A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics.

~ Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton Abiogenesis Brain Conjecture Consciousness Darwinism Evolution Extraterrestrial Life Guessing Human Behavior Ignorance Knowledge Language Origin Of Life Religion Science Seti Speculation Theories Theory

The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.

~ Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Optimism Seti Universe

We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.

~ Jill Tarter

Jill Tarter Astronomy Science Seti Space