Editor, the Tribune

During some 40 years of study and discussion of the UFO phenomenon, I have encountered numerous academicians, politicians, social activists, journalists and others who have seriously ridiculed any mention of the serious investigation of the problem.

Such ridicule was frequently demonstrated by what UFO researchers call the “giggle factor,” including self-satisfying smirks, rolled eyes and occasional outright belly-laughs.

On the other hand, non-gigglers, and their views on the matter, include:

“Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control. ... it is imperative that we learn where UFOs come from and what their purpose is.” — Adm. Roscoe Hillenkotter, former director of the CIA.

“The evidence points to the fact that Roswell was a real incident and that indeed an alien craft did crash, and that material was recovered from that site. We all know that UFOs are real.” — astronaut Edgar Mitchell

“Of course it is possible that UFOs really do contain aliens as many people believe, and the government is covering it up.” — Professor Stephen Hawking.

“The possibility of reduced-time interstellar travel by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations at present, or ourselves in the future, is not fundamentally constrained by physical principles.” — physicist Harold Putoff.

“It is quite strange that while our best modern physics and astrophysics theories thus predict that we should be experiencing extraterrestrial visitation, any possible evidence of such in the form of a subset of UFO reports is ignored or ridiculed.” — astrophysicist Bernard Haisch.

Bill Wickersham