Here Be Dragons: The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life [Hardcover]

David W. Koerner (Author), Simon LeVay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195128524 | ISBN-13: 978-0195128529 | Publication Date: March 23, 2000 | Edition: First Edition

The discovery of life on other planets would be perhaps the most momentous revelation in human history, more disorienting and more profound than either the Copernican or Darwinian revolutions, which knocked the earth from the center of the universe and humankind from its position of lofty self-regard. In Here Be Dragons, astronomer David Koerner and neurobiologist Simon LeVay offer a scientifically compelling and colorful account of the search for life beyond Earth.
The authors survey the work of biologists, cosmologists, computer theorists, NASA engineers, SETI researchers, roboticists, and UFO enthusiasts and debunkers as they attempt to answer the greatest remaining question facing humankind: Are we alone? From their "safe haven of skepticism" the authors venture into the "rough seas of speculation," where theory and evidence run the gamut from hard science to hocus pocus. Arguing that the universe is spectacularly suited for the evolution of living creatures, Koerner and LeVay give us ringside seats at the great debates of Big Science. The contenitous arguments about what really happens in evolution, the acrimonious UFO controversy, and the debate over intelligence versus artificial intelligence shed new light on the wildly divergent claims about the universe and life's place in it. The authors argue that while no direct evidence of extraterrestrial life yet exists, habitats and chemical building blocks for life abound in the universe. A wealth of new astronomical techniques and space missions may provide this evidence early in the next century.
Lucidly written and scientifically rigorous, Here Be Dragons presents everything we know thus far about the emergence of intelligent life here on earth and, perhaps, beyond.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Experts in many diverse disciplines have come together to form a new science: astrobiology," report astronomer David Koerner and biologist-writer Simon LeVay.

It is a fundamentally new enterprise, a focus of intense excitement and energy, and a recipient of huge government resources. This science has just one ambition: To understand Life in its universal context and, in doing so, to understand ourselves.

Koerner and LeVay have no particular thesis to advance about astrobiology and extraterrestrial life, no axe to grind: they have talked to everybody from Stephen Jay Gould and Robert Weinberg to the (human) denizens of Area 51. Their evenhanded overview moves from the origin of life on Earth to the search for life in our solar system to the search for planets around other stars to SETI, UFO-logy, and the anthropic principle. Since each of these topics can easily take up a whole book (or a shelf-full), theirs is something of a roller-skate tour, but one that misses no major issues. Balanced between the Copernican "principle of mediocrity" and the rare earth hypothesis of Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee, Here Be Dragons is an accessible, engaging guide to a deeply stirring question: "Is there anybody out there?" --Mary Ellen Curtin

From Publishers Weekly

Exobiology (or cosmic biology), the scientific search for life beyond Earth, "resembles a brainstorming session, with many discordant voices," according to this up-to-date report that mirrors that ferment. Koerner, a planetary scientist, and LeVay, a neuroanatomist, favor the view that technologically advanced civilizations are common in our galaxy and beyond, though many of their colleagues disagree. Their heady tour skips from "extraterrestrial environments" right here on Earth (Antarctica, Death Valley, etc.) where NASA scientists are investigating extreme environments believed to resemble conditions on other planets or moons, through the SETI Institute in California, whose radio telescopes scan the skies for transmitting civilizations, to the Bios Group, a Santa Fe start-up company that uses complexity theory to explore the intrinsic rules underlying the growth of evolving organisms or human institutions. Koerner has used the Hubble Space Telescope to study the birth of planets, and the book presents the latest evidence that planetary systems do indeed swirl around many stars besides our sun. The authors include a superficial, dismissive chapter on UFOs and reported alien contact. But their open-mindedness within the establishment field of exobiology, an area that is now the "recipient of huge government resources," is manifest as they contemplate multiverse models of coexisting universes or attend a NASA workshop where astronomers, engineers and futurists discuss antimatter propulsion and laser-powered craft. Koerner and LeVay have a gift for helping the uninitiated over technical terrain, aided by clear writing, intuitive examples, color and b&w photos, and drawings. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (March 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195128524
• ISBN-13: 978-0195128529
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,508,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Personally, I think Fermi got it right., May 24, 2001

By 

Duwayne Anderson (Saint Helens, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Here Be Dragons: The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life (Hardcover)

This book's been on my shopping list for a while, so I was delighted to find it while strolling through a small bookstore in downtown Astoria. I put it in my shopping bag, along with "The Search for Life on Mars," (Malcolm Walker, Perseus Books, 1999). This is the sort of book that almost anyone with an interest in science and/or astronomy will enjoy. It's easy reading, and doesn't really require any prerequisite knowledge.

The book isn't about dragons. It's about the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. The title's taken from a phrase used by old cartographers to indicate unexplored regions of the earth. The play on words, obviously, is that the search for extraterrestrial life takes us into uncharted territory.

"Here be dragons" is a little like "Rare earth," (Ward, Brownlee, Copernicus press, 2000) with a different slant, and a different opinion held by the authors. While Ward and Brownlee are of the opinion that intelligent life is extremely rare in the universe, Koerner and LeVay tend toward the opinion that "...the resulting pressures [of evolution] may commonly foster a trend toward complexification and the ability to react and learn." In line with the hopes of SETI, Koerner and LeVay are of the opinion that "intelligence and technology is common in the galaxy." They find the Fermi Paradox (if intelligence were common in the galaxy, where are the extraterrestrials) "poorly conceived," though they admit their views may be grounded in faith as much as in reason.

The book's flow is both logical and predictable. It begins by describing the theories of the origin of life on earth, including hyperthermophiles and life at the extreme, near mid-ocean vents and hot springs. There's a brief review of Stanley Miller's experiment in the 50's, and how he synthesized many important organic compounds by simulating what he thought, at the time, was a realistic approximation of earth's early atmosphere. But our understanding of the early atmosphere has changed since then, and it looks like the experiment Miller performed doesn't match atmospheric conditions, as we understand them today. This has led scientists to look at other possibilities for the origin of life. For example, organic compounds have been found in space, so there is some speculation that the initial ingredients for life might have been extraterrestrial. Also, recent evidence suggests that our earliest common ancestors were hyperthermophiles, so deep-sea vents may be where life first arose.

Recent discoveries of the extreme conditions in which life exists on earth has led to new speculation about its possible existence on other planets. Mars, for example, might harbor life today, deep under ground (as it is found on earth). During a warmer and wetter past, Mars might even have supported life on its surface.

Throughout the book, the authors act as scientific investigative reporters. They use the book to teach, but also to give a representative view of what different scientists and researchers in various fields are doing. Ordinarily, I'd prefer to see authors be a little more forceful in presenting an idea or opinion, and then working to defend it. But the situation with Koerner and LeVay is different. Exobiology, unlike other branches of science, is one in which the principal subject of research has not been shown to exist. The field is so new that speculation and widely divergent opinions abound. In view of this state of flux, I think it's particularly valuable for their book to sample the broader spectrum of ideas.

After describing the conditions under which life arose on earth, and how it might exist on other planets, the authors proceed to describe the direction of evolution. The point of this discussion is whether evolution has any tendency toward greater levels of complexity, and specifically whether it drives toward the evolution of beings intelligent enough to build a radio transmitter. They sample the opinions of three scientists: Simon Conway Morris, Stephen Jay Gould, and Stuart Kauffman. While these scientists share common ground, they also draw different conclusions and place emphasis in different ways. Personally, I think Stephen Jay Gould comes closest to the truth. It seems obvious to me that the chances of finding intelligence on other planets (where "intelligence" means being able to design and build a system that can communicate with earth) is about as likely as finding a woodpecker (an example used in the book) or an elephant. Humans - in spite of the inflated opinion we have of ourselves - are not the end product of evolution. Our species represents a single point in a morphological phase space of nearly infinite expanse. While I suspect there are strange attractors in this space, it seems less than obvious to me that intelligence (of the sort possessed by humans) is so close to one of these strange attractors as to ensure its evolution during the lifetime of a given planet.

The authors have a pretty interesting chapter on SETI, as well as one about science and the religion of UFOs. They end the book with some exotic extrapolations and speculation of life on other planets, complete with philosophical discussions about cosmology, the anthropic principle, many worlds, multiple universes, and a whole bunch of other subjects that are as easily tossed about by novices and experts, alike.

The book is sparsely illustrated, with an ample index and extensive list of additional reading material. It's well written, easy to read, and entertaining. It's pure speculation (of course) about what we shall find of extraterrestrial life. The real scientific value is in its descriptions of the origin of life on earth, aspects of evolution, and the way it sets the mind to wondering.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Broad, episodic overview of complex topic, September 24, 2000

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Kevin W. Parker (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Here Be Dragons: The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life (Hardcover)

This is a fairly episodic overview of the title topic, with each chapter covering a different aspect. Chapter One is about the origins of life on earth. Chapter Two is about extremophiles, those strange bacteria that lurk around hotspots in the ocean and cold spots under the Antarctic. Chapter Three focuses on the possibility of life on Mars, past or present. Chapter Four covers the discovery of organic molecules in space and other astronomical factors that may induce or prevent life. Chapter Five talks about the discovery of planets around other stars. Chapter Six follows up Chapter One and talks about evolution and whether intelligent life is inevitable given enough time or a pure happenstance. Chapter Seven covers the current search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Chapter Eight is a lightweight treatment of UFO proponents-those who think that the aliens have already arrived. Chapter Nine discusses the possibility for "life as we don't know it": the silicon-based life forms of Star Trek and science fiction fame, among others. Chapter Ten delves into cosmology and the controversial notion that the universe is uniquely suited to life, either by design, a strange form of cosmic evolution, or the existence of multiple universes.

As you can see, there's an awful lot of hopping around, making the book more like an anthology of magazine articles than an integrated whole. Still, one has to admire the authors for even attempting to cover all the bases on the subject and not just focusing on, say, SETI, as many similar books do.

Given that, the book is interesting and well-written, bringing up a lot of good topics. Chapters One and Six, in particular, provided a worthwhile counterpoint to the book Rare Earth, which I also read recently. Highly recommended for those interested in the subject.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sparkling, August 23, 2000

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Here Be Dragons: The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life (Hardcover)

What I especially liked about Here Be Dragons was how every chapter was interesting. Beginning with "Origins," about possible habitats for life from scum ponds to interstellar dust clouds to deep sea ocean vents in Chapter 2 to the evolution of solar systems in Chapter 4 to the search for life beyond the sun, the SETI experience, the UFO phenomena (in a chapter entitled "Dreamland") to the possibility of non carbon-based life in Chapter 9: "Exotica: Life as We Don't Know It," the text is lively. (Chapter 3 is about "The Incredible Shrinking Martians" who have, alas, lost their canals and greenery.)

Koerner and LeVay achieve this engaging readability by presenting contrasting viewpoints from state of the art scientists, often in disagreement. Thus we have paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Simon Conway Morris disagreeing on how big a factor chance is in evolution, and how that might affect the prospects for the development of extraterrestrial intelligence. Frank Drake and the late Carl Sagan, who are optimistic about the possibility of contacting ETI, are paired off against people like Jared Diamond, Ben Zuckerman, Ernst Mayr, and Martin Ryle, who are not.

Other books about science try to be interesting by presenting the personalities of science, but what they miss is the conflicts. Koerner and LeVay do not. They even begin the book with a visit to the Museum of Creation and Earth History in Santee, California with its Six Days of Creation exhibits (the Darwinian fish on their vehicle hopefully not noticed). They immediately contrast this with a visit to the nearby NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Exobiology at La Jolla. Additionally, they sprinkle the narrative with some interesting, sometimes irreverent, observations. For example on pages 162-163 they toss in a witty jab at Stephen Gould, a brilliant man who sometimes takes himself a little too seriously. At issue is the famous (and beloved) Drake equation. The authors write: "‛It's not an equation,' Stephen Gould tells us baldly, adding his trademark chuckle to let us know that he has finally put the thing out of its misery." At another point they tell us that Frank Drake's license plate reads, "N EQLS L," which is Drake's emphatic way of asserting his belief that we are not alone.

Truthfully, though, some of this was a little over my head, in particular the material about planet-finding techniques, including the photometric method, the radial-velocity method and interferometry. I don't think that's a shortcoming of the book, but rather a shortcoming on my part. However it didn't help that the color plates are misnumbered. (Perhaps in the paperback edition that is fixed.) Also difficult, but interesting, was the material about Stuart Kauffman's "autocatalytic sets" of replicating molecules as precursors of RNA and DNA.

I want to say one thing about the anthropic principle addressed in Chapter 9. We have a sampling of one. A sampling of one is better than no sampling at all. In fact the difference between no sampling at all and one sampling is greater than the difference between samplings one and two, and two and three...etc. It means something, believe it. We're here. That implies that the universe had to be a certain way, which excludes a whole bunch of presumably possible universes. But if the universe were different perhaps some other creatures would be (t)here rhapsodizing over just how miraculous all their coincidences are. To get all thrilled about how everything in the universe had to be exactly so otherwise we wouldn't have arrived is like getting all thrilled at bridge because you were dealt exactly the cards you were dealt since the odds against getting exactly those thirteen individual cards are astronomical.

I also like the tone of "Here Be Dragons" (from the cartographers of old), which is midway between dead earnestness and TGIF casual. The prose is lively and witty and very readable while being informative in an exciting way. I suspect a lot of hard work went into making this a book that the general public could get a lot out of. I know I did.