Look, Up There – What Are UFOs?

February 2005 by Steven Novella, MD I once saw a UFO. That is, I saw an object in the sky I couldn’t identify. Chances are you have too, probably more than once. What I saw were lights in a large “V” shape, moving silently, too slow to be a plane, moving out of view after […]

Sightings: UFOs and Visual Perception

July 1998 by Mark B. Fineman, PhD PENDELTON, Ore. June 25 [1947] (AP) – Nine bright saucer-like objects flying at “incredible speed” at 10,000 feet altitude were reported here today by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho, [a] pilot who said he could not hazard a guess as to what they were (cited by Peebles, 1994). In […]

Baby Remember My Name

January 2001 by Sheila Gibson Paul Dickson’s book, What’s in a Name? Reflections of an Irrepressible Name Collector (Merriam-Webster, $14.95),  is a series of comprehensive compilations of baseball players’ nicknames, car model monikers and popular babies’ names of the last 100 years, anagrams, punny handles for actual stores and businesses, and selections from the largest […]

UFO Conference in North Haven, CT

October 1996 by Steven Novella, MD & Perry DeAngelis On the weekend of October 12th, the CSS board had the opportunity to attend the National UFO Congress, presented by Omega Communications, at the North Haven Holiday Inn. What we found has confirmed our suspicion that the realms of the paranormal are as intermingled as is […]

Unidentified Flying Objections

October 1997 By Perry DeAngelis Our modern era of technological wonder and scientific achievement is once again usurped by extraordinary claims of a more advanced race of interstellar visitors. Our puny science and terrestrial achievement is dwarfed by these alien travelers, or so the credulous legions tell us – endlessly. I am speaking of the […]

UFOs: The Psychocultural Hypothesis

October 2000 by Steven Novella, MD Millions of Americans believe that we are being visited by a spacefaring alien race. These aliens allegedly fly in saucer-shaped ships, they routinely abduct humans for some experimental purpose we can only guess, some believe they are responsible for such phenomena as cattle mutilations and crop circles, our government […]