exist elsewhere in space? This is the single most importantscientific question which we are currently capable of answering, andcertainly the most exciting. Messages from the Stars is an attempt totell the story of the search for life in space, a story whicti should ap-peal to every human being and particularly to those millions who buyscience fiction either in the form of self-confessed adventure stories orin the guise of speculative fact as purveyed by writers on UFOs andancient astronauts. Messages from the Stars begins by looking at the scientific basis forthe belief in life elsewhere in space, and at the attempts by scientists tofind such life, either by sending spacecraft such as Viking in search oflowly life forms on the planets of our own solar system, or by listeningwith radio telescopes for signals from advanced civilizations on planetscircling other stars. The book also considers how we might colonizespace and travel to the stars, as well as speculating upon the conse-quences of such actions. It ends with a critical examination of theclaims by those such as Erich von Daniken and writers on UFOs thatwe already have been, or are being, visited by extraterrestrials, and Iattempt to place these fantastic claims in perspective against the resultsof the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. When 1 put the finishing touches to my first book on this subject,Worlds Beyond, at the end of 1974, I did not suspect that two yearslater I would have embarked on a sequel. But such has been the paceof advance that this sequel has become necessary. The scientific