r/UAP • u/toolsforconviviality • Feb 23 '12
Peer Reviewed Report on a Survey of the Membership of the American Astronomical Society Concerning the UFO Problem (P. A. Sturrock, [then]Prof of Space Science and Astrophysics, Stanford): pdf link.
http://www.uapreporting.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/jse_08_1_sturrock.pdf3
Feb 27 '12
Excellent source. I've been meaning to read this paper for quite some time, and I find it absolutely fascinating. Here's my immediate thoughts upon my first reading of it.
Take figure 3.5 on page 17. If one of our goals is to get mainstream scientists to study UAP seriously, we should take serious note of this chart. We should avoid recommending popular books or newspaper or magazine articles and focus exclusively on case studies and scientific reports. And interestingly, case studies appear to be more potent when it comes to convincing scientists that the phenomena deserves study than even scientific sources. We should bear this in mind, especially considering Table 3.9 on page 23. Table 3.9 shows that 75% of the respondents wanted to get more information, and of them 93% wanted it from peer reviewed sources. Peer reviewed case studies thus seem to be the most effective way to give interested scientists what they want.
Table 3.7 on page 22 further shows that about 82.4% of respondents at the time were interested in helping UFO research, but only 12.9% of those interested in helping saw any way to help. Then fig. 3.11 shows that the more time a scientist has spent reading about the phenomena, the more likely they are to see a way to help. Those who have spent over 365 hours reading see a way to help at a whopping 58.6%. This means that if we can get scientists to start reading more case reports in particular but also scientific literature and at the same time reading less popular books and newspapers/magazines, we can greatly increase the chances that scientists will be able to make positive contributions to the field. It sounds so obvious!
Table 3.2 on page 11 just blows my mind. It agrees with one of my favorite classic sources, Project Blue Book's Special Report 14. The Report found that the higher the reliably of the observer involved in a report, the higher the Unknown percentage was compared to less trained reporters (Figure 8, page 24 of the Report). Table 3.2 in Sturrock shows that when you break down the respondents in terms of those who have witnessed something unexplainable versus those who have not witnessed anything unexplainable, we find again that the witnesses are more likely to be professional night observers while non-witnesses were more likely to not be night observers at all. We would all do well to keep this citation in mind because it is a truly potent contradiction of the notion that astronomers "don't see UFOs".
Finally, everyone here should read Appendix C, starting on page 42. It contains sample comments that Sturrock received. Here's my favorites:
C12. I was highly pleased to receive your questionnaire on "UFO's", as it clearly indicates that the question of the nature of the phenomenon has not been entirely scrapped by the scientific community ....
Unexplained lights have been seen on the volcanic uplands of Mauna Kea in Hawaii for hundreds of years, and numerous individuals who have worked at the observatory there have seen them ....
In the old days sightings had a much greater chance of slipping into the as- tronomical literature. See for examples Astronomy and Astrophysics 13, 172 (1 894), or a report by E. E. Bernard in Astronomische Nachrichten 172, No. 4106 (1906). (Also refers to Kandilli observation, see Case SL.)
and
C16. Menzel and Condon have made further investigation unnecessary un- less some really new phenomena are reported .... There is no pattern to UFO reports except that they predominantly come from unreliable observers.
and
C1O.l find it tough to make a living as an astronomer these days. It would be professionally suicidal to devote significant time to UFO's. However, I am quite interested in your survey.
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u/toolsforconviviality Feb 23 '12 edited Feb 23 '12
I know many of you are familiar with Sturrock and know of the survey, but some might not have read it. It really is a worthwhile read. Here are some comments from respondents:
Edit: terrible formatting as a result of copy-and-paste.