Jill Tarter 'It Takes a Cosmos to Make a Human'
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence \u2014 or SETI \u2014 goes beyond hunting for E.T. and habitable planets. Scientists in the field are using telescopes and satellites looking for signs of outright civilizational intelligence. One of the founding pioneers in this search is astronomer Jill Tarter. She is a co-founder of the SETI Institute and was an inspiration for Jodie Foster\u2019s character in the movie Contact, based on the novel by Carl Sagan. To speak with Tarter is to begin to grasp the creative majesty of SETI and what\u2019s relevant now in the ancient question: \u201cAre we alone in the universe?\u201d