Alien Life: The Search For Extraterrestrials And Beyond - Softcover

Parker, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0738208817 ISBN 13: 9780738208817

Publisher: Basic Books, 2003

Synopsis

"Parker has done an outstanding job of pulling together the current scientific understanding of life on Earth and the possibilities of life elsewhere."--Christopher P. McKay, Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Parker, Ph.D, is an award-winning science writer and the author of eleven highly acclaimed books in popular science, including Alien Life, Cosmic Time Travel, Einstein's Dream, and Einstein's Brainchild.

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite an evidently open-minded attitude, Parker delivers the hard line to ET enthusiasts in his new book: "strangely, we haven't found a single sign of life beyond our solar system." In his latest (following Chaos in the Cosmos and eight other books), the emeritus Idaho State University professor of astronomy and physics summarizes recent scientific conjecture on extraterrestrial life without venturing much personal speculation. He considers the "architecture of life" and the mystery of DNA as related to its possible exploitation elsewhere; the possibility of non-carbon-based life forms; the history of Mars exploration (including the recent "meteorite from Mars" discovery); the results of NASA space probes; the discovery of distant planets through advanced telescopy; and the SETI program's search for alien radio signals. Parker acknowledges the contentions of UFO believers, but devotes few pages to claims of alien encounters such as the well-known Roswell incident. Steering clear of that controversy as "an argument not likely to be resolved in the near future," Parker's hopeful and energetic book ends up reinforcing the science establishment's lonely outlook for humanity, but still leaves room for the possibility that if they are out there, we will find them?or they, us. 79 illustrations.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0738208817
• ISBN 13: 9780738208817
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264