What do you think?
Rate this book
Life Everywhere: The New Science of Astrobiology
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.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 5, 2001
14 people are currently reading
292 people want to read
About the author
David Darling
66 books32 followersThere is more than one author in the database with this name. Not all books on this profile may belong to the same person.
David Darling is a science writer and astronomer. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Equations of Eternity, and the popular online resource The Worlds of David Darling. He lives in Dundee, Scotland.
David Darling is a science writer and astronomer. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Equations of Eternity, and the popular online resource The Worlds of David Darling. He lives in Dundee, Scotland.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 20, 2019
Includes a blistering critique of the "rare earth" hypothesis
Two things have happened in recent years to persuade most scientists that life beyond earth is not just possible, but likely. Indeed some people, including myself, believe there is, as the title of David Darling's book has it, "Life Everywhere."
Well, not in the center of the sun or on the surface of a neutron star--at least not life as we know it.
"Life as we know it." This is an important phrase that comes up again and again in discussions about astrobiology. "Life as we know it" means life with a carbon base and liquid water. David Darling considers silicone-based life and even life forms so bizarre that we wouldn't recognize them if we saw them, but basically he sticks with life as we know it in this very interesting answer to those who think that life in the universe is rare.
The two things:
(1) The discovery of extremophiles, bacteria that live in sulfurous hot springs, deep inside the earth, and at the bottom of deep oceans. Instead of deriving their energy from the sun, they are able to use heat coming from within the earth to metabolize.
(2) The discovery of scores of planets (albeit not earth-sized planets--yet) revolving around other stars.
What the first discovery means is that life doesn't have to exist or begin in conditions such as there are or have been on the surface of the earth, but can thrive in places previous thought hostile to life. That opens up a whole lot of the universe to life including parts of our solar system previously thought inimical to life, such as in an ocean under the icy crust of Europa or beneath the inhospitable surface of Mars. And the fact that planets are now clearly plentiful means that there are numerous places for life to develop.
Darling, who is an unusually lucid writer and a man who gets to the bottom of things, begins with the nitty-gritty problem of just how to define life. If you haven't been introduced to this strangely knotty problem, this book may open your eyes. Do we consider reproduction, metabolism, growth, etc. in our definition? And which of these elements are essential and which are not? The postmodern definition now preferred by most people I have read is "undergoes Darwinian evolution." Is that adequate? Is that the essence? Darling puts all the cards on the table and lets you decide.
Next Darling recapitulates ideas about how life began. The main new idea is that life may be an inevitable consequence of the nature of matter and energy. It appears that matter is self-organizing. Darling reviews the ideas of how lifeless matter might replicate and how cells might develop from various molecules and water. These "leaky membranes" could be the precursors of the first biological cells. (p. 40)
He goes on to make the case for a universe with abundant life. But along the way he presents a blistering critique of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (2000) by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, in which it is argued that the circumstances that allow life are rare and that those circumstances as seen on earth are unlikely to be replicated anywhere else. Darling not only utterly destroys their argument, point by point, but even shows that part of the reason that it was advanced was because they were under the influence of one Guillermo Gonzalez, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, who is also a creationist with the usual supernatural agenda.
This was bombshell to me. But Darling shows that nearly every argument that Gonzalez makes is designed (pun intended) to discredit the idea that there is life anywhere but on earth. On page 112, Darling refers to an article entitled "Live Here or Nowhere" co-authored by Gonzalez for a publication called "Connections" published by Reasons to Believe, Inc. of Pasadena, California, whose mission is "to communicate the uniquely factual basis for belief in the Bible." The article concludes, "The fact that the sun's location is fine-tuned to permit the possibility of life--and even more precisely fine-tuned to keep the location fixed in that unique spot where life is possible--powerfully suggests divine design."
A couple more points:
First, Darling argues that life forms on other worlds, however dissimilar their chemistry, are likely to be familiar to us in the sense that if there is an atmosphere, some will have wings, and if there is an ocean, some with have fins, if there is a solid ground to walk upon, some will walk and run, and if there is light to see, some with have eyes. This idea of "convergence" is dictated by the laws of physics which requires evolutionary adaptations to take forms that work efficiently within certain environments. Of course if the life forms we eventually discover exist in great dust clouds, their adaptations may be very dissimilar and surprising. Even on solid ground here on earth some run and some hop, some crawl and some slither.
Second, since it is now known that bacteria spores can exist more or less indefinitely (some have been revitalized after hundreds of millions of years of dormancy: see page 150), the once discredited idea of panspermia, namely that life originated elsewhere in the universe and arrived here as spores, has been rejuvenated. Personally, I've always liked this idea championed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe; however this book has convinced me that life could arrive from without or develop from within. Either way (or both) seem likely to me.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
Two things have happened in recent years to persuade most scientists that life beyond earth is not just possible, but likely. Indeed some people, including myself, believe there is, as the title of David Darling's book has it, "Life Everywhere."
Well, not in the center of the sun or on the surface of a neutron star--at least not life as we know it.
"Life as we know it." This is an important phrase that comes up again and again in discussions about astrobiology. "Life as we know it" means life with a carbon base and liquid water. David Darling considers silicone-based life and even life forms so bizarre that we wouldn't recognize them if we saw them, but basically he sticks with life as we know it in this very interesting answer to those who think that life in the universe is rare.
The two things:
(1) The discovery of extremophiles, bacteria that live in sulfurous hot springs, deep inside the earth, and at the bottom of deep oceans. Instead of deriving their energy from the sun, they are able to use heat coming from within the earth to metabolize.
(2) The discovery of scores of planets (albeit not earth-sized planets--yet) revolving around other stars.
What the first discovery means is that life doesn't have to exist or begin in conditions such as there are or have been on the surface of the earth, but can thrive in places previous thought hostile to life. That opens up a whole lot of the universe to life including parts of our solar system previously thought inimical to life, such as in an ocean under the icy crust of Europa or beneath the inhospitable surface of Mars. And the fact that planets are now clearly plentiful means that there are numerous places for life to develop.
Darling, who is an unusually lucid writer and a man who gets to the bottom of things, begins with the nitty-gritty problem of just how to define life. If you haven't been introduced to this strangely knotty problem, this book may open your eyes. Do we consider reproduction, metabolism, growth, etc. in our definition? And which of these elements are essential and which are not? The postmodern definition now preferred by most people I have read is "undergoes Darwinian evolution." Is that adequate? Is that the essence? Darling puts all the cards on the table and lets you decide.
Next Darling recapitulates ideas about how life began. The main new idea is that life may be an inevitable consequence of the nature of matter and energy. It appears that matter is self-organizing. Darling reviews the ideas of how lifeless matter might replicate and how cells might develop from various molecules and water. These "leaky membranes" could be the precursors of the first biological cells. (p. 40)
He goes on to make the case for a universe with abundant life. But along the way he presents a blistering critique of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (2000) by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, in which it is argued that the circumstances that allow life are rare and that those circumstances as seen on earth are unlikely to be replicated anywhere else. Darling not only utterly destroys their argument, point by point, but even shows that part of the reason that it was advanced was because they were under the influence of one Guillermo Gonzalez, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, who is also a creationist with the usual supernatural agenda.
This was bombshell to me. But Darling shows that nearly every argument that Gonzalez makes is designed (pun intended) to discredit the idea that there is life anywhere but on earth. On page 112, Darling refers to an article entitled "Live Here or Nowhere" co-authored by Gonzalez for a publication called "Connections" published by Reasons to Believe, Inc. of Pasadena, California, whose mission is "to communicate the uniquely factual basis for belief in the Bible." The article concludes, "The fact that the sun's location is fine-tuned to permit the possibility of life--and even more precisely fine-tuned to keep the location fixed in that unique spot where life is possible--powerfully suggests divine design."
A couple more points:
First, Darling argues that life forms on other worlds, however dissimilar their chemistry, are likely to be familiar to us in the sense that if there is an atmosphere, some will have wings, and if there is an ocean, some with have fins, if there is a solid ground to walk upon, some will walk and run, and if there is light to see, some with have eyes. This idea of "convergence" is dictated by the laws of physics which requires evolutionary adaptations to take forms that work efficiently within certain environments. Of course if the life forms we eventually discover exist in great dust clouds, their adaptations may be very dissimilar and surprising. Even on solid ground here on earth some run and some hop, some crawl and some slither.
Second, since it is now known that bacteria spores can exist more or less indefinitely (some have been revitalized after hundreds of millions of years of dormancy: see page 150), the once discredited idea of panspermia, namely that life originated elsewhere in the universe and arrived here as spores, has been rejuvenated. Personally, I've always liked this idea championed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe; however this book has convinced me that life could arrive from without or develop from within. Either way (or both) seem likely to me.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
March 22, 2019
This is the first book of astrobiology I have read. If you are looking for a general overview this is your book. I just hope David Darling decides to write an updated book because many things have been discovered since 2001.
April 20, 2021
“More then a thousand years later, Aristotle’s scheme became the cosmology of choice in Europe- approved by the Church of Rome and woven into medieval Christian teachings. A single inhabited world sat well with the doctrine of incarnation and redemption, but multiple earths and multiple sentient races did not.” - David Darling, Author
The book was partially comprehensive in the approach to astrobiology it offers semi thorough knowledge (but not fully technical), but nevertheless it expounds on the science and some of its terrestrial history. It begins by offering the reader the plausibility of the cosmological locality in were life (microbial life) may reside, the first example that’s proposed by the author is within the regions of a Galilien Moon of Jupiter, Europa (named by the discoverer Galileo Galilei). Of course this is expounded by over view into NASA’s clipper mission that involves a form of hydrophilie organisms search in the ice water of Europa in the very near future. The author challenges the reader to critically think by asking “what defines life ?”. Some would say it’s nucleic acid DNA or RNA sequence organization & information. An example of how early AI wasn’t just conceptualized as merely the machine itself, but rather what made the AI (or as expressed in the book artificial life) was its organization & information with progeny ability to overpopulate memory storage mediums. But it attempts to coerce the reader to reinforce a reference point of Darwinism evolution, in which the “warm little pond” should be the beginning premise of astrobiology. Continuing further the author expounds on a biochem experiment of a graduate student that was conducted were the temperature of a such Hadean environment concluded the proper scenario in which eukaryotes for example would derive from.
On the other hand The author circumnavigates a different course that goes “beyond the pond” so to speak by explaining divers from the Alvin expedition discovered deep within the ocean thermo vents, organisms having characteristics that were akin to heat or extreme heat (thermophiles or hyperthermophiles). And so, the possibilities of other vantages of discovering life in deep and dark areas such as the ocean (hydrophilic localities) is explained.
Some explanations about early terrestrial missions such as mariner 1, mariner 6. And the difficulties of data measures from the fly by’s to Mars are discussed.
The Viking mission is mentioned, and the discoveries of not only the weather conditions on mars -104C, the carbon dioxide, the hostile environment that would leave any bio organic organism relic looking like a frozen ancient mummy. But the sediment reading of that mission was summarized as miscalculations of indicating the micro life detection was due to the significant levels of hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide within the subsurface of mars and in the deeper sediment .
Of course the author explains to the reader ALH84001
(Meteor specimen: containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), magnetite (magnetic Iron Oxide), with hexagonal magnetite form(s), and (BSO) bateria shaped organisms) attributes. However the author does state the specimen ALH84001 may have had cross contamination, but evidently further test showed the meteorite comprised of the similar gas compositions found on Mars, rendering the meteor conclusive it was from mars containing the aforementioned characteristics.
The ideology of “rare earth” (meaning earth is unique due to locality in the HZ, historical environment events such as the Cambrian event for example, the metallicity and darwinism, it’s estimated age of only 4.5 billion years old) which is the authors perspective was discussed but really the limited knowledge on the subjects that attempt to substantiate the ideological claims shouldn’t make the “Rare earth” ideology an exceptional fact.
The book was ok, but personally to me astrobiological life and intelligent life is an absolute in the universe. Because I subscribe to a particular school of thought of truth and it’s conclusive.
The book was partially comprehensive in the approach to astrobiology it offers semi thorough knowledge (but not fully technical), but nevertheless it expounds on the science and some of its terrestrial history. It begins by offering the reader the plausibility of the cosmological locality in were life (microbial life) may reside, the first example that’s proposed by the author is within the regions of a Galilien Moon of Jupiter, Europa (named by the discoverer Galileo Galilei). Of course this is expounded by over view into NASA’s clipper mission that involves a form of hydrophilie organisms search in the ice water of Europa in the very near future. The author challenges the reader to critically think by asking “what defines life ?”. Some would say it’s nucleic acid DNA or RNA sequence organization & information. An example of how early AI wasn’t just conceptualized as merely the machine itself, but rather what made the AI (or as expressed in the book artificial life) was its organization & information with progeny ability to overpopulate memory storage mediums. But it attempts to coerce the reader to reinforce a reference point of Darwinism evolution, in which the “warm little pond” should be the beginning premise of astrobiology. Continuing further the author expounds on a biochem experiment of a graduate student that was conducted were the temperature of a such Hadean environment concluded the proper scenario in which eukaryotes for example would derive from.
On the other hand The author circumnavigates a different course that goes “beyond the pond” so to speak by explaining divers from the Alvin expedition discovered deep within the ocean thermo vents, organisms having characteristics that were akin to heat or extreme heat (thermophiles or hyperthermophiles). And so, the possibilities of other vantages of discovering life in deep and dark areas such as the ocean (hydrophilic localities) is explained.
Some explanations about early terrestrial missions such as mariner 1, mariner 6. And the difficulties of data measures from the fly by’s to Mars are discussed.
The Viking mission is mentioned, and the discoveries of not only the weather conditions on mars -104C, the carbon dioxide, the hostile environment that would leave any bio organic organism relic looking like a frozen ancient mummy. But the sediment reading of that mission was summarized as miscalculations of indicating the micro life detection was due to the significant levels of hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide within the subsurface of mars and in the deeper sediment .
Of course the author explains to the reader ALH84001
(Meteor specimen: containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), magnetite (magnetic Iron Oxide), with hexagonal magnetite form(s), and (BSO) bateria shaped organisms) attributes. However the author does state the specimen ALH84001 may have had cross contamination, but evidently further test showed the meteorite comprised of the similar gas compositions found on Mars, rendering the meteor conclusive it was from mars containing the aforementioned characteristics.
The ideology of “rare earth” (meaning earth is unique due to locality in the HZ, historical environment events such as the Cambrian event for example, the metallicity and darwinism, it’s estimated age of only 4.5 billion years old) which is the authors perspective was discussed but really the limited knowledge on the subjects that attempt to substantiate the ideological claims shouldn’t make the “Rare earth” ideology an exceptional fact.
The book was ok, but personally to me astrobiological life and intelligent life is an absolute in the universe. Because I subscribe to a particular school of thought of truth and it’s conclusive.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2019
Fascinating, and I just about understood the technical stuff!
January 23, 2026
great book
For people interested in life elsewhere,this is a good book to read. I would definitely recommend this along with books by Wallace Arthur.
For people interested in life elsewhere,this is a good book to read. I would definitely recommend this along with books by Wallace Arthur.
February 16, 2013
David Darling does a nice job of introducing the science and practice of Astrobiology in his book "Life Everywhere". That's right, "aliens", but not the aliens of the small imaginations seen in movies and weaker sci-fi novels. Life outside of earth is almost a certainty, he contends, and makes a pretty compelling case for it. Darling brings together an overview of the history of life on Earth, including the extreme forms of life that we have only recently discovered, with discussion about what type of planets have the right qualities to harbor life,and why. Factor in the the vastness of the universe and the number of candidate planets that are out there, and the prospect for ET microbes is tantalizing. Describing scientific discoveries in several different disciplines, this remains a very accessible book to a non scientist. Unfortunately, Darling lost his way for a chapter that distilled into a rant about "Rare Earth", a book that describes why only Earth could possibly have intelligent life. If you have ever looked up into the night sky and wondered "what if", this book should give you cause to smile.
June 19, 2014
Some of this may be a little out of date at this point, since the book was written in 2001, but I still thought it was a really good overview of astrobiology--what scientists in the astrobiology community are looking for, and where, and why, and how those findings will affect us here on Earth. Although Darling definitely seems to be in the "there's DEFINITELY life out there somewhere, FOR SURE!" camp, he comes across as open to the idea that further research and findings could prove that assumption false. I don't really have an opinion on the matter myself, but I think it's a really interesting thing to think about and read about! Darling really conveys his excitement in the field well, and while a couple other reviewers apparently didn't find this book very compelling, I kind of did. Anyway, there are probably newer books that have more up to date info, but I really liked this one, and am glad I paid a whole dollar for it at Half Price Books about three years ago--ha!
January 2, 2011
Entertaining and mind-expanding. Darling presents his case ably, in much the way a trial attorney would: he starts with bold claims, then presents supporting evidence in an authoritative way, explaining its historical context and walking you through the scientific process (the "how do we know") that generated that evidence. Like a good lawyer, he also pokes holes in the evidence for the opposing "rare earth" theory and raises questions about the veracity and motives of its primary advocates. Despite this obvious slant, I never got the impression that Darling was hiding the ball.
The biggest downside to Life Everywhere is that it was written back in 2001, a virtual lifetime ago for such a fast-developing field of science. Anyone know of a more recent book bringing this story up to date?
The biggest downside to Life Everywhere is that it was written back in 2001, a virtual lifetime ago for such a fast-developing field of science. Anyone know of a more recent book bringing this story up to date?
April 25, 2009
For all its enthusiasm, this book does one thing astonishly well: it refutes, point by point, the Rare Earth hypothesis (which basically states that complex life as we relatively know it exists only on Earth). I have yet to read Rare Earth (don't really want to give them my money) this book convinced me, quite cocisely, that its authors are wrong.
November 13, 2014
A very interesting introduction to astrobiology--the study of life's origins and the search for its existence elsewhere in the universe. It covers the history and current state of the field, and it also discusses some of the controversy surrounding it.
July 19, 2010
Read this a ways back. It's a counter-argument to Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, but I don't recall it being very compelling.
April 4, 2011
A good if brief overview of "astrobiology", a bit dated now, but a good answer to Rare Earth.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews