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Other Worlds: The Search for Life in the Universe
A senior science writer for Time magazine reports on the current state of knowledge regarding the possibility of life beyond Earth. He describes the search for life within our solar system and the discovery over the past few years of planets orbiting other stars. He also profiles the people working in the field. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
- GenresNonfictionScience
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 14, 2019
I just hope we keep searching
This starts out rather excitingly, as though a kind of science drama, but dissipates into a not bad book about how the recently discovered planets around other stars were discovered. Lemonick, a Time science writer, tries to make the characters come alive, and they do to some extent, although this is no novelistic work. Lemonick emphasizes the equipment, telescopes, etc. and the techniques used. He does a good job.
The material on the Mars rock brings us up to date, circa 1997 or thereabouts: they've proved nothing, yet my guess is that we will find that microscopic life existed on Mars three and a half billion years ago. When this happens it will be a big media event, yet it will mean little to the average person. When INTELLIGENT life is found on other planets in another solar system, if that ever happens, it will be a big time media event and will have an EXTRAORDINARY impact on the culture of this world. My guess, after reading this and several other books on extraterrestrial life, is that life is common, but intelligent life rare; consequently, considering the amazing distances in interstellar space, I don't expect any kind of contact in my lifetime. In fact a half life for contact time (just a stab) might be a thousand years or more, assuming that intelligent life exists in, say, every hundred million star systems. Question: will we last a thousand years?
Lemonick celebrates the Drake equation (N=R* Fp Ne Fl Fi Fc L) where N is the number of detectable civilizations, R* the rate at which Sun-like stars form, Fp the fraction of stars that form planets, Ne the number of planets per solar system hospitable to life, Fl the fraction of planets where life emerges, Fi the fraction of life bearing planets where intelligence evolves, Fc the fraction where the inhabitants develop interstellar communication, and L the length of time such civilizations continue to communicate.
Well, they might add "Fw," the fraction that are willing or care to communicate.
As far as just the bare existence of extraterrestrial life is concerned, it might be that we would not even recognize the life forms if they tapped us on the shoulder since they might take a form that is pure energy or pure something else we know nothing about. It's not far fetched to say they might be invisible to our eyes.
The material about Europa and the possibility of life under its frozen surface in a great ocean is interesting. Lemonick says (and we've read this elsewhere) that it is now believed that life probably did not originate in wading pools as has been long thought, but probably deep under the ocean protected from the constant bombardment of comets and meteorites, nourished not by the sun but by heat escaping from the inner earth. This seems highly plausible to me because of the recent discoveries of strange life forms deep in our oceans where the animals live on bacteria nourished by heat vents several miles deep. I still like the panspermia idea from Hoyle and others that life originated outside our solar system. For some reason Lemonick doesn't seem to put much stock in this.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
This starts out rather excitingly, as though a kind of science drama, but dissipates into a not bad book about how the recently discovered planets around other stars were discovered. Lemonick, a Time science writer, tries to make the characters come alive, and they do to some extent, although this is no novelistic work. Lemonick emphasizes the equipment, telescopes, etc. and the techniques used. He does a good job.
The material on the Mars rock brings us up to date, circa 1997 or thereabouts: they've proved nothing, yet my guess is that we will find that microscopic life existed on Mars three and a half billion years ago. When this happens it will be a big media event, yet it will mean little to the average person. When INTELLIGENT life is found on other planets in another solar system, if that ever happens, it will be a big time media event and will have an EXTRAORDINARY impact on the culture of this world. My guess, after reading this and several other books on extraterrestrial life, is that life is common, but intelligent life rare; consequently, considering the amazing distances in interstellar space, I don't expect any kind of contact in my lifetime. In fact a half life for contact time (just a stab) might be a thousand years or more, assuming that intelligent life exists in, say, every hundred million star systems. Question: will we last a thousand years?
Lemonick celebrates the Drake equation (N=R* Fp Ne Fl Fi Fc L) where N is the number of detectable civilizations, R* the rate at which Sun-like stars form, Fp the fraction of stars that form planets, Ne the number of planets per solar system hospitable to life, Fl the fraction of planets where life emerges, Fi the fraction of life bearing planets where intelligence evolves, Fc the fraction where the inhabitants develop interstellar communication, and L the length of time such civilizations continue to communicate.
Well, they might add "Fw," the fraction that are willing or care to communicate.
As far as just the bare existence of extraterrestrial life is concerned, it might be that we would not even recognize the life forms if they tapped us on the shoulder since they might take a form that is pure energy or pure something else we know nothing about. It's not far fetched to say they might be invisible to our eyes.
The material about Europa and the possibility of life under its frozen surface in a great ocean is interesting. Lemonick says (and we've read this elsewhere) that it is now believed that life probably did not originate in wading pools as has been long thought, but probably deep under the ocean protected from the constant bombardment of comets and meteorites, nourished not by the sun but by heat escaping from the inner earth. This seems highly plausible to me because of the recent discoveries of strange life forms deep in our oceans where the animals live on bacteria nourished by heat vents several miles deep. I still like the panspermia idea from Hoyle and others that life originated outside our solar system. For some reason Lemonick doesn't seem to put much stock in this.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
June 3, 2019
A fun jaunt through the hey-day of the first exoplanet discoveries! The thoughtful character portraits of Marcy and Butler are spot-on.
The extensive chapters dreaming about so-called future missions are now about the graveyard of exoplanet missions that never happened. However, the mission graveyard chapter is useful for exoplanet scientists who are currently thinking about HabEx/LUVOIR as the challenges outlined in these chapters have not magically disappeared over the past couple decades.
The extensive chapters dreaming about so-called future missions are now about the graveyard of exoplanet missions that never happened. However, the mission graveyard chapter is useful for exoplanet scientists who are currently thinking about HabEx/LUVOIR as the challenges outlined in these chapters have not magically disappeared over the past couple decades.
December 22, 2020
I gave up on reading this book
December 3, 2025
Search for Life indeed, what can we do on our little blue dot to find another.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews