What might you read in the long nights in a cancer ward, when your mind wanders briefly from family and friends? When the deeper reaches of the harbour city glow with neon islands in the dark, when the distant roads seem empty, and no jets fly over the briefly sleeping metropolis?
The other night, for this curious patient, it was two reports on New Atlas, both by David Szondy. The longer, Calling all Aliens: What’s the best way to contact our galactic neighbours? sets up the logical, and to an extent confronting sequel Are We alone?
The arguments within each will be well known to many science researchers and curious lay readers but I cannot recollect them having been previously reported so lucidly or compellingly, and usefully.
They also helped fill the current void in industry news likely to be of interest to most readers of this site.
New Atlas manages to often combine longform, thoroughly researched journalism with the parched landscape of on-line publishing. For this avid reader, and former longform or classic school reporter, its survival is much hoped for.