Here Be Dragons
The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 31 January 2002
- ISBN 9780195146004
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages280 pages
- Size 234x156x19 mm
- Weight 404 g
- Language English
- Illustrations numerous halftones and line drawings, 8pp colour plates 0
Categories
Short description:
This book summarizes and presents the scientific search for life in the universe, and the current level of scientific understanding of how life begins, grows, and becomes intelligent in our Solar System and beyond. This engaging book promises to appeal not only to the general reader but to scientists as well, many of whom strive to acquire an informed perspective on the search for extraterrestrial life in fields not their own.
MoreLong description:
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 centre 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 colourful 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 scepticism' 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 contentious 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 astonomical 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.
Review from previous edition A wide-ranging, well-written, and very wise examination of the fascinating search for life in the universe, filled with the latest information from the frontiers of scientific investigation and philosophical thought.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Origins: How Life on Earth Began
Going to Extremes: The Habitats and Requirements for Life
The Incredible Shrinking Martians: Searching for Life in the Solar System
The Death and Life of Stars: Organic Chemistry and the Evolution of Solar Systems
The Planet Finders: Searching for Life Beyond the Sun
What Happens in Evolution? Chance and Necessity in the Origin of Biological Complexity
SETI: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Dreamland: The Science and Religion of UFOs
Exotica: Life as we don't know it
Many Worlds: Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle
Conclusion
Endnotes
