Life as We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life

by Peter Ward

Overview

An engrossing and revelatory first look at the search for alien life—on Earth and beyond

For the past twenty years, Peter Ward has been at the forefront of popular science writing, with books such as the influential and controversial Rare Earth. In Life as We Do Not Know It, Ward, with his signature blend of eloquence, humor, and learned insight, vividly details the latest scientific findings, cutting-edge research, and intrepid new theories on the subject of alien life and the possible extraterrestrial origins of life on Earth. In lucid, entertaining, and bold prose, Peter Ward once again challenges our notions of life on earth (and beyond).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143038498
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/27/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.13(w) x 7.78(h) x 0.67(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter Ward, a recognized authority on mass extinctions, is professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. His books include Gorgon, Future Evolution, The End of Evolution, and, with Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth and The Life and Death of Planet Earth. He has also appeared in numerous TV documentaries for PBS, Discover, and The Learning Channel.

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating guided tour . . . [Ward’s] comfortable style delivers ample doses of personal warmth and humor along with a wealth of information and dazzling speculation. (The Seattle Times)

From the Publisher

Peter Ward's 2002 book Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe threw cold water on notions that aliens are everywhere. In Life as We Do Not Know It, he offers further, more optimistic observations on extraterrestrial life and presents his own radical hypothesis about the origins of life on earth. Even more provocatively, he discusses his work as a principal investigator on a little known NASA-funded program that seeks to create non-DNA life in a laboratory. His participation in this cutting-edge research enables Ward to specify where others can only speculate.

Ward's Rare Earth (coauthored with Donald Brownlee) suggested the unlikelihood of our finding an alien race as complex and evolved as humankind; if such beings exist, they're too far away for us to make contact with. But what about more basic forms of life right here in our solar system? Ward, an investigator with NASA's Astrobiology Institute, believes researchers might be taking the wrong approach by looking only for earthly DNA-based life forms. Truly alien life, he argues, might have completely different origins; even Earth has untold numbers of viruses composed entirely of RNA, and scientists have created similar genetic material in laboratories, so who's to say silicon-based life-forms are impossible? After introducing readers to the building blocks of life and the new ways they might be arranged, Ward speculates on what types of microbes we might find on other planets and their satellites. He recommends that future manned space expeditions include paleontologists and biochemists to follow up on suggestive evidence collected by space probes. The science is neatly laid out, and readers willing to follow his daring, scientifically based speculations will find their imaginations spurred. (On sale Nov. 7) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Ward (biology, earth & space sciences, astronomy, Univ. of Washington; The Life and Death of Planet Earth), a principal investigator at a NASA-funded research program investigating alien life forms, has written a fascinating and enlightening book that critically examines the arguments and evidences for the probability of life-as we know it or do not know it-existing elsewhere in this solar system. He discusses the major components and general characteristics of known terrestrial biological entities, the plausibility that RNA preceded DNA, the status of viruses in our living world, the new discoveries of organic forms at volcanic vents on the ocean floor, and other possible evolutionary pathways for life. His rational speculations give special attention to astrobiology's panspermia hypothesis (the notion that life came from space) and focus on Mars, Europa, and Titan as being promising sites for life forms of some nature, making the crucial distinction between carbon-based earth life and alien life. He even offers a new classification system for the tree of life that is open both to non-Earth and synthetic life forms. This informative and unique book is highly recommended for all academic and public science collections.-H. James Birx, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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