Life in Our Universe

by Laird Close

This offer includes the University of Arizona Life in our Universe Astronomy transcript book with 24 lectures, course guidebook, and 4 disc DVD set. It is written by Professor Laird Close.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Astronomy, Physics

Reviews

[Jim]

Close is not my favorite audio lecturer. He's somewhat repetitive, using 'um', 'honestly', & other null words frequently. He relies on pictures, animations, & other visual aides a lot without much description for audio - more as the course progresses. While I blame that more on the producer & distributor than the professor, this should have been addressed. Luckily, I knew most of the material & have mental pictures readily available.

It is a very basic course, better for young high school students, I think. He also seems to be a good astronomer (He mentions quite a few projects that he's taken part in & they're interesting.) but he doesn't present (understand?) statistics or biology well, so as an 'astrobiology' course, this is a failure.

Not recommended. This one of The Great Courses, #1898.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours...
It's a series of 24 lectures with a guidebook of over 150 pages which summarizes the information really well, but I don't think it is worth the price. Unfortunate since I was really excited about it.

1- Is There Life Elsewhere in Our Universe?: is mostly a jumping off point to lay out some of the basics needed for life from a cosmological point of view & our understanding for the rest of the course. He covers the Big Bang & some of the changes the universe went through, but left out an awful lot. Quite elementary, but he does show how rapidly our knowledge is progressing.

2- Bang! A Universe Built for Life: He basically says Earth is in a sweet spot for our type of life. I don't care for the way he puts it, though. Our type of life developed in this spot because conditions were right for it. Where conditions are otherwise, there may be other sorts of life, but probably not as we know it. Yes, it's a knife's edge, but Nature didn't do anything to foster us. Nature is & we evolved into that niche.

3- A Star Is Born—Forming the Solar System: Good basics & it's nice to hear a scientist point out issues with a theory. In this case, it is getting from meter size chunks up to 1Km where gravity starts taking effect.

4- The Early Earth and Its Moon: Again, good basics, nothing new, though. He did a good job pointing out the stability for rotation & tidal actions of the moon, both of which are critical to life as we know it.

5- Impacts—Bringers of Death … or Life?: Interesting & he demonstrates the power of asteroids as well as their danger very well.

6- Evidence of the First Life on Earth: Good job explaining the carbon cycle & greenhouse effect. Again, pretty basic & he's relying more & more on stuff he is showing, not telling. Rough in an audio book.

7- Common Themes for All Life on Earth: He's a better astronomer than biologist. This & the next few lectures were scattered & less than complete.

8- Origin of Terrestrial Life: His computations for the likelihood of life starting were awful. No, we don't understand the leap from basic building blocks to replication, but his example certainly isn't the only one nor did he present the odds correctly.

9- Astrobiology—Life beyond Earth: It is a new field, but he's not the one to explain it.

10- Has Mars Always Been Dead?:
11- Evidence for Fossilized Life from Mars: We don't know & his point about the difference between fossils & natural forces was a good one to make. He took a long time doing so.

12- Could Life Ever Have Existed on Venus?:
13- Liquid Assets—The Moons of Jupiter:
14- Liquid on Titan and Enceladus:

15- Discovery of Extrasolar Planets: Here he's back on a topic he knows well & it shows. Interesting how they do it.
16- The Kepler Spacecraft’s Planets:
17- A Tour of Exotic Alien Solar Systems:

Stop after this lecture! From this point on, he's obviously uninformed & makes some huge errors.

18- Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life:
19- SETI—The Search for Intelligent Life:
20- The Fermi Paradox—Where Is Everyone?:
21- Space Travel—A Reality Check:
22- Terraforming a Planet:
23- The Future of Terrestrial Life:
24- The Search for Another Earth:

Astrobiological Timeline:

[Carlex]

The author has written a rigorous book on the subject. He sometimes wanders off into tangential information, but I find it all interesting.

[Toni]

Definitely learned alot and some went over my head, no doubt.

L1. Is There Life Elsewhere in Our Universe
L2. Bang! A Universe Built for Life
L3. A Star Is Born-Forming the Solar System
L4. The Early Earth and Its Moon
L5. Impacts - Bringers of Death ... or Life?
L6. Evidence of the First Life on Earth
L7. Common Themes for All Life on Earth
L8. Origin of Terrestrial Life
L9. Astrobiology - Life beyond Earth
L10. Has Mars Always Been Dead?
L11. Evidence for Fossilized Life from Mars
L12. Could Life Ever Have Existed on Venus?
L13. Liquid Assets - The Moons of Jupiter
L14. Liquid on Titan and Enceladus
L15. Discovery of Extrasolar Planets
L16. The Kepler Spacecraft's Planets
L17. A Tour of Exotic Alien Solar Systems
L18. Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
L19. SETI - The Search for Intelligent Life
L20. The Fermi Paradox - Where Is Everyone?
L21. Space Travel - A Reality Check
L22. Terraforming a Planet
L23. The Future of Terrestrial Life
L24. The Search for Another Earth

[Pétur Eyþórsson]

I listend to Seth's Shostacks same series about 10 years ago and this was one of my favorate. This is more down to earh, and provides a new inisight with new data. If you liked the first, you should like this one.

[Ryk Stanton]

Interesting information but not well-delivered. The lecturer has a weak voice and chuckles at own his ideas too much. I’m sure I’m being overly critical. Rated three stars but added one back for quality of information and ideas.

[Jeff J.]

Good overview of the latest advances in astrobiology.