"Where we are, I'd expect that by the end of October, we'll be at 500 if things keep going the way they're going," said Jon Jenkins of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute.

Choksi pressed the point, describing a female employee who had recently talked to her about taking a short maternity leave because she feared that she would lose her job if she stayed out longer.

Over the next fifteen years, Scott Joplin kept writing ragtime music as well as two operas, a symphony, a musical and other works. However, many of these were never published and have been lost.