Life Everywhere [Paperback]

David Darling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2002

To many people, the main question about extraterrestrial life is whether it exists. But to the scientific community, that question has already been answered: it does, and within our solar system. The new science of astrobiology is already being practiced at NASA's Astrobiology Institute and the University of Washington's new Department of Astrobiology. Life Everywhere is the first book to lay out what the new science of astrobiology is all about. It asks the fascinating questions researchers in astrobiology are asking themselves: What is life? How does it originate? How often does life survive once it arises? How does evolution work? And what determines whether complex or intelligent life will emerge from more primitive forms? Informed by interviews with most of the top people in this nascent field, this book introduces readers to one of the most important scientific developments of the next century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Are we alone? As the search for extraterrestrial intelligence comes more and more into the mainstream, scientists like David Darling step up to explain what we know and what's possible. His book Life Everywhere explores the history and current state of the field called, perhaps unfortunately, astrobiology. Devoted neither to organisms skimming the sun's surface nor to possible signs of intelligence among celebrities--though not explicitly rejecting these phenomena--astrobiology is concerned with the basic questions of life: What is a living organism? Is it common, or likely, elsewhere in the universe? Is it worth trying to communicate across light years? Darling, an astronomer and science journalist, has a knack for explaining complexities and fine details that carries his prose forward where other authors have foundered; the reader is swept up in the enthusiasm of the researchers Darling describes. Writing of the astronomical search for signs of life far off in the galaxy, he captures the thrill of this work:

Their efforts will revolutionize astrobiology, more so perhaps than spacecraft parachuting down out of the orange sky of Titan or roving the rock-strewn deserts of Mars. The world-shaking headlines of the next twenty years will likely come from giant instruments, on the ground and in Earth orbit, gazing with far sight at the planetary systems of other stars.

Since most research germane to the field has been done here on Earth, Darling explores such hot topics as heat vents and other geothermal mini-biomes, meteoritic dissection, and, of course, SETI's radio telescope arrays. Mars, Venus, and the moons of the outer planets are all major characters, and their stories will reinvigorate most readers' excitement about the prospects of having neighbors just down the cosmic street. Ending with a set of hypotheses and brief explorations of their ramifications if shown to be true, Life Everywhere is an outstanding and thought-provoking look at what could ultimately be the most world-shaking research ever conducted. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A lucid and surprisingly accurate introduction to the field of astrobiology and a thoughtful response to the Rare Earth hypothesis." -- James R. Kasting, Penn State Astrobiology Research Center

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (May 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465015646
• ISBN-13: 978-0465015641
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #421,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended book, June 9, 2001

By 

"seticentral" (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Everywhere: The New Science Of Astrobiology (Hardcover)

David Darling's excellent new book does an effective job of presenting the main topics of astrobiology in a conversational writing style that is easy to read and understand. Without assuming prior knowledge on the part of the reader it clearly explains the very latest research with fascinating details and well-chosen examples that will hold the interest of experts as well as newcomers.
Life Everywhere explores the conditions assumed to exist on prebiotic Earth and the various explanations for how life arose. Supporters of the various hypotheses are lumped together as "surface, sunlight" guys (who believe in Darwin's "warm little pond") and "deep, dark" guys (who believe that life arose near hydrothermal vents). Each new discovery gives a new advantage to one team or the other. The book also discusses the possibility of life on other planets and moons in our solar system, and it gives the most convincing and clear explanation I've found for the possible role of comets in the origin of life's building materials.
The science in Life Everywhere is solid, and the treatment of opposing theories is open and even-handed, with the exception of the Rare Earth theory which, according to Dr. Darling, is a theory based more on theological conservatism than on scientific fact. Life Everywhere is not a large book, but it contains a wealth of up-to-date information about the new science of astrobiology. If you are interested in the scientific study of life's beginnings and limits and the search for life on other worlds, I strongly recommend Life Everywhere as the first book to read for anyone new to the subject. For anyone already familiar with the basics of astrobiology, this is still an interesting new look at a rapidly-evolving science.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Everywhere?, October 14, 2001

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Everywhere: The New Science Of Astrobiology (Hardcover)

The dust jacket quotes Lynn Margulis who suggests a question mark for the title. Cautioned by the question mark, this book is an excellent introduction to astrobiology. Having reviewed Rare Earth by Ward et al., and being unaware of the surrounding debate behind the book, I recommend this rejoinder as highly useful dialectic to put the full context of the argument in perspective, in fact Amazon is selling the two books together. The book also contains some interesting considerations on the issues of divergence and convergence in evolution, and might have been more explicit in suggesting or discussing the issue of the 'inevitability' of life beyond the question of natural selection.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!, May 14, 2001

By 

Michael S. Case (Mpls, MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Everywhere: The New Science Of Astrobiology (Hardcover)

This is the best book on the subject I've come across. It certainly lives up to the billing given by James Kasting, of Penn State Astrobiology Center, on the cover: "A lucid and surprisingly accurate introduction to the field of astrobiology and a thoughtful response to the Rare Earth hypothesis." Chapter 6 pretty well demolishes Rare Earth and exposes its surprising creationist roots. Elsewhere, Darling explains when and where we might expect to find extraterrestrial life, what methods we'll use to detect it, the missions and projects planned over the next 10-20 years, the latest on the controversies surrounding Mars, the Martian meteorites, Europa, organic matter in space, and extrasolar planets, and the principles that might govern life wherever it appears. He manages to cram a huge amount of information and ideas into a small space and yet it's so well explained you never get lost in the detail. It's hard to believe that the "reader" who gave the book only two stars actually read it at all. I can see how it might not be popular with those who want to cling to the belief that the Earth and humans are somehow special. But the fact is this is first-class science in a first-class package.