and i m kerry sayers. and i your host, bill kurtis. this is through the decades. there are only so many corners of this world that we have not explored but the mystery of what or who call those nooks and crannies home fascinates us. entire industries have been born to shine a light in the shadows o a elaborate backstories. so in the next hour, we are looking back on the theories, hoaxes, mysteries and the lengths we will go to try and find an answer. we begin in roswell, new mexico. a site of so much lore. the centerpiece of any number of conspiracy theories that have forever connected the otherwise mundane southwestern town with the extra-terrestrial. it s a cultural identity created over a single event that ordinary but would morph into something extraordinary. in july, 1947. something crashed on a ranch near roswell, new mexico. initially reported to be some kind of flying saucer, the air force put that speculation to rest taking reporters to the site of the crash and sho
that spiral symbol represents bellyache which was one of the symptoms, early symptoms of smallpox. we know that they traded and rated with the mandan, but no account of such an outbreak exists among the mandan people. so where else can we look? the telltale evidence may well lie buried in ghost towns like double ditch. remember, by 1600 or so the mandan at double ditch had ensconced themselves behind the 2nd fortification rate , the outermost ring that we can still see today. now, at some point the villagers contracted again, taking shelter behind the innermost ditch and palisade the cause may well have been a smallpox epidemic of 1734 to 35. double ditch in 1500 had contained a hundred and 60 homes, 2,000 people. by the mid-1700sby the mid- 17 hundreds there were just 32 homes and no more than 400 people. hunkered down inside the smallest is that you see here. and then it happened again. 1781 smallpox made its way to the upper missouri river from spanish settlements to the s
reactions would be would be even more difficult. we have come up with three approaches. history. there are times in the past that we thought we discovered life. you can see what the reaction was. also, the nature of the , acovery, and thirdly culture contact in various analogies that can help illuminate what the discovery would be like. history, discovery, and analogy are my three approaches. can we go to those one by one? tell us about history and what there is to learn from our own history about what our possible responses might be to discovery of life. a great deal, although you have to be careful to say you cannot predict the future. it is an analogy itself. if you use history, you can record in detail what happened, but there is projection as to how it might affect the future. let me take three cases in past history. one of the earliest one is in move something called the hoax which was a series of articles in the new york sun claiming that the famous astronomers s
programming, include varying points of view, and be submitted by january 2015. grab a camera and get started today. traveledan history tv to the library of congress kluger center in washington, in. which was established 2000. the center welcomes over 100 scholars every year to pursue research interests at one of the worlds largest libraries. next, we speak with one of their 2014 fellows. joining us on american history tv is stephen dick, a former nasa chief historian. tell us what astrobiology is. astrobiology is a search for life in the universe. that involves the search for origin of life here and elsewhere. the nature of life, the future of life, the implications if we find life. it is a very interdisciplinary subject. that is what brought you to the kluge center? we have this chair in astrobiology to look particularly at the humanistic aspect of astrobiology, which is broad in itself. i looking at the impact on am society if we find life. what is your thinking o
the first thing you have to ask when you approach the subject is how you approach it at all. it is a far out subject. trying to figure out what the reactions would be would be even more difficult. we have come up with three approaches. history. there are times in the past that we thought we discovered life. you can see what the reaction was. also, the nature of the discovery, and thirdly, a culture contact in various analogies that can help illuminate what the discovery would be like. history, discovery, and analogy are my three approaches. can we go to those one by one? tell us about history and what there is to learn from our own history about what our possible responses might be to discovery of life. a great deal, although you have to be careful to say you cannot predict the future. it is an analogy itself. if you use history, you can record in detail what happened, but there is projection as to how it might affect the future. let me take three cases in past history.