Wes Seidel

I was 25 years at Stanford (sleep research, School of Medicine), which led to a startup (Hypnion) based on technology we developed. After 6 years, we were purchased by Eli Lilly & Co. Lilly moved us to their neuroscience research facility near Ascot, England, where we lived for 7 years. We retired to Carmel, Calif. My current interest is astrophysics. As a scientist, the question is not just what we know, but rather, why don't we know more? This gets into technical issues, but there's a thrill in understanding the reasons for the current limits to human knowledge. Concerning exoplanets: I think the question, at bottom, is not whether life exists elsewhere, nor even whether intelligence exists elsewhere — what I think we most want to know is whether love exists elsewhere; for if not, we are truly alone.