Life Beyond Earth

by Timothy Ferris

• ISBN13: 9780684849379
• ISBN10: 0684849372
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

The search for life beyond Earth takes the human mind and spirit back down long corridors of cosmic history, probing the ancient questions of who we are and where we came from. Life Beyond Earth is the story of this exploration. A stunning blend of words and photographs crafted by Timothy Ferris, whom The Christian Science Monitor called "the best popular science writer in the English language today," Life Beyond Earth combines more than 100 illustrations with Ferris's rich, thought-provoking text and observations from such leading scientists as Freeman Dyson, Richard Gott, and Stephen Jay Gould.Drawn from Ferris's critically acclaimed, two-hour PBS documentary, the book covers broad swaths of time and space, from the South Pacific explorations of Charles Darwin and Captain James Cook to the latest space-probe searches for life and organic matter on Mars, Europa, and Titan. Ferris fans and newcomers to his work alike will celebrate this, his most ambitious picture book since the classic Galaxies, which was hailed by Isaac Asimov as "a very good candidate for the most beautiful book in the world." As James Gleick, author of Chaos, remarked about Ferris's most recent bestseller, The Whole Shebang, "What luck that the universe has Tim Ferris to report on its condition!"

Author Biography

Timothy Ferris is the bestselling author of seven books on astronomy and a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. An emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, he lives in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Preface	12	(5)
I. ARE WE ALONE?	17	(106)
In the Beginning	19	(18)
Evolution	37	(24)
The Habitable Zone	61	(32)
The Origin of Life	93	(6)
The Ice Zone	99	(20)
Terraforming	119	(4)
II. IS ANYBODY LISTENING?	123	(88)
Visitors	125	(14)
The Infosphere	139	(28)
Message In a Bottle	167	(20)
Destiny	187	(12)
Other Voices	199	(11)
Units of Measurement	210	(1)
Acknowledgements	211	(1)
Photo Credits	212	(5)
Index	217