Making UFOs Make Sense: The History of Ufology, Science, and Their Mutual Mistrust

Time: 4:00pm

Location: Director’s Conference Room, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC

Since 1946, reports of unidentified flying objects and encounters with extraterrestrials have sparked amateur research (ufology), government investigations, and popular interest in the subject. Historically, however, scientists have greeted the topic with skepticism, most often dismissing ufology as pseudoscience and believers in UFOs and alien contact as irrational or abnormal. Believers, in turn, have expressed doubts about the accuracy of academic science and the integrity of authorities. This talk examines the historical sources of the mutual mistrust between ufologists and the scientific community. It demonstrates that any doubts in science expressed by UFO enthusiasts and contactees were not primarily due to the ignorance of ufology about science, but rather a product of the respective research practices of and relations between ufology, the sciences, and government investigative bodies.

For further information, please contact: Tom Lassman at 202-633-2419; lassmant@si.edu. Non-Smithsonian visitors must RSVP to Tom Lassman no later than 48 hours before the seminar. On the day of the seminar, please report to the South Security Desk at the Museum’s Independence Avenue entrance. Those holding SI ID badges may proceed directly to the Director’s Conference Room on the 3rd floor.