IU-Purdue Offering UFO Class

[Ivan Seeking]

IU-Purdue Offering "UFO" Class

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne is offering a class on unidentified flying objects.

"UFOs - Perception, Reality and Sightings in Indiana,'' begins Tuesday. It will cover the history of UFOs, crop circles and recent Indiana sightings. [continued]

http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=5484305&nav=3w6o

This is interesting
http://www.clevelandufo.com/UFOeducators/home.html

 

[Tony11235]

Why do people continually link crop circles to UFOs? Sure it goes along with the history and folklore of UFOs, but the class would be respectable IMO if crop circles were left out. Not that the class is respectable in the first place.

 

[Moonbear]

I wonder what sort of enrollment the class will get. When I first saw just the little snippet about it quoted here, I was thinking it was likely some really bored history professor trying to spice up the curriculum, much like English departments will offer classes from time to time on things like romance or sci fi novels, just to try to attract some students who wouldn't normally take an extra English course. Then I read the full article and saw this is being taught by someone who actually believes this stuff. I wonder what the motivation was to approve adding this course to the curriculum? Is it the string attached to some large donation to the department?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I know a now retired meteorology professor who got interested in UFOs near the end of this career. Before long he was completely caught up in the subject.

Believe it or not, there are plenty of respectable people in science who have a genuine interest.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Then I read the full article and saw this is being taught by someone who actually believes this stuff.

Oh yes: Believes what, exactly?

Are you saying that any researcher is automatically a true believer?

Edit: thread split
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=135566

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This is probably the best quote and spokesman for this problem:

"The definitive resolution of the UFO enigma will not come about unless and until the problem is subjected to open and extensive scientific study by the normal procedures of established science. This requires a change in attitude primarily on the part of scientists and administrators in universities." (Sturrock, Peter A., Report on a Survey of the American Astronomical Society concerning the UFO Phenomenon, Stanford University Report SUIPR 68IR, 1977.)

"Although... the scientific community has tended to minimize the significance of the UFO phenomenon, certain individual scientists have argued that the phenomenon is both real and significant. Such views have been presented in the Hearings of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics [and elsewhere]. It is also notable that one major national scientific society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, set up a subcommittee in 1967 to 'gain a fresh and objective perspective on the UFO phenomenon.'

In their public statements (but not necessarily in their private statements), scientists express a generally negative attitude towards the UFO problem, and it is interesting to try to understand this attitude. Most scientists have never had the occasion to confront evidence concerning the UFO phenomenon. To a scientist, the main source of hard information (other than his own experiments' observations) is provided by the scientific journals. With rare exceptions, scientific journals do not publish reports of UFO observations. The decision not to publish is made by the editor acting on the advice of reviewers. This process is self-reinforcing: the apparent lack of data confirms the view that there is nothing to the UFO phenomenon, and this view works against the presentation of relevant data." (Sturrock, Peter A., "An Analysis of the Condon Report on the Colorado UFO Project," Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1987.)"

-- Dr. Peter A. Sturrock, Professor of Space Science and Astrophysics and Deputy Director of the Center for Space Sciences and Astrophysics at Stanford University; Director of the Skylab Workshop on Solar Flares in 1977

Recently, Dr. Sturrock reported that the journal SCIENCE has agreed to publish "well penned" papers on UFOs.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

On a related note, I should include the person who first took the lead on this in the academic community. [All found in the UFO Napster sticky thread above]. Next, a recent paper is linked.

"During the years that I have been its consultant, the Air Force has consistently argued that UFO's were either hoaxes, hallucinations or misinterpretations of natural phenomena. For the most part I would agree with the Air Force. As a professional astronomer--I am chairman of the department of astronomy at Northwestern University--I have had no trouble explaining the vast majority of the reported sightings. But I cannot explain them all. Of the 15,000 cases that have come to my attention, several hundred are puzzling, and some of the puzzling incidents, perhaps one in 25, are bewildering. I have wanted to learn much more about these cases than I have been able to get from either the reports or the witnesses...Getting at the truth of "flying saucers" has been extraordinarily difficult because the subject automatically engenders such instantaneous reactions and passionate beliefs. Nearly all of my scientific colleagues, I regret to say, have scoffed at the reports of UFO's as so much balderdash, although this was a most unscientific reaction since virtually none of them had ever studied the evidence. Until recently my friends in the physical sciences wouldn't even discuss UFO's with me. The subject, in fact, rarely came up. My friends were obviously mystified as to how I, a scientist, could have gotten mixed up with "flying saucers" ---Saturday Evening Post: 1966

-- Dr. J. Allen Hynek: Professor emeritus and chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University. Earlier, he was director of the Lundheimer Astronomical Research Center at Northwestern. He has written astronomy books and articles that have appeared in numerous science journals, as well as an astronomy column for Science Digest magazine. He was chief scientist for NASA's satellite tracking program, and for twenty years was the scientific consultant to the United States Air Force in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. He is credited with coining the phrase "close encounters of the third kind" and was Steven Spielberg's technical consultant on the film of that name. Dr. Hynek died in April 1986.

Also, here is a link to a recent paper on the possibility of visiting ETs that was published in a lesser journal.
http://www.ufoskeptic.org/JBIS.pdf

ET Visitors: Scientists See High Likelihood
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/et_betterodds_050114.html

 

[selfAdjoint]

Ivan, are you just using this hook to unload your UFO fan archives? I mean Hynek? Close Encounters of the Third Kind Hynek?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan, are you just using this hook to unload your UFO fan archives? I mean Hynek? Close Encounters of the Third Kind Hynek?

I'm not sure what you mean. I was responding to MB's comments by showing that there is already a history between academics and UFO studies. And beyond that, taking things to the next level, a few serious assertions have already been made that it makes sense to look for ETs.

As for Hynek, at the request of the US government, he pioneered the subject among academics. And yes, Spielberg did consult with Hynek in making CE.

No doubt, I consider Hynek and Sturrock to be two of the most notable in the lineage of UFO researchers.