Abstract

Frank Drake was a hero, a legend, an icon. His eponymous Drake Equation was the catalyst forSETI—the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It is often called the second most famousequation in physics, right up there with E = mc2. His name is recognized by highschoolstudents—a pantheon that includes names such as Newton, Einstein, Gauss, Maxwell, Planck,Boltzmann.