> UFO‐spotters, Raelian cultists, and self‐certified alien abductees notwithstanding, humans have, to date, seen no sign of any extraterrestrial intelligent civilization. [...] If large telescopes, NASA satellites, and omplicated mathematical data analysis are involved, it becomes harder for outside observers to mistake the work for the ramblings of UFO‐nuts and other crackpots.

The author makes it clear that for a serious scholar "UFOs" can a priori only be a subject of ridicule.