Former ‘Sputnik kid’ turned Rutgers professor in high-level company at SETI 50th anniversary conference.

Scientists who monitor the skies for hints of intelligent life beyond Earth’s boundaries felt a glimmer of hope last month when word came of a faraway planet potentially capable of sustaining life.

Christopher Rose, an engineering professor at Rutgers, welcomed the announcement of Gliese 581g, a so-called exoplanet which is orbiting a star about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra.

“It’s a very exciting discovery, one that greatly increases the possibility that there are quite a few habitable planets out there,” said Rose, who has more than a passing interest in the field of science known as SETI – the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Like others who are similarly engaged, the professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Wireless Information Network Laboratory at Rutgers (WINLAB) has heard the usual canards, and they make him cringe: hopeless dreamers, wild-eyed star-gazers, cranks. For more in depth story please click HERE

By Fredda Sacharow