What quest for alien ‘supercivilizations’ really tells us“
- Popular Science: “Scientists Find No Obvious Signs of Life in 100,000 Galaxies“
- CNET: “Search of 100,000 galaxies finds no sign of alien life“
- The Weather Network: “Search finds no signs of advanced aliens in 100,000 galaxies“
- Universe Today: “100,000 Galaxies, and No Obvious Signs of Life“
- WIRED UK: “’Alien empire’ search of 100,000 galaxies finds… nothing (yet)” (I like that title!)
- Tech Times: “Search For Alien Life In 100,000 Galaxies Draws A Blank”
- Motherboard “Astronomers Searched 100,000 Galaxies for Alien ‘Supercivilizations’”
- io9: “A Scan Of 100,000 Galaxies Shows No Sign Of Kardashev III Aliens”
- Nature World News: “Scientists Searched 100,000 Galaxies for Alien Life”
- The Telegraph: “Advanced alien civilizations possible in 50 galaxies” (a terrible title, contradicting our press release).
- The Daily Mail: “Could 50 galaxies be hiding advanced alien life? Infrared emissions suggest beings are using stars for energy, study claims” (a terrible title, contradicting our press release)
- The Economist: “Infra Digging”
- Pittsburgh Tribune “Scientists fail to find alien life by tracking energy sources”
- Le Temps: “Une waste battue aux extraterrestres se solde par un échec”
- Catalyst: “Alien Technology”
- Voice of America: “Science World“
- Daily Kos: “Is There Any Intelligent Life Out There? Maybe Not“
- IFLScience: “Astronomers Searched 100,000 Galaxies For Signs Of Advanced Alien Civilizations“
Our paper on KIC 8462852 got some press:
- Ross Andersen at the Atlantic broke the story
- The Bad Astronomer had an appropriately sober take
- Discovery Channel had a segment on it in which I appear.
- I was interviewed on NPR’s To the Point.
- …and Debra Fischer and I appeared on Science Friday
- C|NET had a responsible meta-story
- As did Popular Science
- As did the Verge
- As did NBC
- and Ars Technica
- CBS did poorly
- SNL did its thing on Weekend Update (which was, amazingly, better than CBS’s coverage!)
- Neil deGrasse Tyson talked to Stephen Colbert about it here
- Atlas Obscura did a nice writeup here
- Catalyst filmed me covering the mystery here
- Popular Science covered the May 2017 dips here.
- As did BBC Earth
- My take is here.
The first big paper by Tabby on the star in early 2018 also got lots of attention, and Penn State had a press release. I was interviewed for these:
- Those ‘Alien Megastructures’ Are Probably Just Dust
- Soz, guys. No ‘alien megastructure’ around Tabby’s Star, only cosmic dustbunnies
- New Results Quash ‘Alien Megastructure’ Theory of Mysterious Dimming Star
- Weird dim star isn’t due to alien megastructure – it’s just dust
- TABBY’S STAR: SORRY, FOLKS, BUT IT *REALLY* ISN’T ALIENS
- How Citizen Scientists Discovered the Strangest Star in the Galaxy
- Mystery of ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star Has Been Cracked
- Alien megastructures around this star were just dust in the interstellar wind
- No, an alien megastructure doesn’t explain that mysterious star
- Evidence of an ‘alien megastructure’ 1,300 light-years from Earth is rapidly turning to dust
Steinn Sigurdsson and I wrote a paper and series of blog posts:
Our work on the lunar farside highlands problem got a lot of attention:
- The press release is here.
- The New York Times mentions the work and quotes Arpita here.
- Discover named it a “Top 100 story of 2014”.
- The Bad Astronomer wrote us up in Slate here.
- An article in portuguese here.
- An article by Charles Q. Choi on Space.com
- A cringe-inducing one in the Daily Mail.
- A better one in Universe today by Elizabeth Howell.
- The Delhi Daily News
- This one from the Indo-Asian News Service
- Justin Beach wrote this for the Daily Digest News
- Nature World News
and lots of other places, too.
Other coverage:
- The Eberly College Science Journal featured my lab here.
- Research Matters covered me talking about SETI here.
- Tabby’s Star is featured in a Listen to This podcast (#2)t.
- I’m quoted in this BBC piece about finding life in the universe.
- I’m quoted in this space.com piece about Kipping and Teachy’s laser cloaking idea.
- New Scientist covered project MINERVA.
- Corey Powell at Discover Magazine interviewed me here.
- I was featured in the podcast “Behind the Science”, episode 146.
- The researchers behind the Exoplanet Orbit Database were featured in Penn State’s Science Journal here (unfortunately we got Katherina’s year of graduation wrong — she’s class of 2014).
- I wrote a column for the Center Daily Times on some aspects of astronomy and astrobiology; you can find it here along with other entries from the Eberly College of Science.
- Popular Science online interviewed me as part of its coverage of the IAU reaction to Uwingu’s exoplanet-naming contest; and New Scientist quotes me here.
- WTAJ did a spot about the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, in which I make a cameo, and they plug exoplanets.org (link no longer includes the video).
- Our Ruprecht 147 paper was written up by the Penn State press office and picked by astronomy.com. It generated a Penn State podcast which was featured on Science Beat and picked up by the NSF’s Science360 radio program.
- Stardate picked up on Ruprecht 147, too.
- Here is a podcast of a radio interview I did about Ruprecht 147 for Voice of Russia.
- Penn State interviewed me for a “Probing Question”: “What is a Near Earth?“.
- Project MINERVA has gotten some press, including a featured place in a glowing article about Nate McCrady in the Missoula Independent, a writeup in WIRED, and an article that uses the MINERVA principles playing pickup basketball in grad school as a hook in UM’s Vision magazine.
- In 2004 I published a paper on so-called “Maunder minimum” stars that got a bit of press coverage.
- Some work we did on Gl 436 was picked up widely in 2007.
- The Catalog of Nearby Exoplanets (the predecessor to the Exoplanet Orbit Database) earned some coverage here and elsewhere as part of a broader article on the rate of exoplanet discovery.
- My work with the California Planet Survey has also produced press coverage like this piece on the discovery of HD 156668b.
- News that our Habitable Zone Planet Finding Spectrograph was funded was covered by the Penn State press office here.
- My work with Chad Bender earned me a quote for his press release regarding the masses of the stars in the Kepler-16 system here.
- Ben Nelson’s work on the 55 Cancri system was written up in a Penn State press release here.
- I’m quoted on the Montet and Simon paper on KIC 8462852 in New Scientist and Gizmodo.
- I’m quoted in this Universe Today article about the media hype around a SETI false alarm.
- And in this Five Thirty Eight article
- I’m quoted in this Five Thirty Eight article about spectroscopy
- I’m quoted in this World Weekly SETI article.
- I was on an episode of StarTalk All-Stars with Seth Shostak here.
- Space.com quoted me in this article about Tabby’s Star.
2017
- New Scientist quoted me in an article about a paper on Tabby’s Star.
- Here’s an article in Spanish from Chile.
- The Berkeley Science Review discussed my work with the Berkeley SETI Research Center here.
- Adam Frank interviewed me for an NPR piece.
- My paper on Prior Indigenous Technological Species was picked up in:
- The 20 May 2017 dip of Tabby’s Star (“Elsie”) got attention, for instance:
- My blog posts about ‘Oumuamua got some attention and I was interviewed for some pieces, including this one in the Atlantic.
- I’m quoted in this piece about what ‘Oumuamua teaches us about SETI.
- This article in C|NET references my RNAAS article about ‘Oumuamua’s origins.
- I’m quoted in this piece about a laser SETI experiment.
2018
- I’m quoted in this Science piece on the next generation of EPRV instruments.
- Lee Billings wrote a nice meta-piece on SETI in the media with quotes from me.
- My Research Note on ‘Oumuamua was mentioned in this AAS Nova piece.
- Our n-dimensional haystack paper was picked up at:
- Kate Becker wrote up our SETI lexicon paper here.
- Marc Kaufman quotes me on the Houston Technosignatures Workshop here.
- Lisa Grossman discusses that workshop here.
2019
- Alan Boyle discusses our work on SETI and the Astro2020 Decadal here at Geekwire.
- Lisa Grossman’s article for ScienceNews on the effort is here.
- Here’s a less than great article in the Daily Galaxy about why astronomers do(n’t) see UFOs. It refers to this blog post.
- My paper with Adam Frank was picked up by Popular Science in an article by Charlie Wood
- …and this Quanta article by Rebecca Boyle.
- The first PSETI gifts were covered in:
- I’m quoted in this Live Science piece and here in Gizmodo about the big 2019 Breakthrough Listen data release and Parkes survey.
- Adam Mann quoted me in this story for SciAm about the “random transiter.”
- I had a Q&A in The Conversation about SETI and *sigh* Area 51, which was picked up by Newsweek.com.
- Forbes had a piece mentioning our white paper to the Astro2020 Decadal process.
- Adam Mann wrote a nice New Yorker piece about SETI and our efforts with PSETI and the Astro2020 process.
- I’m quoted in Inside Science, Physics World, and Physics Today about the 2019 Nobel in Physics.
- Brooke Dulka covered my talk at ScienceWriters2019 here.
- I’m quoted in this article about the SETI Institute.
- Local TV news covered PSETI and quoted me here and here.
- Sarah Scoles covered the PSETI Center for Scientific American here.
- The Daily Collegian covered NEID here
2020
- Caleb Scharf discusses my paper with him and Adam Frank in Scientific American here and again in a column here.
- The NEID first light announcement got coverage here at Cosmos and on the BBC Sky at Night.
- I’m quoted in this article (in German) about SETI.
- I’m quoted in this Air and Space article about the Ĝ survey and Tabby’s Star.
- I’m quoted in this Atlantic article about megastructures as shields.
- I’m quoted in this freethink article about stellar engines.
- I’m quoted in this New Scientist piece about ORCs
- I’m quoted in this NatGeo piece about Frank Drake.
- Dan Clery wrote a nice piece about SETI that includes discussion of the PSETI Center.
- I’m quoted in this Physics World article about “mutual detectability” in SETI.
- I’m quoted in this NatGeo piece by Nadia Drake about about the abundance of sites for life in the Galaxy.
- I’m quoted in this SciAm piece by Jonathan O’Callaghan about Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1.
- …and also in this New Scientist story,
- …and also in this Atlantic story.
2021
- I’m quoted in this New Scientist story about Dyson spheres.
- I was quoted in a print edition article on BLC-1 for All About Space by Nigel Watson.
- I’m quoted in this Inverse piece about atmospheric technosignatures.
- I’m quoted in this Atlantic article about UFOs.
- I was quoted in this Gizmodo piece about Galactic settlement.
- I’m quoted in this NatGeo piece about a strangely dimming star.
- Phil Plait wrote up our RNAAS paper on Galactic Settlement,
- …as did Universe Today.
- I’m quoted in this piece by Maddie Stone about the Earth Transit Zone.
- I’m quoted in this Science piece about the Galileo Project…
- and in this SciAm piece by Adam Mann.
- I’m quoted in this Esquire piece about SETI.
- I contributed a quote to this Inverse article about Dyson spheres.
- I’m quoted in this article about AAS subscription rates.
- I was quoted in PhysicsWorld about SETI.
- I spoke with Scientific American about BLC-1
- …and WIRED
- …and Nature
- …and NPR.
- Noah Tuchow’s work on Belatedly Habitable Planets got written up in Newsweek and Science News.
- I spoke with Corey Powell about technosignatures for his Aeon article here.
- I have some quotes in this Aeon article about the egalitarian use of space.
- I’m quoted in this article about Schelling points.
- I’m quoted in Nadia Drake’s piece here on the Drake Equation’s 60th anniversary.
2022
- I’m quoted in this article about the Order of the Octopus.
- This Universe Today article covers our article on the prevalence of technological life in the universe.
- …as does this Inverse article
- …and this one at SyFy.
- I’m quoted here in New Scientist about artificially resonant systems.
- Salon quoted me in this article about technosignatures.
- I’m quoted in this Undark piece about indigenous scholarship in SETI.
- I’m in this piece about the science behind Prometheus.
- Coverage of Anna Baum’s work on the Maunder Minimum star 166620:
- In Forbes
- IBT
- Science Alert
- SyFy
- Physics World
- and the Eberly press release.
- I’m quoted in this WHYY podcast about SETI
- I’m in this video and article about the Penn State SETI Symposium
- I’m quoted in this Inverse piece about finding life with JWST
- Our paper on the geopolitical ramifications of SETI got picked up at:
- My work with the CATS collaboration is highlighted the NY Times Magazine here.
2023
- I’m quoted in this New Scientist piece about temporal Schelling points.
- I’m quoted in this Science News piece about the habitable zones of binary stars.
- I’m quoted in this NASA article about technosignatures
- I’m quoted in this piece about the post-detection protocols.
- I’m in this episode of Space Forward:
- I’m quoted in this IFLScience article about Earth’s technosignatures.
- Universe Today wrote up my paper on Dyson Sphere thermodynamics.
- I’m a source in this Vox explainer on SETI and UFOs.
- I’m quoted in this Penn State Daily Collegian article on UFOs.
2024
- I’m quoted extensively in this article in The House on the post detection protocols.
- I’m quoted in this Fox News article on the Copernican principle and SETI.