Life Everywhere: The New Science of Astrobiology by David Darling (PDF)

Description

To many people, the main question about extraterrestrial life is whether or not it exists. But to the scientific community, that question has already been answered: It does. So confident are scientists of the existence of life on other planets that they’ve invested serious amounts of money, time and prestige in finding and studying it. NASA has started an Institute of Astrobiology, for instance, and the University of Washington, Seattle, began in September 1999 to accept graduate students into its Department of Astrobiology. Life Everywhere is the first book to lay out for a general reader what the new science of astrobiology is all about. It asks the fascinating questions researchers are asking themselves and one another: u What is life? u How does it originate? u How often does life survive once it arises?u How does evolution work?u What determines whether complex or even intelligent life will emerge from more primitive forms?Informed by interviews with most of the experts in this nascent subject, Life Everywhere introduces readers to one of the most important scientific disciplines of the coming century.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐How can David Darling’s wonderful new book “Life Everywhere” appeal to both beginners who know nothing about astrobiology and seasoned veterans who have already read many books about extraterrestrial life? The key is a massive amount of fresh, up-to-date material coupled with superb organization, an exceptionally clear writing style, and the lavish use of anecdotes and examples that make otherwise difficult material fun and understandable. Get a headache thinking about planets or moons in orbit? Visualize a spinning dinner plate with a helping of mashed potatoes in the center and a used stick of chewing gum at the rim! Among other things, David explains how rather than narrowing the search for the origin of life astrobiologists keep finding interesting new ways that life may begin. He describes the formidable survival skills of such lifeforms as “Conan the Bacterium,” and he explains emerging technology that will allow us to identify Earth-like planets in other solar systems and then monitor chemical processes would be highly suggestive of life. I particularly enjoyed his sure-to-be controversial analysis of the “Rare Earth” Hypothesis”, and his chance discovery of how pre-Copernican thinking may influence science today. Finding Jupiter-sized planets and mashing-up Martian meteorites are important and worthwhile scientific activites, but if you think that astrobiology is little more than this, read David Darling’s “Life Everywhere” and think again!

⭐A positive explanation and outlook for the view that life can and probably does exist in other parts of the universe, other than earth. I have read both sides of the argument and would like to think that we are not alone, notwithstanding the Fermi Paradox. Not that the “life” is necessarily intelligent, but that the processes that led to life on earth are not the flash in the pan singularity that some propose. Refreshing!

⭐The author explores multiple avenues of current and past arguments for the presence of life other than on earth. As we move forward with space exploration, these questions are critical at this point. Knowing that eventually we have to become inter-planetary species. This topic should be on all of our minds, and it’s time to move away from science fiction and explore what we know and what we should expect to find. We need to consider the challenges we’ll face as we move forward on earth and beyond. This book is a great product for a start down this necessary path. Somewhat scientific at points, which is necessary. Overall great read.

⭐David Darling’s excellent new book does an effective job of presenting the main topics of astrobiology in a conversational writing style that is easy to read and understand. Without assuming prior knowledge on the part of the reader it clearly explains the very latest research with fascinating details and well-chosen examples that will hold the interest of experts as well as newcomers.Life Everywhere explores the conditions assumed to exist on prebiotic Earth and the various explanations for how life arose. Supporters of the various hypotheses are lumped together as “surface, sunlight” guys (who believe in Darwin’s “warm little pond”) and “deep, dark” guys (who believe that life arose near hydrothermal vents). Each new discovery gives a new advantage to one team or the other. The book also discusses the possibility of life on other planets and moons in our solar system, and it gives the most convincing and clear explanation I’ve found for the possible role of comets in the origin of life’s building materials.The science in Life Everywhere is solid, and the treatment of opposing theories is open and even-handed, with the exception of the Rare Earth theory which, according to Dr. Darling, is a theory based more on theological conservatism than on scientific fact. Life Everywhere is not a large book, but it contains a wealth of up-to-date information about the new science of astrobiology. If you are interested in the scientific study of life’s beginnings and limits and the search for life on other worlds, I strongly recommend Life Everywhere as the first book to read for anyone new to the subject. For anyone already familiar with the basics of astrobiology, this is still an interesting new look at a rapidly-evolving science.

⭐This is the best book on the subject I’ve come across. It certainly lives up to the billing given by James Kasting, of Penn State Astrobiology Center, on the cover: “A lucid and surprisingly accurate introduction to the field of astrobiology and a thoughtful response to the Rare Earth hypothesis.” Chapter 6 pretty well demolishes Rare Earth and exposes its surprising creationist roots. Elsewhere, Darling explains when and where we might expect to find extraterrestrial life, what methods we’ll use to detect it, the missions and projects planned over the next 10-20 years, the latest on the controversies surrounding Mars, the Martian meteorites, Europa, organic matter in space, and extrasolar planets, and the principles that might govern life wherever it appears. He manages to cram a huge amount of information and ideas into a small space and yet it’s so well explained you never get lost in the detail. It’s hard to believe that the “reader” who gave the book only two stars actually read it at all. I can see how it might not be popular with those who want to cling to the belief that the Earth and humans are somehow special. But the fact is this is first-class science in a first-class package.

⭐Item reviewed: Basic Books paperback, 2001.OVERVIEWA surprisingly readable, and admirably brief, exposition of the view that life exists in many places in the Universe. In part, it is a reply to an earlier book whose view is that complex life is rare. It deals with science in a way that is accessible to laypersons and is well written in excellent English.DETAILIs life common in the Universe, or not? A simmering debate was warmed up some years ago by Peter Ward & Donald Brownlee (hereafter W&B), professors respectively of geology and astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle, with the title

⭐Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe

⭐. They are supported by William Burger in

⭐Perfect Planet, Clever Species: How Unique are We?

⭐, and by Brownlee’s colleague Guillermo Gonzalez, in

⭐The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery

⭐. James Kasting, in

⭐How to Find a Habitable Planet (Science Essentials)

⭐, denies that Earths are rare. Ward & Brownlee’s arguments have been specifically criticized, and for some refuted, by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart in

⭐What Does a Martian Look Like?: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life

⭐, and David Darling in this work.Chapter 1 is a discussion of what life is.Chapter 2 discusses how life can originate. Really this chapter is about the origin of Earth life.Chapter 3: we are bombarded with organics from outer space. In the case of Mars and Earth, the meteor-borne traffic is two-way, but 20 times greater in our direction.Chapter 4 considers where in the Solar System there might be life today. The remarkable physical properties of water.Chapter 5: the habitable zones of stars, and how they move outwards over time.Chapter 7 concerns variation in life. A rerun of Earth’s history would never produce the same species, but would produce the same solutions to problems such as defence or movement; so evolution is predictable only in terms of producing the same universals. Multicellularity is an advantageous property that can arise in a number of ways.Chapter 8 is about how we might detect life. The last part of this is somewhat dated, discussing forthcoming space probes and satellites that now have either long finished or been cancelled.Chapter 9 reviews how certain possible future discoveries, positive or negative for life, might affect astrobiology.Chapter 6 is where the author rebuts, fairly successfully, the arguments of the Rare Earth book. W&B, the authors of the latter, accept that statistically, with so many potentially habitable planets, primitive life will be bound to have evolved in some places. However, they maintain that the conditions for complex life (vaguely defined as animals on p.xiii of W&B) to evolve are so stringent that such life would be extrememly rare – ours may be the only planet in the Galaxy with animals. To make this argument, W&B bring in a very wide variety of factors, including many which would affect all kinds of life – e.g. stellar metallicity, planetary formation and composition, effects of a large moon and Jovian type planet, etc.Darling correctly points out that W&B have taken practically every contingent fact of Earth’s existence and assumed that it would have to apply to a planet with advanced life. In the great majority of cases, we don’t know whether it is true or not, or to what extent variations could be tolerated or might even be beneficial.No attempt is made by Darling to deal in detail with every argument of W&B (that would have made it a different and much longer book), but on p95, he picks what he considers to be the seven most salient arguments used by W&B, and deals with them individually. On one particular factor, the likelihood of Earthlike planets, where each party argued differently, we now know, thanks to the Kepler satellite, that Darling was indeed right – there are many Earthlike planets in habitable zones.Darling also discusses how Guillermo Gonzalez, now known to be an old-earth creationist, had advised and influenced W&B. Normally religious beliefs do not come into science, because it is (or should be) based on experiment. However, there is a lot of speculation in W&B, and their judgement may well have been swayed by someone who had a hidden agenda.There is always the question of bias. Darling’s most obvious bias is towards the Earth-type biochemistry that is so common in astrobiology and is also present in W&B.It is not necessary to read W&B before reading this book. However, if the reader has the inclination and sufficient scientific background, it might be advantageous to do so and compare the arguments.Full references are given. There is a useful index.

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