Are we alone? The question haunts us, and over the centuries the interest in the topic waxes and wanes like the phases of the moon. Currently there is a great deal of interest in the topic due to the recent discoveries made by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. The quest is described as the search for "Earth's twin". However, we still do not possess the technology or, indeed, the cultural and political will to invent it to explore possible candidates. And there is the ultimate question, phrased
in the Fermi Paradox, if there are so many potential planets, where is everybody? The Eerie Silence is one of the better and more thoughtful books on the topic of whether we are alone in the universe.