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By (Editor's Note: The following article, by Frank B. Salisbury, Head of the Plant Science Department, Utah State University, first appeared in the January 1967 issue of Bio-Science, published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences. We are indebted to Mr. Salisbury and to Bio-Science for permission to reprint this article here. While some of the material included in Mr. Salisbury's text is also covered in other articles in this book, we felt it important to repeat it now to give our readers this complete and authoritative summing-up of the present status of the UFO problem.) A phenomenon is abroad in the land. Since shortly after the beginning of recorded history, but particularly during the past two decades, many people have reported visual observations of phenomena which they interpret as objects so intricate in their structure and proficient in their maneuvers that they far surpass the current human technology. The apparent objects are usually in the sky, but in a few cases they are on the ground or landing or taking off from the ground. Although they may not be flying and they may not be objects, they are called unidentified flying objects: UFOs for short. What is the significance of these strange, typically aerial phenomena? There are many extremely important implications in the area of psychology. Perhaps the most obvious is the possibility that the UFOs may be purely psychological phenomenon such as hallucinations. Of much greater importance, however, could be the psychological questions of interpretation. These are valid regardless of what elicits the response in the witness - a real spaceship from Mars or a spotlight shining on a gossamer cloud. The number of witnesses to these phenomena has increased tremendously in recent years (probably a sizable fraction of 1% of the world's population has been involved in "good" sightings), therefore the phenomenon is of obvious sociological importance. It could influence the relationships between nations or programs of space exploration. It might even, given the proper circumstances, develop into a panic of severe proportions. There is ample justification from the sociological standpoint for a detailed study of the UFO phenomenon. My interest developed from the field of exobiology. If the UFOs are extraterrestrial spaceships guided by intelligent beings (as many of their witnesses insist), then they are of the most pressing interest to the exobiologist. Current speculation about life on Mars (Jackson and Moore, 1965; Salisbury, 1962, 1966) would be naive indeed if such were the case. Although they would have virtually no significance to exobiology if they are not extraterrestrial, the possibility that they might be seems great enough to merit at least a preliminary investigation. We might well consider the UFOs from the standpoint of the philosophy of scientific method. Even if the scientific community at large were sincerely interested in the study of the phenomena, it would encounter many difficulties in knowing what approach to take. UFO sightings are events which 3 - The Scientist And The UFO Frank B. Salisbury