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Literature about UFO / UAP and ETI / ETV
Cigar-shaped UFO over Aarhus Denmark in 2004 CGI re-creation by the witness who is a 3D graphics professional. bigger picture
Witness story:
"About 5 years ago I was at home in Aarhus, Denmark, expecting a visit from a friend. There's a buzz at the doorphone, and I go out to let him in. But I can hear he's not opening the door downstairs, so I stick my head out of the window to see what's up. My friend is standing downstairs alright and I ask him why he doesn't come in. He just pointed up and said "look at that!"
And there above the houses this big metal-tube was silently floating across the street... It was actually flying this low - about 20-25 meters over the street. It was there for a few minutes, it just floated across the street and disappeared behind the house you see in the picture.
Reports of cylindrical / "fuselage" (torpedo, cigar, rocket) shaped UFOs go back many decades.
In 1953, the US Air Force contracted Battelle Institute to perform a study of 2199 UFO sightings recorded between 1947 and 1952; 5.2% were rocket-like (see Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, page 197, tables A140-A146).
NICAP's "UFO Evidence" (1964) Section XII, reports that 8.3% of the UFO sightings recorded between 1942-1963 were cylindrical.
More recently, NUFORC lists over 900 reports of cylindrical UFOs more
Sometimes both ends of the cylinder are abrupt i.e. don't taper off, like "oil barrell" or "coke-can" (e.g. Colares Brazil 1977), othertimes one end is pointed and the UFO is bullet-shaped. Large cigar-shaped UFOs are often reported to be surrounded by a luminous "foggy haze" or cloud. Cigars may have luminous "portholes" / "windows" emitting light along their length. Large cigars may also have one or more "rings" / "stripes" / "bands" of different color around them.
Earlier reports of a giant cigars, width about 1/6th of their length, include a sighting on 28-Nov-1942 during WWII raid on Turin Italy by a crew of a Lancaster (src: official British Royal Air Force files), the "ghost rockets" of the summer of 1946 (primarily in Sweden, about 2000 "ghost rocket" sightings were logged between May and December 1946, with peaks on the 9 and 11 August 1946) and the 8-Jan-1956 at Weddell Sea Antarctica by 4 scientists from Chile estim. 450ft (137m) long and 75ft (22m) in diameter.
Below: Sketch of cylindrical UFO and "entities" observed by military personell near Colares in 1977 during Operação Prato ("Operation Saucer" in English). Taken from the declassified files of Brazilian Airforce. More on the Colares UFO flap ufologiewiki
Puerto Maldonado, Peru 1952 a strange "fat fuselage" shaped object with trail, published in a newspaper on 19-Jul-1952. Enlarged photo: p1, p2.
Story: The attention of Customs Inspector Sr. Domingo Troncoso was called to a very strange flying object over the river area. The big dirigible-shaped craft was flying horizontally and fairly low in the sky, passing from right to left from the observers position. It was leaving a dense trail of thick smoke, vapor, or substance on its wake. The object was estimated to be over a hundred feet long.
Case file: ufocasebook, ufoevidence, ufologie
Note: AFAIK there are conflicting dates for this photo in FOTOCAT - but if it was taken in Jul-1952, one should note it coincides with the major UFO wave of that period (between 13-July and 29-July of 1952), reportedly the biggest UFO wave on record, when UFOs also flew over Washington, DC.
More in our UFO summary and essential reading page.
Note2: The case file makes reference to a thick trail left by the UFO. There are several cases where a white and fibrous substance, known as "angel hair", was left by the UFO.
August 19, 1998 - Associated Press
Twenty UFOs, described as "shiny silver spheres," flew over a number of farms near Quirindi, New South Wales, Australia last weekend, littering the ground with cobweb-like filaments called "angel hair." According to USA Today, "Residents of a small Australian community swear that they saw cobwebs fall from the sky after UFOs passed overhead. Dozens of residents of Quirindi called Australia's National UFO Hotline after the incident." According to the Tamworth, N.S.W. North Daily Leader, "Mrs. E. Stansfield, 61 years (old), said that she saw cobwebs falling from the sky. She saw twenty silver balls which passed overhead.
When she went out to her daughter, she too was covered in fine strands of cobweb. When she tried to pick it up, it disintegrated in her hand. The family car had cobwebs all over it." The incident took place at 5:04 p.m. on Sunday, August 9, 1998. Quirindi is just north of the Liverpool mountain range, about 70 kilometers (42 miles) southwest of Tamworth, N.S.W. and 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Sydney. Australian researcher Raymond Brooks reported that the "various craft" performed aerobatic maneuvers over the farms "for 1.5 hours, including the release of 'angel hair.'
Related: A fiery silvery fat-"fuselage" / dirigible UFO was observed by NASA aeronautical engineer Paul R. Hill.
Hill's second sighting occurred in 1962, also in Hampton Roads, while being driven in a car in traffic. The time was about 4:00 p.m. and a storm was clearing. A heavy cloud layer with a bottom at 3000-4000 feet lay over Hampton Roads and the lower end of Chesapeake Bay. Hill would later use the cloud layer data to calculate the acceleration and final velocity of the object.
Looking out over the southern end of Chesapeake Bay, Hill said he was "surprised to see a fat aluminum- or metallic-colored 'fuselage' nearly the size of a small freighter, but shaped more like a 'dirigible'." It was maybe 1000 feet high, moving maybe 100 miles an hour, and several miles away over the Bay. At one point its orientation showed him it was round in cross-section. Hill kept looking for a wing or a tail section, but didn't see any. The big dirigibles that used to be at Langley Field had long since disappeared, and it was too cylindrical and long to be something like the Goodyear blimp. However, blimp origins soon became academic. Hill said that after a few minutes:
"...it began to accelerate very rapidly and at the same time emit a straw-yellow, or pale flame-colored wake or plume, short at first but growing in length as the speed increased until it was nearly as long as the object. Also, when it started to accelerate it changed from a level path to an upward slanting path, making an angle of about 5 degrees to the horizontal. It passed us going at an astounding speed. It disappeared into the cloud layer. in what I estimated to be four seconds after the time it began to accelerate. The accelerating distance was measured by car odometer to be 5 miles."
From this information, Hill again calculated an acceleration (linear instead of angular) of about 100 times earth gravity, and a speed when disappearing into the cloud layer of about 8900 miles an hour. Hill added that, "...just as astounding as the performance figures was the silent operation. Not a sound was heard." (Hill, 174-176)
UFO sighting in Plutarch's "Parallel Lives"? Plutarch (46-120 CE), Greek historian, philosopher and biographer, born in Chaeronea in Boeotia. He was educated in Athens and is believed to have traveled to Egypt and Italy and to have lectured in Rome on moral philosophy.
Best known are Plutarch's "Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans" usually simply known as "Lives", a series of 46 biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen.
In "Lucullus" [bio of Lucius Licinius Lucullus (ca. 118-56 BC) a consul of ancient Rome], a part during the Mithridatic wars reads like a large, fiery silvery oval-shaped object doing a low-pass over the area between the two opposing camps, just as they were about to engage in battle. Original text:
"αλλ’ εξαίφνης του αέρος υπορραγέντος, ώφθη μέγα σώμα φλογοειδές εις μέσον των στρατοπέδων καταφερόμενον, το μεν σχήμα πίθω μάλιστα, την δε χρόαν αργύρω διαπύρω προσεοικός, ώστε δείσαντες αμφοτέρους το φάσμα διακριθήναι, τούτο μεν ουν φάσιν εν Φρυγία περί τας λεγομένας Οτρύας συμβήναι το πάθος"
Since I'm a native speaker of Greek, I should note that in the original text version above, the object is said to be shaped like a "pithari" i.e. oval, and to come down between the two armies. The object is not said to crash into the ground, and there is no reference to either noise or explosion.
The translation into English by poet John Dryden (1631-1700), offered at all academic sites I checked, reads quite differently:
"In the very instant before joining battle, without any perceptible alteration preceding, on a sudden the sky opened, and a large luminous body fell down in the midst between the armies, in shape like a hogshead, but in colour like melted silver, insomuch that both armies in alarm withdrew. This wonderful prodigy happened in Phrygia, near Otryae". -- src
Summary: This page offers a list of 100+ papers and monographs about UFOs / UAPs published in professional journals and specialty publications. Two polls of professional & amateur astronomers respectively, on whether they see UFOs or not. Finally 60+ PhD dissertations and academic publications about UFOs.
Very little peer-reviewed literature has been published in which academics have proposed, studied or supported non-prosaic explanations for UFOs. Nevertheless, UFOs as a cultural phenomenon continues to be the subject of academic research (UFOs are typically portrayed as a silly pop-culture obsession, as opposed to the science of SETI).
If you are looking for popular UFO books, please visit the UFO documents and books page.
Glossary: ETI = Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, ETV = Extra Terrestrial Visitation, UAP = Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (a broader and more neutral alternative to the term UFO, which in many countries has become synonymous with "alien spacecraft" and "extraterrestrials"). [Note: [R]= suggested reading - non-technical]
Some scientists contend that humanity is by design kept unaware of what is happening around us, much like gorillas in a wildlife preserve park, known as the "Zoo hypothesis":
"Recently astrophysicist Ken Olum at Tufts University argued (src) that anthropic reasoning applied to inflation theory predicts that we should find ourselves part of a large, galaxy-sized civilization, implying that the "We are alone" solution to Fermi's paradox is inconsistent with our best current theory of cosmology. Beatriz Gato-Rivera, a physicist at the Instituto de Matematicas y Fisica in Madrid, followed up on this (src) with the hypothesis that Olum is correct, but that by design we would be kept unaware of a greatly advanced surrounding civilization. She also argues that modern superstring and M-brane theory further aggravate Fermi's "missing alien" problem.
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, Ph.D. www.ufoskeptic.org, referring to Inflation Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation (.PDF) paper by J. Deardorff, B. Haisch, B. Maccabee and H.E. Puthoff, in
Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol 58, pp. 43-50, 2005.
Papers about UFO / UAP available on-line (reverse chronologically, most recent first):
Examination of the embargo hypothesis as an explanation for the Great Silence
James Deardorff, J. British Interplanetary Soc., 40, pp. 373-379 (1987).
Possible extraterrestrial strategy for Earth
James Deardorff, Quart. J. Royal Astron. Soc., 27, pp. 94-101 (1986)
(Note: In the last 2 papers, physicist Dr James Deardorff -professor of atmospheric sciences at Oregon State University- offered the "leaky embargo" hypothesis, which argues that the aliens in charge wish to let us gradually know of their existence and presence, while providing "deniability" to those who can't yet handle that fact. A gradual acclimation will avoid threatening the governmental, financial, cultural and religious foundations on which we depend.
Consider Deardorff's "leaky embargo" hypothesis in combination with the conclusions of Prof. Peter Ulmschneider of the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Heidelberg University, Germany, in his 2006 book and seminars titled "Intelligent life in the Universe, Myth or Reality?". While Ulmschneider categorically rejects the idea that UFOs are craft of alien origin ("there is no possibility that UFOs are extraterrestrial vehicles, because in no way would they reveal themselves", p227 Ulmschneider 2006), he proposes that our civilization, still early in its development by cosmic standards, is a rare and thus interesting spectacle in our galaxy ("because the development of an intelligent society is unrepeatably individualistic, depending on prominent persons and unique historical developments as well as unpredictable systems of thought, but it might also rapidly develop into a distinct final catastrophe. Moreover, as was discussed earlier, this development would occur only very infrequently in our galaxy and at vastly different spatial locations", p226 Ulmschneider 2006). Ulmschneider concludes that aliens are already hiding nearby, monitoring us and possibly tempted to intervene in case we are about to self-destruct [src: presentation at Univ. of Potsdam, 27-May-2009].)
Astronomer Polls There have been several public opinion polls in US and Canada, which have shown that 7-9% of the people think they have seen a UFO and almost 50% think UFOs are real -over the years the percentage has ranged from 35% to 57%, the highest was in a Gallup poll of May 1978. However, scoffers often counter-argued that astronomers, who are presumably more knowledgeable about observing and evaluating the skies than the general public, do not see UFOs. The following two polls of professional & amateur astronomers respectively, suggest otherwise.
(Note: Rarely referenced outside of UFO literature, astrophysicist Dr Sturrock -professor of applied physics at Stanford University- conducted a poll of professional astronomers on the topic of UFOs in 1977. A total of 2611 questionnaires were mailed out; 1356 were returned (52%). In response to having personal UFO sightings, 62 (4.5%) of the professional astronomers reported that they had observed events or objects they failed to identify - 16 of them were daylight sightings. Each respondent was also asked to state his opinion on whether the UFO problem deserves scientific study: 23% replied "certainly", 30% "probably", 27% "possibly", 17% "probably not", and 3% "certainly not", which represents a positive attitude among 53% of the respondents, as against a negative attitude among 20%.)
[R]The Amateur Astronomer and the UFO phenomenon (aka Gert Herb / CUFOS Report) In 1980, a survey of 1800+ members of various amateur astronomer associations by amateur astronomer Gert Herb, under supervision of CUFOS and astronomer Dr J. Allen Hynek (past chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University who had been a consultant to the USAF UFO investigations for 20 years), found that 24% responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever observed an object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification?"
(Comments by Dr Fil:
The Herb/Hynek amateur astronomer poll results were originally published in Fall 1980 issue of CUFOS Bulletin, no longer published. They were reprinted in CUFOS' International UFO Reporter (IUR), May 2006, pp. 14-16.
Poll conceived by amateur astronomer Gert Herb as a companion to previously conducted poll by astrophysicist Peter Sturrock of fellow professional astronomers (4.5% reported UFOs in Sturrock's poll).
Cooperation with three major amateur astronomer organizations was obtained: Astronomical League, Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) and International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA). The American Association of Variable Star Observers declined to participate.
A total of 7800 questionnaires were mailed out; 1805 people ultimately responded (23%) - a high return rate for a mailer poll. The point is, this is a very good statistical sample of the amateur astronomer membership of these three organizations, one of the main criteria as to whether the poll is scientific. A very low return rate might not be scientific, i.e., a good representative sample of the polled population.
The smaller organizations ALPO and IOTA, with total memberships of 726, returned 57% of the questionnaires received, an extremely good representative sample. These are also comprised of people devoted to more specialized aspects of amateur astronomy, requiring special skills and often more specialized equipment. Interestingly this group of more experienced amateurs also reported the highest percentage of UFOs (28%).
Instead of being asked whether they had ever seen a UFO (in which the answer might depend on the pollees personal definitions of what constitutes a "UFO"), they were instead asked "Have you ever observed an object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification?" 24% of respondees replied "Yes" to this question.
The poll also broke down sightings into five classes, based on trajectories and apparent angular size: Point or extended sources in uniform motion; Point or extended sources in erratic motion, or "object observed at short enough distance as to leave no doubt in observer's mind that something strange was observed." Unfortunately the percentage breakdown was not given in the article. However, it was noted that the last category of weird "close encounter" objects was reported by four of the more senior observers. Of all "high strangeness" cases--either erratic motion or "close encounter"--14 were observed through telescopes (3%) and 17 though binoculars (4%). Of all reported "UFOs", 15% were observed through telescopes and 9% through binoculars. 9 were photographed, with some details provided in article.
A companion question was asked about attitudes towards UFOs. 67% thought UFOs certainly, probably, or possibly exist. 33% thought they probably or definitely did not exist.
The article itself mentions that in spite of the large number of respondees, conceivably the poll might still not be fully scientific, i.e., those who had sightings might be more apt to believe in the existence of UFOs and might be more motivated to fill in the questionnaire and return it. (However, note the previous result that at least a third of the responders seemed very skeptical of the existence of UFOs.) The true percentage of those who had sightings therefore might lie between the 5% who reported UFOs out of ALL questionnaires mailed out, and the 24% reporting UFOs of those who returned the questionnaires.
The article also provided the usual skeptical caveats that amateur astronomers, even though more experienced in distinguishing between known and unknown sky phenomena, are just as susceptible to psychological aberrations as the general public, might be just as biased, and even if the reports are accepted at face value, being unable to identify something does not mean it's an alien spaceship, it is merely unidentified, etc., etc.
However, it does conclude that even if UFO is defined in the most generic sense of merely something unidentified, amateur astronomers certainly DO see and report UFOs or "things in the sky that defy explanation.")
So even in the most conservative interpretation (assuming nobody wants to claim scientific fraud!), it would mean 5% of ALL amateur astronomers have reported UFOs. There is no comparable poll in the skeptical camp to support various statements, such as by astronomer and skeptic Dr Phil Plait, owner of the popular "Bad Astronomy" blog, that AAs literally never report UFOs. (Plait's "poll" seems to be that AAs never report UFOs personally to him, boy is that "scientific" polling!)
In the early 1950s, Dr Hynek conducted an informal poll of his astronomer colleagues. Among those he queried was Dr. Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the dwarf planet Pluto. Of 44 astronomers, five (over 11 percent) had seen aerial objects that they could not account for. Most of these astronomers had not widely shared their accounts for fear of ridicule or of damage to their reputations or careers (Tombaugh was an exception, having openly discussed his own UFO sightings). Hynek also noted that this 11% figure was, according to most polls, greater than those in the general public who claimed to have seen UFOs. Furthermore, the astronomers were presumably more knowledgeable about observing and evaluating the skies than the general public, so their observations were arguably more impressive.
Other points regarding modern professional astronomers and UFOs are the narrow field of view and automated observation, as explained by astrophysicist Dr Bernard Haisch:
Owing to modern ground-based, computer-controlled instrumentation and observations using satellites, modern astronomers spend essentially zero time watching the sky as part of their professional activity. I learned the constellations when I was a boy scout, not when I did my PhD. There are astrophysicists who could not point to the North Star to save their lives. And even when an astronomer happens to actually look through a telescope, the narrow field of view makes this the worst possible way to spot any aerial anomaly. src
Similar positions have been taken by other astronomers who have actually studied UFOs, e.g. Why Don't More Astronomers Report Seeing UFOs? by C.Rutkowski.
Astronomers Dr J.Allen Hynek and Dr Jacque Vallee have both commented on the attitude of professional astronomers towards UFOs in their books.
Journals
The Journal of UFO Studies (JUFOS), published by the J.Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), is a refereed journal dealing exclusively with the UFO phenomenon
Journal of Scientific Exploration (JSE) quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE). Though focused on anomalous phenomena in general rather than UFOs specifically, it has regularly published UFO/UAP-related articles
[status?] European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies is a new peer-reviewed journal issued by the Totton College, in the UK (TRUTH UK - The Totton Researchers of Ufology Theory and History)
UFO periodicals
"MUFON Journal" is the monthly newsletter of MUFON, the largest civilian UFO group. MUFON in cooperation with TBV has made available on-line MUFON journals 1967-2000 in .PDF format (note: earlier editions are scanned and harder to read). Current issues available from MUFON.
International UFO Reporter (IUR) CUFOS' magazine published articles and commentary
Flying Saucer Review (FSR) in UK, was established in 1955 and is the world's oldest UFO magazine. Its "golden era" in terms of circulation was in 1960s and 1970s while edited by Charles Bowen and diplomat Gordon Creighton. FSR published articles about UFO incidents in non-English speaking countries, particularly South America and Western Europe. Authors and commentators included Derek Dempster, Leonard Cramp, Brinsley le Poer Trench, Prof. Hermann Oberth, Dr. Carl Jung, Waveney Girvan, Arthur Constance, Wilfred Daniels, M.K. Jessup, and Desmond Leslie, to name a few. In the 1960s contributors included Jerome Clark, Brad Steiger, John A. Keel. Past issues are available as scanned images on CD.
Northern UFO News (NUFON) - Britain edited by british UFO reseacher Ms Jenny Randles throughout its existence (from 1974 to 2002), Northern UFO News provided a unique journal of record chronicling reported UFO activity occurring in northern Britain.
UFO Afrinews edited by Ms Cynthia Hind from 1988 to 2000, chronicled reported UFO activity in Africa.
Newsletters from defunct UFO groups in U.S.: NICAP, APRO (Coral & Jim Lorenzen), UFORIC (Philadelphia-based UFO Report and Information Center, founded by Matthew Graeber in 1972 active until 1980), CSI (Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York, co-founded by noted UFO researchers Ted Bloecher and Isabel L. Davis, active between 1954-1959) etc
[todo: add links to UFO newsletters from Europe (Germany MUFON-CES, France, Belgium SOBEPS, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Russia etc), Australia, Asia, South America]
Related: Archives for UFO Research (AFU) was founded in Sweden in 1973. Today the AFU holds one of the biggest repositories of UFO data and UFO-related folklore in the world.
Professional journals articles about UFO / UAP published between 1965-1995 (grouped per publication / journal, then alphabetically per author):
Aeronautics and Astronautics
"AIAA Committee looks at the UFO Problem", Aeronautics and Astronautics, December, 1968, p. 12.
Golomb S., "The Wheel in the Middle of the Air," Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA Sounding Board, August 1966, p. 16.
Letters to AIAA Journal, Nov. 1966, p. 6. Early and Marsh on "Saucer Doctrine".
Friedman, S.T., "Flying Saucers are Real ", Aeronautics and Astronautics, Feb., 1968, p. 16.
Friedman, S.T., "UFO reports available," Aeronautics and Astronautics, April, 1971, p. 4.
Kuettner, J. P., "A New Start on the Whole UFO ProbIem?", Aeronautics and Astronautics, November 1973.
McDonald, James E., "UFOs: Extraterrestrial Probes?", Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 5, August 1967, pp. 19-20.
Sturrock, Peter. A., "UFO Reports from AIAA Members", Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 12, pp. 60-64, 1974.
Thayer, Gordon D., "UFO encounter II - The Lakenheath England, Radar-Visual UFO case, August 13-14, 1956", Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sept., 1971, pp. 60-64.
AIAA UFO Subcommittee, "UFO: An Appraisal of the Problem", Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 8. No. 11, November 1970, P. 49-51.
Carlson J. B., and Sturrock, Peter A., "Stanford Workshop on Extraterrestrial Civilization: Opening a New Scientific Dialog", Aeronautics and Astronautics, June, 1975, pp. 64-65.
"Our Extraterrestrial Heritage: From UFO's to Space Colonies", Proceedings of the Joint Symposium, Los Angeles, Calif., January 28, Symposium sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and World Futures Society, 1978.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
[R] McDonald, James E., "Science in Default: 22 Years of Inadequate UFO Investigations", American Association for the Advancement of Science, 134th Meeting, December 27, 1969. cufon, .PDF @ narcap
Hynek, J. Allen, "Twenty-one Years of UFO Reports", American Association for the Advancement of Science, 134th Meeting, December 27, 1969.
Baker, R. M. L., "Motion Pictures of UFO's", American Association for the Advancement of Science, 134th Meeting, December 27, 1969.
American Meteorological Society
McDonald, James E., "Meteorological Factors in Unidentified Radar Returns", Paper Presented at the 14th Radar Meteorology Conference, Tucson, Arizona, Nov. 17-20, 1970. Boston: American Meteorological Society (1970), pp. 456-463.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Morgan, David L. Jr., "Evaluating Extreme Movements of UFO's and Postulating an Explanation of Effects of Forces on Their Maneuverability", ASME Design Engineering conference, New York City, May 15-19, 1967, session 10.
Earley, G., "UFOs: An Historical Perspective", ASME Design Engineering conference, New York City, May 15-18, 1967, pp. 1-15, session 10.
American Journal of Physics
Page, Thornton, "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 37, No. 10, 1071-1072, October, 1969.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist
Hynek, A., "The Condon Report and UFOs", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, April 1969, pp. 39-42.
Munday, J., "On the UFOs", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, Dec 1967, pp. 40-41.
Condon, Edward U., "UFOs I have Loved and Lost", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, Vol 15, No. 10.
Applied Optics
Maccabee, Bruce, "Photometric Properties of an Unidentified Bright Object Seen Off the Coast of New Zealand", Applied Optics, Vol 18, No. 15, 2527-28, 1979.
Maccabee, Bruce, "Photometric Properties of an Unidentified Bright Object Seen Off the Coast of New Zealand -- Author's Reply to Comments", Applied Optics, 19, 1745, 1980.
Icarus
McDonald, James E., "The Condon Report", Icarus, Vol 11, #3, November 1969, pp. 443-447.
Astronomy
Dickinson, Terence, "The Zeta Reticuli Incident", Astronomy, December 1974, 32 pages.
Industrial Research
"UFO's probably exist", Industrial Research and Development, Vol. 13, No. 4, April 1971, p. 75.
"Did UFOs Go Away?", Industrial Research and Development, Vol. 21, No. 2, February 1979, p. 191.
"Good Chance UFOs Exist in Some Form", Industrial Research and Development, July 1979, p. 139.
Scientific Research
"Libel Suit May Develop From UFO Hassle", Scientific Research, may 13, 1968, pp. 11-12.
Baker, Robert M. L., Jr., "The UFO Report: Condon Study Falls Short", Scientific Research, April 14, 1969, p. 41.
Popular Science
Armagnac, Alden P., "Condon Report on UFOs: Should You Believe It?", Popular Science, April 1969, pp. 72-76.
Engineering Opportunities
Hersey, Irwin, "UFOs and the Condon Report: Are All the Answers in?", Engineering Opportunities, April 1969, pp. 39-42.
McDonald, James E.,"The Dissenting View", Engineering Opportunities, April 1969, p. 33.
Science and Mechanics
Mallan, Loyd, "The Condon Report: Fact or Fiction?", Science and Mechanics, 40.5, May 1969, pp. 38-40, 86,88,90.
Technology Review
Hynek, J. Allen, "The UFO Phenomenon: Laugh, Laugh, Study, Study", Technology Review, Vol. 83, No. 7 July 1981, pp. 50-58.
Nature
Ridpath, Ian, "Interview with J. Allen Hynek", Nature, Vol. 251, October 1974, p. 369.
Journal of the Optical Society of America
Hynek, J., "Unusual Aerial Phenomena", Journal of the Optical Society of America, April 1953.
Journal of Astronautical Sciences
Baker, Robert M., "Observational Evidence of Anomalistic Phenomena", Journal of Astronautical Sciences, Vol. XV, No. 1, pp. 31-36, Jan-Feb, 1968.
Baker, Robert M., "Future Experiments on Anomalistic Observational Phenomena", Journal of Astronautical Sciences, Vol. XV, No. 1, pp. 44-45, Jan-Feb, 1968.
Walker, Sydney, "Establishing Observer Creditability: A Proposed method", Journal of Astronautical Sciences, Vol. XV, No. 2, pp. 92-96, March-April, 1968.
Bio-Science
Salisbury, Frank B., "The Scientist and the UFO", Bio-Science, Vol. 17, no. 1, 1967.
Science
Powers, William, "Analysis of UFO Reports", Science, Vol. 156, 7 April, 1967.
Hynek, Allen J., "UFO's Merit Scientific Study", Science, October 21, 1966.
Markowitz, W.,"The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified Flying Objects", Science, Vol. 157, 1967.
Boffey, Philip M.,"UFO Project: Trouble on the Ground", Science, Vol. 161, July 26, 1968, pp. 339-42.
Boffey, Philip M.,"UFO Study: Condon Group Finds No Evidence of Visits from Outer Space", Science, Vol. 163, January 17, 1969, pp. 260-62.
Murray, Bruce C.,"Reopening the Question", Science, Vol. 177, August 25, 1972, pp. 688-89.
Holden, Constance,"Air Force Bestows on National Archives a Trove for UFOlogists", Science Vol 193, August 20, 1976, pp. 662-663.
Physics Today
Friedman, S.T., "More on UFO's", Physics Today, P. 97, January 1971.
Powers, W. T., " Case for "real" UFO's", Physics Today, P. 14, June, 1970.
"Condon Study Rebuts UFOs; Critics Offer Own Version", Physics Today, Vol. 22, Nr. 3, March 1969, p. 67, p. 71.
"Edward Condon: A physicist Never Afraid of a Fight", Physics Today, Vol. 22, Nr. 3, March 1969, pp. 66-67.
Rothberg, Gerald, "UFOs: Fact or Fiction?", Physics Today, Vol. 22, Nr. 12, December, 1969, pp. 69-71.
Popular Photography
Hynek, Allen J.,"How to Photograph a UFO", Popular Photography, March 1968, p. 69-110-112-114.
Journal of Scientific Exploration
Brandenburg, John E., DiPietro, Vincent, and Molenaar, Gregory, "The Cydonian Hypothesis", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1991, pp. 1-27.
Bounais, M., "Traumatology as a Potent Tool for Identifying Actual Stresses Elicted by Unidentified Sources: Evidence for Plant Metabolic Disorders in Correlation with a UFO landing", Journal of scientific exploration, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1990, pp. 1-18.
Bramley, William, "Can the UFO Extraterrestrial Hypothesis and Vallee Hypotheses Be Reconciled?", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1992, pp. 3-11.
Guerin, Pierre, "A Scientific Analysis of Four Photographs of a Flying Disk Near Lac Chauvet", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1994, pp. 447-469.
Haines, Richard and Vallee, Jacques, "Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc Over Costa Rica", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1989, pp. 113-131.
Haines, Richard and Vallee, Jacques, "Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc Over Costa Rica: New Evidence", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1990, pp. 71-74.
Haines, Richard, "Analysis of a UFO Photograph", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1987, pp. 129-147.
Henry, Richard C., "UFOs and NASA", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 2, No. 2, 1988, pp. 93-142.
Maccabee, Bruce, "Analysis of the Images of a Cluster of periodically Flashing Lights Filmed Off the Coast of New Zealand", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 149-190, 1987.
Maccabee, Bruce, "Strong Magnetic Field Detected Following a Sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1994, pp. 347-365.
Sturrock, Peter, "An Analysis of the Condon Report on the Colorado UFO Project", Vol 1, No. 1, 1987, pp. 75-100.
Sturrock, Peter, "Report on a Survey of the Membership of the American Astronomical Society Concerning the UFO Problem", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 8, No. 1;2;3, 1994, pp. 1-45;153-195;309-346.
Swords, Michael, "Could Extraterrestrial Intelligences be Expected to Breathe Our Air?", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1995, pp. 381-392.
Velasco, Jean-Jacques, "Report on the Analysis of Anomalous Physical Traces: The 1981 Trans-en-Provence UFO case", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1990, pp. 27-48.
Vallee, Jacques, "Return to Trans-en-Provence", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1990, pp. 19-26.
Vallee, Jacques, "Five Arguments Against the Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1990, pp. 105-117.
Vallee, Jacques, "Towards a Second-Degree Extraterrestrial Theory of UFOs: A Response to Dr. Wood and Prof. Bozhich", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1991, pp. 113-120.
Wood, R., "The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis is Not That Bad", Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1991, pp. 103-112.
Academic publications about UFOs. There are several PhDs on UFOs, but nearly all dismissed out of hand the notion that UFOs could be genuinely anomalous in nature. Following established trends, and more so in recent decades, academics often treated UFOs as a psycho-social phenomenon, i.e. a modern space-age mythology and sought to explain UFO close encounters as culturally shaped hallucinations and visionary experiences.
Generally speaking, academics who embraced psycho-social theories came mostly from the humanities and social sciences backgrounds, had little interest in empirical science as such and didn't concern themselves much with the evidence associated with UFO reports (e.g. radar/visuals, CE2s).
Nearly all defined UFOs as what clueless individuals think they see and, beyond that, what UFO "contactees" talk about, i.e. they usually did not discriminate between outlandish claims and those others considered credible.
Below is a (most probably incomplete) list [todo: find PhDs in German].
Dewayne B. JOHNSON:
Flying Saucers - Fact or Fiction?
Master of Arts and Journalism Dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, Aug-1950
Donald CARPENTER:
Plasma Theory Applied to Ball Lightning
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 1962
Ronald DUTTON:
An Analysis of Unidentified Flying Objects
Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, 1967
John R. KING:
The UFO Problem: Time for a Reassessment
Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, 1968
Darrell STANLEY:
UFOs and Extraterrestrial Life
Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, 1968
Herbert Joseph STRENZ: [R] An Analysis of Press Coverage of Unidentified Flying Objects 1947-1966
Journalism PhD Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1970 [Note: Dr Strenz collected and examined about 10,000 newspaper clippings about UFOs for his PhD dissertation, material later donated to Sign Historical Group (SHG), an association of scholars and researchers aiming to preserve UFO history]
Jerry STROH:
The UFO Debate is Still Alive
Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, 1971
David SHEA:
The UFO Phenomenon: A Study in Public Relations
Thesis, University of Denver, 1972
Michael Kelly SCHUTZ:
Organisational Goals and Support-Seeking Behaviour: A Comparative Studie of Social Movement Organizations in the UFO (Flying Saucer) Field (448 pages)
Northwestern University, 1973
David M. JACOBS: [R] The Controversy over Unidentified Flying Objects in America: 1896-1973
University of Wisconsin in Madison, PhD, 1973
[The UFO Controversy in America Thesis, Indiana University Press, 1975]
William BRUMMETT & Ernest ZUICK:
Should the Air Force Reopen Project Blue Book ?
Graduate Faculty of Auburn University, 1974
Paul McCARTHY: [R] Politicking and Paradigm Shifting: James E. McDonald and the UFO Case Study
full text
Ph.D. in political sciences, University of Hawaii, 1975
Everett R. WALTER:
The Study of Unidentified Flying Objects and its Adoption Within the Community College Curriculum
Nova University, 1977
Steven James. DICK:
Plurality of Worlds and Natural Philosophy: An Historical Study of the Origins of Belief in other Worlds and Extraterrestrial Life
Indiana University, Indiana, USA, 1977
Michel MARCUS:
Analyse statistique des rapports d'observation d'OVNI
Universite Paris VII, 1980
Bradley Earl AYERS:
The UFO Experience and Its Effect Upon Human Conciousness
Heed University, Hollywood, Florida, 1980
Thomas Eddie BULLARD: [R] Mysteries in the Eye of the Beholder: UFOs and Their Correlates as a Folkloric Theme Past and Present
Indiana University, PhD, 1982
Lise VINCENT:
Contribution a l'etude de la vie associative : le cas de deux associations scientifiques montpellieraines
Universite Paul Valery, Sociology, 1983
Bernard MIRANDE:
Les O.V.N.I. et les E.T. dans les reves
Universite Paul Valery, Clinical Psychology, 1983
Peter Michael ROJCEWICZ:
The Boundaries of Orthodoxy: A Folkloric Look at the "UFO Phenomenon"
University of Pennsylvania, PhD in Folklore, 1984
Shirley McIVER:
"The UFO Movement: A Sociological Study of UFO Groups"
M.A. Thesis in Sociology, University of York, 1985
Persis Banvard CLARKSON:
The archaeology and geoglyphs of Nazca, Peru, or The extraterrestrial foundations of Andean civilization
University of Calgary, Canada, 1985
June Ottilie PARNELL:
Personality and Characteristics on the MMPI, 16 PF and ACL of Persons Who Claim UFO Experiences
University of Wyoming, 1986
Roberto Enrique BANCHS:
Psicoaxiosociologia del fenomeno OVNI
PhD in Social Psychology
Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1986
Linda Jean MILLIGAN:
The UFO Debate: A Study of Contemporary Legend
Ohio State University, PhD in Folklore, 1988
Veronique GALZY et Solveig LETORT:
OVNI : un tabou scientifique ?
Universite Paul Valery, Sociology, 1988
Robert Pearson FLAHERTY:
Flying Saucers and the New Angelology: Mythic Projections of the Cold War and the Convergence of Opposites
UCLA, 1990
Pierre LAGRANGE:
L'archipel arnoldien. Les premieres controverses sur l'existence des soucoupes volantes aux Etats-Unis
Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, 1990
Frederic van VLODORP:
La vague belge d'observations d'OVNI
vue par la presse ecrite francophone en 1989-1991 :
etude thematique et regard critique
Faculte de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Universte Liege, 1992
Patricia Ann CROSS:
A Social Psychological Investigation of UFO Sighters
Carleton University PhD, 1992
Jo Stone CARMEN:
Personality Characteristics and Self-Identified Experiences of Individuals Reporting Possible Abduction by Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)
United States International University, 1992
Linda KERTH:
Pictorial Memory and UFO Phenomena: How Reliable is Eyewitness Testimony ?
Faculty of Rosebridge Graduate School, 1994
Manuel JIMENEZ:
Temoignage OVNI et psychologie de la perception
Universite Paul Valery, Psychology, 1994
Maureen BRADLEY:
Specters of war: An analysis of ghost stories and other stories of the occult set in the American Civil War
University of Hawaii at Manoa MA, 1994
Cynthia SCHRAGER:
Both sides of the veil: Psychology, the occult and American realism
University of California, Berkeley, PhD, 1995
Derek Michael DONOVAN:
Angels and Extraterrestrials in Contemporary Dramatic and Filmic Literature
Stephen F. Austin State University, 1995
Duncan DAY:
Psychological correlates of the UFO abduction experience: the role of beliefs and indirect suggestions on abduction accounts obtained during hypnosis
Concordia University (Canada) PhD, 1998
Jodi DEAN:
Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outer Space to Cyberspace
Cornell University, 1998
Richard BLANN:
The Roswell Incident: The Emergence of the UFO Community as a Subculture in America
Brandeis University, 1998
George RONNEVIG:
Alien Abductions: Historiske og Sosiokulturelle Tilnaerminger til Forestillinger om ha Vaert Bortfort av UFO
Institute for Cultural Studies, University of Oslo, 1999
David LOQUIER:
Le mythe des enlevements extraterrestres, memoire de maitrise d'anglais
Universite Michel-de-Montaigne Bordeaux III
Diana Palmer HOYT: [R] UFOCRITIQUE: UFOs, Social Intelligence, and the Condon Committee PDF, PDF2
Thesis, MSc in Science and Tech Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2000
Stuart APPELLE: Ufology and Academia: The UFO Phenomenon as a Scholarly Discipline, pp. 7-30
Ron WESTRUM: Limited Access: Six Natural Scientists and the UFO Phenomenon, pp. 31-55
Don DONDERI: Science, Law and War: Alternative Frameworks for the UFO Evidence, pp. 56-81
Michael SWORDS: UFOs, the Military and the early Cold War era, pp. 82-121
Jerome CLARK: The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis in the Early UFO Age, pp. 122 - 140
Thomas Eddie BULLARD: UFOs: Lost in the Myths, pp. 141 - 191
David M. JACOBS: The UFO abduction controversy in the US, pp. 192-214
Budd HOPKINS: Hypnosis and the investigation of UFO abduction accounts, p. 215-240
John MACK: How the alien abduction phenomenon challenges the boundaries of our reality, pp. 241-261
Michael PERSINGER: The UFO Experience: A normal correlate of human brain function, pp. 262-302
David JACOBS: Research Directions, pp. 303-310
Julien WINKEL:
La presse OVNI : une etude de la presse specialisee dans les Objets Volants Non-Identifies
Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2000
Isabelle CAVE:
Les joutes oratoires des ufologues en cette fin du XXe siecle
Universite de Haute-Bretagne - Rennes II, 2000
Stefan ISAKSSON:
New Religious UFO Movements: Extraterrestrial Salvation in Contemporary America
California State University, Fresno, 2000
Anne Boyle CROSS:
A Confederacy of Faith and Fact: UFO Research and the Search for Other Worlds
Yale University, PhD, 2000
Brenda DENZLER: [R] The lure of the edge: scientific passions, religious beliefs, and the pursuit of UFOs - googlebooks
University of California Press, 2001
Timothy A. MITCHELL:
It Came from Inner Space: Faith, Science, Conquest and the War of the Worlds
Georgetown University, 2001
Jean-Michel ABRASSART:
Approche sociopsychologique du phenomene O.V.N.I.
Universite Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve), 2001
Alan GREENHALGH:
Social Constructionist, Psychological, and Official Theories of UFOs
California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2002
Ravi RANKISSOONSINGH:
UFO and Alien Encounter Narrative: A Cross-Cultural Analysis
Charleton University, 2002
Kelly S. ROUBO:
Pop Culture and the UFO Narrative: Who's Buying It, Who's Selling It and Who's Not Telling It?
Utah State University, 2002
Timothy CORRELL:
'Away with the fairies': Wise folk, healing, and the Otherworld in Irish oral narrative and belief
University of California at Los Angeles PhD, 2003
David HINSON:
Comparing stories of extraterrestrials with stories of fairies.
University of North Carolina MLA, 2003.
Tayah HANSON:
The 'Rael' World: Narratives of the Raelian Movement
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 2005
Jeremy MOREL:
Mon dieu un OVNI. Du phenomene ovni a ses derives religieuses, en France de 1950 a nos jours.
Universite Jean Moulin, Lyon 2005
Zoe COUACAUD:
How the alien invaded the American mind: a history of experts, entrepreneurs, story-tellers, and a love of the alien in modern American culture
University of Sydney PhD, 2006
Dean BERTRAM:
Flying Saucer Culture: An Historical Survey of American UFO Belief
University of Sydney PhD, 2006
Susan Claudia LEPSELTER:
The flight of the ordinary: narrative, poetics, power and UFOs in the American uncanny
University of Texas at Austin PhD, 2006
Jessica MOBERG:
Nar de Flygande Tefaten Landade I Folkhemmet
2006
Jan BOYER:
UFO Myth and Theosophy
Norway Techno-Natural Science University, 2007
Martin PLOWMAN:
High Strangeness: A Lacanian Cultural History of UFO's and UFOlogy
University of Melbourne, Dept. English and Cultural Studies, 2007
Jaakko NARVA:
UFO-experiences and ufology as a religious phenomena
Thesis, University of Helsinki 2008
Generic scientific literature about ETI / ETV (chronologically):
Dyson, Freeman J. (1960)
Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation
AbstractPaper
Hart, Michael H. (1975)
Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth
AbstractPaper
Dyson, Freeman J. (1979)
Time without end: Physics and biology in an open universe
AbstractPaper
Tipler, F. J. (1980)
Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist
AbstractPaper
Brin, G. D. (1983)
The Great Silence - the Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
AbstractPaper
Drake, F. D. (1985)
A comparative analysis of space colonization enterprises
AbstractPaper
Papagiannis, M. D. (1985)
An infrared search in our solar system as part of a more flexible search strategy
AbstractPaper
Wesson, Paul S. (1990)
Cosmology, extraterrestrial intelligence, and a resolution of the Fermi-Hart paradox
AbstractPaper
Scheffer, Louis K. (1994)
Machine Intelligence, the Cost of Interstellar Travel and Fermi's Paradox
AbstractPaper
Falk, D. (1995)
Brain Evolution in Dolphins, Humans and Other Mammals: Implications for ETI
AbstractsPaper
Oro, J. (1995)
The Chemical and Biological Basis of Intelligent Terrestrial Life from an Evolutionary Perspective
AbstractPaper
Arkhipov, A. (1995)
A Search for Alien Artifacts on the Moon
AbstractPaper
Ashkenazi, M. (1995)
Will ETI Be Space Explorers? Some Cultural Considerations
AbstractPaper
Klein, H.; Farmer, J. (1995)
Status of the Search for Life on Mars
AbstractPaper
Weiler, H. (1996)
The probability of 1991 VG
AbstractPaper
Steel, D. (1998)
The Fermi paradox and 1991 VG
AbstractPaper
Teodorani, Massimo (1999)
Physics from UFO Data
AbstractPaper
Livio, Mariov (1999)
How Rare Are Extraterrestrial Civilizations, and When Did They Emerge?
AbstractPaper
James Annis (1999)
An Astrophysical Explanation for the Great Silence
AbstractPaper
Vladimir A. Lefebvre, Yuri N. Efremov (2000)
Cosmic Intelligence and Black Holes
AbstractPaper
Musso, Paolo (2001)
On the last terms of Drake Equation: the problem of energy sources and the "Rare Earth Hypothesis"
AbstractPaper
Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (2003)
Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of Kerala
AbstractPaper
Horvath J. E. (2003)
On gamma-ray bursts and their biological effects :a case for an extrinsic trigger of the Cambrian explosion ?
AbstractPaper
Beatriz Gato-Rivera (2003)
Brane Worlds, the Subanthropic Principle and the Undetectability Conjecture
AbstractPaper
Hoyle, F.; Whickramasinghe, C. (2003)
Astronomy or biology?
Abstract
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