© Associated Press Aug. 27, 1941 file photo of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was known for his leadership during World War II, but a newfound essay on alien life reveals another side of him, one that was deeply curious about the universe. “I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures,” he wrote in the newly uncovered essay, “or that we are the highest type of mental and physical development which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space and time.” Besides being prime minister of the United Kingdom during the tumultuous years of World War II, the British statesman was also a prolific writer and proponent of science. In fact, he was the first prime minister to have a science advisor. Those traits converged in the newfound 11-page essay about the search for alien life, discovered at the Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri. It was first written in 1939 and was slightly revised in the late 1950s. The museum’s director, Timothy Riley, showed the document to astrophysicist Mario Livio, who described the work and Churchill’s approach to science in an article published today (Feb. 15) in the journal Nature. Churchill’s essay was titled “Are We Alone in the Universe?”. “I was amazed to see the title of this article, first of all,” Livio, head of the…more detail
