All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life

229 Pages·2016·1.432 MB·English

by  Jon Willis

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS
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JON WILLIS
All These Worlds
Are Yours
The Scientifi c Search for Alien Life
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
Copyright © 2016 by Jon Willis.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in w hole or in part,
including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015959236
ISBN 978-0-300-20869-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
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Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Rose and Sara.
Thank heaven for little girls.
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowl edgments xi
one Alien Extravaganza 1
two A Universe Fit for Life? 16
three What on Earth Is Life? 29
four A Biological Tour of Our Solar System 53
fi ve Mars: The Riddle in the Sands 74
six Europa and Enceladus: Life Aquatic? 103
seven Titan: Nature’s Petrochemical Plant 125
eight Exoplanets: Worlds without End 144
nine The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 169
ten The Meaning of (Alien) Life? 180
Notes 189
References: Billions and Billions of Books 199
Index 207
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PREFACE
All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing
there. Use them together. Use them in peace.
All t hese worlds are yours. The idea b ehind the title is that the
search for life in the universe, both its practicalities and its implica-
tions, is accessible to anyone with an interest in science. The quote
is taken from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two, and the use of a
science fi ction novel is deliberate.
Many of our preconceptions regarding alien life have been formed
within the imaginations of writers and fi lmmakers. Such acts of cre-
ative imagination are often quite stunning and profound, but per-
haps in ways that reveal the nature of the human creator rather than
some unknown alien. One result, however, is that we all have some
idea of what forms alien life might take, whether they w ill greet us
or just eat us, or perhaps greet us then eat us.
Such ideas may well be anthropocentric, but when teaching the
search for life in the universe to university students, I am always
impressed by how eager the students are to move beyond popul ar
imagination and how excited they are to realize that science fact
outstrips science fi ction in coming up with new and radical ideas.
Hence this book.
ix