Dr Dan Q Posin - 1930s UFO Sighting and an Extraordinary Man

Back in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, a friendly face of TV science was Dr Dan Q Posin. He was a front cover personality for the CBS network and had weekly radio shows and three TV series. At the same time, he was a regular author of articles in well-known magazines like Popular Mechanics. Some fellow called Albert Einstein wrote…



It was in the February 1960 issue of Popular Mechanics where I found this little-known nugget of an early UFO sighting. Posin casually describes seeing an unknown flying object in the 1930s…



He was in the unusual position of living during the heydays of UFO reports and remaining skeptical despite his sighting. I’ve developed an admiration for the guy because he didn’t conclude that his sighting was extra-terrestrial.

Instead, the experience may well have inspired some of the visionary ideas he published in a book about space-travel and the possibilities of life on our neighbouring planets and moons.

The book is called 'Out of this World' and available through the Internet Archive as an illustrated PDF... or through Barnes & Noble as a free Nook book. It's full of humour and science made easy; he captures the times with his enthusiasm.

It begins with the UFO sighting...



Back in 1959 , popular culture was saturated with UFOs, the Space Race and growing Cold War paranoia. Rock n Roll was taking over the world and racial divisions were creating the personalities who would be marching for civil rights in the following years...

Amazing times to be alive.

Posin had left Russia to become a nuclear physicist in the USA and must have had a personal investment in all these changes. Family in Russia, a scientist and UFO witness - a cosmopolitan 1950s citizen and scientist.

In the book, he considers dogs in space, moon bases and life on Venus and Mars.





Altogether, Dr Daniel Q. Posin was quite a man and has somehow fallen through the gaps of popular history.

His final words in Out of this World...



Links

Popular Mechanics - February 1960 (pdf copy)

Out of this World - Dan Q Posin

Citizen Science Musings: My First Science Teacher

Dr Daniel Q Posin - Obituary

Dr Daniel Q Posin - Bibliography

That's neat stuff. I had never heard of this man before. I'm still absorbing it all but I flipped through the 1960 edition of popular mechanics and loved it! Great read. I also got a kick out of the old ads in the magazine. Anyway's I'll keep reading through all the info.S&F

How breath-taking the Doctor's description of our place in the universe. I haven't read a better one. Thanks, brutha...I hope your "atom" is as infinite as the cosmos are small.

files.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Kandinsky


Kandinsky, my friend, I too would like to thank you for this thread.

Despite being around when he was on the air I have no recollection of this obviously topflight fellow. Need to read his book now!

And indeed as GUT notes he seems rather elegant and eloquent... always a good thing.

I liked his noting of the "energy in the vacuum." Quite prescient, eh? That tells me he knew... a LOT!

Peace unto you.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Was he basically the Bill Nye of the 50's and 60's? The guy certainly has the Disney look. It's kind of hard to imagine there was ever a time where scientists of any stripe or color would actually say the word UFO without involuntarily donning a huge smirk. Worlds apart from today! Neat thread.

Downloaded the PDF for out of this world.
Judging by the contents page, looks like its gonna be quite a read!

Saucers and Foos by 1930s.
Sure no problem.
search.yahoo.com...

www.pritchardschool.com...

The saucers and foo "invention will go through space with a speed of 300miles per second,"

"Dec 8, 1915 NY Times:"

Just read the NY Times, way ahead of the times in this case.
Some one's fool story is bound to come true.