Customer Reviews

Faint Echoes, Distant Stars: The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth

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Science writer and science fiction writer extraordinaire, Ben Bova (only people like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan, and maybe one or two others, have done those two things any better) has two primary purposes in writing this book. The first is to bring the general reader up to date on the current status of the search for life beyond earth and the likelihood of its existence. The second is to report (and critique) the state of the political and economic wars pertaining to that search. Along the way Bova updates us on how the solar system was formed, concentrating in turn on each of the planets. He reports on the status of extra-solar planets (over 100 have been discovered as he went to press) and on why it is now believed that life may (in the form of "extremophiles") exist in places previously thought to be completely inhospitable such as deep underground, at the bottom of deep oceans, such as under the ice of Jupiter's moon, Europa, or even in interstellar clouds.

The main strength of the book is Bova's always readable prose; the main weakness is a kind of "introductory" treatment that may be too limited or simplistic for more sophisticated readers. For myself--a reader somewhere between the extremes of novice and expert--I found the book reasonably informative and certainly in no sense dumbed-down. Of course I did not need to be told (as Bova does in a gray sidebar on page 80) that "a meteorite is what is left of" a meteor "if it survives to the ground." Nor did I need to be reminded that "Einstein's special theory of relativity showed that matter can be converted to energy" as Bova does in a footnote on page 67. Or even that living organisms seem to (but do not) violate the law of entropy. There are many other examples of this concession to the beginning reader, but not so many that I was annoyed or felt my time was being wasted. The editors are to be commended for putting most of the elementary material in gray boxes, footnotes, or in some of the eleven appendices.

The book is organized into five sections beginning with what Bova calls "The Path to Astrobiology," and ending with "Tomorrow," in which he laments the lack of consistent funding for space exploration and argues that, if humans are to survive any of the catastrophes likely to strike earth (including the near certainty of the sun's expansion, explosion, and collapse in the very, very distant future) we must learn to live in places other than earth.

For the real afficionado of astrobiology, this book will indeed be much too basic. For the fairly well-informed reader wanting to know just where we are in the search for life beyond earth, there are several better books. Two that I can recommend are, Stephen Webb' outstanding Where Is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life (2002), the excellent The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World (2002) by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, and the delightful Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (2003) by David Grinspoon. Bova includes a discussion of the famous Drake equation and his take on the probabilities implied therein, but if you want the real in-depth treatment read Stephen Webb's book

As far as the politics at NASA and in the Congress of the United States goes, I cannot recommend a better book, but can tell you that Bova's treatment here has taught me little that I didn't know. That the late Senator William Proxmire stupidly bestowed upon SETI one of his infamous "Golden Fleece" awards is old news, as is the fact that Nevada Senator Richard Bryan ridiculed the search for extraterrestrial life back in 1992 and helped to persuade Congress to cut SETI projects from NASA's budget. However Bova does report the efforts of private citizens (notably Microsoft's Paul Allen) to fund SETI projects as well as the efforts of some people at NASA and in Congress to emphasize the possibility of finding at least microbial life under the surface of Mars or elsewhere in the solar system as a means of exciting the public's fancy. If the public's fancy can be sufficiently excited, that will surely persuade our representatives to vote funds to support such projects.

Certainly Bova has a clear understanding of what goes on in Congress. He writes, "Politicians make their decisions for political reasons, not scientific. The first question a politician asks when faced with a decision is, How will this affect my chances for reelection?" (p. 273)

Nothing is going to change that. That is the way a representative democracy works. What needs to be done is to educate the public (and Congress itself!) on (1) the real value of the search for life beyond earth and (2) the real value of being able to colonize, e.g., the moon and Mars. In the first case we have that most beautiful quote from Lee DuBridge (or was it Pogo?) that sets the tone for Bova's book: "Either we are alone in the universe or we are not; either way it's mind-boggling." (p. ix) In the second case we have the specter of any number of earth-confined catastrophes that colonists on the moon or Mars might avoid, such as an unstoppable disease, nuclear warfare, or a huge meteor striking the earth.

Noted author, Dr. Ben Bova evaluates the age old question of whether humanity is alone in this vast universe. Whether he looks back to Copernicus and earlier or to the SETI project, Dr. Bova provides insight into the past and present scientific wars, the religious dogma, and the political benefit/cost analysis skirmishes. The author uses planet earth to make a case that life probably exists on other orbs in the universe and even in our solar system. He argues that life on earth survives hostile planetary environs that for centuries was assumed nothing could live there and bacteria brought to the moon thrives in conditions that would kill humans. Perhaps the Martian icecaps or the Jovian moons will prove to have living organisms.

FAINT ECHOES, DISTANT STARS: THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS OF FINDING LIFE BEYOND EARTH is at its best when Dr. Bova makes the inductive case that we are not alone. The nonfiction is also quite fun to read when it looks into the past to show those times that science clashed with politics/religion. When the book goes deep into the current skirmish over funding something somewhat esoteric and not easy to see the benefits, it is fascinating but loses some of the propulsion that the history and the science provides. Still this is another strong effort by Dr. Bova, who makes no pretense on which side of the debate he supports.

Harriet Klausner

A nice introduction to the nature & requirements for life.

Will we someday find life in our own solar system (outside of earth)? I personally think so. Will we find signs of INTELLIGENT life in the universe?

Food for thought.

I enjoyed this light work of nonfiction, but was disappointed. Bova's insights science-wise are very good, there is very little to do with politics in the the book besides Congess cancelled these missions, this happened when he becamre head of NASA, and so on.

I guess you can't tell a book by the cover. I read WHERE IS EVERYBODY (Stephen Webb) at the same time as I read this work. A flying saucer with little green men adorned EVERYBODY whereas a majestic Milky Way galaxy was the selected cover art for this book. The contents, though, was exactly opposite of what one would expect. Where EVERYBODY is erudite, FAINT ECHOES is almost junior high level. EVERYBODY asks, explores and attempts to formulate answers to deep philosphical question / FAINT ECHOES is a light review of well-known knowledge with a dose of politics.

First complaint - the font is huge and there's LOTS of empty space. If the same font as EVERYBODY had been used and the useless, numerous subtitles had been omitted it could have been reduced by half. Second complaint - the science is a stripped down MTV version for those who want quick, glib answers without a lot of serious inquiry. A case in point - the evolution from prokaryotes to eurakyotes is discussed in both books. EVERYBODY offers a vibrant detailed discussion; FAINT ECHOES has a breezy, overview that hurriedly skips to the next subject. EVERYBODY has an extended, in-depth discussion (with multiple illustrations) on the role of amino acids, the building blocks of genes. FAINT ECHOES makes a few references to the subject. It's dreamlike, one of those streams of consciousness where the next thought simply spills out on the page - Mars Rover, Drake Equation, asteroids, evolution, SETI, blah blah. To generate a little interest he throws in such nonsense as ancient astronauts, Roswell, abductions, Velikovsky, Martian "canals", etc

Finally the author admits he is a true believer in intelligent life beyond Earth and issues a call to unite and become brothers and sisters of humanity. Calling all Kumbaya singers for the next rehearsal. My grade: F.