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Why do so many people become obsessed with UFOs and aliens?

They Are Already Here: UFO culture and why we see saucers by Sarah Scoles tries to find out what's so appealing about hunting UFOs

By Jeff Hecht

8 April 2020

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Cycling to Alienstock festival in Nevada

Bridget Bennett/AFP Via Getty Images

Book

They Are Already Here: UFO culture and why we see saucers

Sarah Scoles

Pegasus Books (Buy from Amazon*)

SOME people spend an awful lot of time hunting down UFOs. For Sarah Scoles, author of They Are Already Here, it comes down to human curiosity and a drive to seek answers beyond our reach.

That isn’t what I expected. My introduction to unidentified flying objects was a pulp magazine called Flying Saucers from Other Worlds, which I read as a kid. Its editor Ray Palmer had recently…

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