Here Be Dragons The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life

by Koerner, David W.; LeVay, Simon

• ISBN13: 9780195128529
• ISBN10: 0195128524
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The discovery of life on other planets would be perhaps the most momentous revelation in human history, more disorienting and more profound than either the Copernican or Darwinian revolutions, which knocked the earth from the center of the universe and humankind from its position of lofty self-regard. In Here Be Dragons , astronomer David Koerner and neurobiologist Simon LeVay offer a scientifically compelling and colorful account of the search for life beyond Earth. The authors survey the work of biologists, cosmologists, computer theorists, NASA engineers, SETI researchers, roboticists, and UFO enthusiasts and debunkers as they attempt to answer the greatest remaining question facing humankind: Are we alone? From their "safe haven of skepticism" the authors venture into the "rough seas of speculation," where theory and evidence run the gamut from hard science to hocus pocus. Arguing that the universe is spectacularly suited for the evolution of living creatures, Koerner and LeVay give us ringside seats at the great debates of Big Science. The contenitous arguments about what really happens in evolution, the acrimonious UFO controversy, and the debate over intelligence versus artificial intelligence shed new light on the wildly divergent claims about the universe and life's place in it. The authors argue that while no direct evidence of extraterrestrial life yet exists, habitats and chemical building blocks for life abound in the universe. A wealth of new astronomical techniques and space missions may provide this evidence early in the next century. Lucidly written and scientifically rigorous, Here Be Dragons presents everything we know thus far about the emergence of intelligent life here on earth and, perhaps, beyond.

Author Biography

David Koerner is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. Simon LeVay is an Independent Consultant and former Associate Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vi
Introduction	1	(10)
Origins	11	(28)
How Life an Earth Began
Going to Extremes	39	(24)
The Habitats and Requirements for Life
The Incredible Shrinking Martians	63	(28)
Searching for Life in the Solar System
The Death and Life of Stars	91	(18)
Organic Molecules and the Evolution of Solar Systems
The Planet Finders	109	(22)
Searching for Life Beyond the Sun
What Happens in Evolution?	131	(28)
Chance and Necessity in the Origin of Biological Complexity
SETI	159	(24)
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Dreamland	183	(12)
The Science and Religion of UFOs
Exotica	195	(24)
Life as We Don't Know It
Many Worlds	219	(18)
Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle
Conclusions	237	(10)
Notes	247	(10)
Index	257