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Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

U.S. House of Representatives · 1968-07-29 · 256 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.

Open the PDF at page 151 Original source ↗

“Open Minds”9 pages

  • p. 7 …With the range in mind, then, we have invited six outstanding scientists to address us today…
  • p. 46 …Expert psychological opinion is badly needed in assessing such reports (expert but not close-minded opinion…
  • p. 68 …we scientists are by no means as open-minded and fearlessly independent as we are sometimes…
  • p. 92 …origin which the committee must have in mind. I'm delighted to tell about contemporary scientific…
  • p. 97 …those views, and you simply keep an open mind and pursue whatever facts are at hand…
  • p. 140 …Nevertheless, it still is an open possibility in my mind. It seems reasonable, therefore, to undertake…
  • p. 215 …The Open and Closed Mind. N.Y .: Basic Books, 1960. Sprinkle, R. L. Scientific Attitude Survey…
  • p. 217 …The keys to scientific achievement have several notches, but the material is comprised of competent open…
  • p. 244 …We should, in deference to the scientific method, examine with a completely open mind any evidence…
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13) Markowitz, W. (1967) Science, Vol. 157, pp. 1274-1279.
14) McDonald, J. (1967) The UFO Phenomenon - A New Frontier
Awaiting Serious Scientific Exploration," (An article on an interview
with Dr. McDonald by Nyla Crone) Arizona Daily Wildcat, April 6,
pp. 6 to 8.
15) Menzel, D. H. (1953) Flying Saucers, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Mass.
16) Minas, J. S. and Ackoff, R. L. (1964) "Individual and Collective
Judgements," Chapt. 17 in Human Judgements and Optimality,
Edited by M.W. Shelly, II and G. L. Bryan, John Wiley and Sons,
New York, pp. 351-359.
17) O'Keefe, J.A. (1967) Letter dated October 26.
18) Page, T. (1968) "Photographic Sky Coverage for the Detection
of UFO's," Science, Vol. 160, pp. 1258-1260.
19) Powers, W.T. (1967) "Analysis of UFO Reports," Science,
7 April, 1967, p. 11.
20) Robey, D. H. (1960) "A Hypothesis on the Slow Moving Green
Fireballs," Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 17,
No. 11.
21) Rosa, R. J. , Powers, W. T., Valee, J. F. , Gibbs, T. R. P.,
Steffey, P.C., Garcia, R.A. and Cohen, G. (1967) Science,
Vol. 158, pp. 1265-1266.
22) Shklovskii, L.S. and Sagan C. (1966) Intelligent Life in the
Universe, Holden-Day, Inc. San Francisco.
23) Singer, S. (1963) in Problems of Atmospheric and Space Electricity,
edited by S. C. Coroniti, Elsevier Publishing Company, New York,
p. 463.
24) Tacker, L. J. (1960) Flying Saucers and the United States Air
Force, Van Nostraud, Princeton, New Jersey.
25) Walker, S., III (1968) "Establishing Observer Creditability:
A Proposed Method," Journal of the Astronautical Sciences,
Vol. XV, No. 2, pp. 92-96.
26) Wooldridge, D. E. (1968) Mechanical Man: The Physical Basis of
Intelligent Life, McGraw-Hill, New York, Chapt. 19.

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.