Life on Other Worlds: The 20th-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate

by Steven J. Dick

• ISBN13: 9780521620123
• ISBN10: 0521620120
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and possible microfossils in Martian meteorite ALH 84001 are only the latest developments in a debate that spans millennia, and that has been especially heated in the twentieth century. From the furore over Percival Lowell's claim of canals on Mars at the beginning of the century to the biological experiments of the Viking spacecraft, the controversial 'Mars rock', and the sophisticated Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) at its end, otherworldly life has often titillated and occasionally consumed science and the public. So too have crucially related areas such as the search for planetary systems, the quest for an explanation of UFOs, and inquiries into the origin of life. The theme has been elaborated in science fiction from H. G. Wells to Arthur C. Clarke, and resulted in some of the most popular films of all time, including ET, Aliens, Independence Day, and Contact. Life on Other Worlds details in a readable and non-technical manner the history of the twentieth century extraterrestrial life debate, one of the pervasive themes of our century.

Author Biography

Steven J. Dick is an astronomer and historian of science at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables	ix
Acknowledgments	xii
Introduction	1	(5)
From the Physical World to the Biological Universe: Democritus to Lowell	6	(19)
The Cosmological Connection	7	(8)
Philosophical Explorations	15	(2)
Scientific Foundations	17	(8)
Life in the Solar System	25	(45)
Lowell and Mars: The Search for Intelligence, 1894-1924	26	(18)
The Search for Martian Vegetation, 1924-1957	44	(9)
The Space Age: Lowell's Legacy Overturned	53	(12)
Reprise: Martian Fossils and European Seas	65	(5)
Solar Systems Beyond	70	(36)
Skepticism: Close Encounters of the Stellar Kind	71	(7)
Turning Point: 1943-1958	78	(10)
Optimism: Observation to the Rescue	88	(18)
Extraterrestrials in Literature and the Arts: The Role of Imagination	106	(31)
The Invention of the Alien: Verne, Wells, and Lasswitz	107	(9)
The Development and Uses of the Alien: Burroughs to Bradbury	116	(9)
The Alien Comes of Age: Clarke to E.T. and Beyond	125	(12)
The UFO Controversy and the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis	137	(32)
The Rise of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis	138	(12)
The Peak of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, 1965-1969	150	(9)
Aftermath: The Nature of Evidence and the Decline of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis in Physical Science	159	(10)
The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Extraterrestrial Context	169	(31)
Origins of Life and Extraterrestrial Life: A Space Age Symbiosis	170	(22)
Evolution and Extraterrestrials: Chance and Necessity Revisited	192	(8)
SETI: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence	200	(36)
Cornell, Ozma, and Green Bank: The Opening of the Electromagnetic Spectrum for SETI	201	(11)
A Rationale for SETI: Optimists, Pessimists, and the Drake Equation	212	(10)
A Strategy for SETI: The Development of Observational Programs	222	(14)
The Meaning of Life: Implications of Extraterrestrial Intelligence	236	(25)
Perceptions of Cultural Impact	237	(8)
Astrotheology	245	(9)
Life and Purpose in the Universe: The Anthropic Principle	254	(7)
Summary and Conclusion: The Biological Universe	261	(13)
The Triumph of Cosmic Evolution	261	(4)
The Biological Universe as Cosmological Worldview	265	(1)
The Problem of Evidence and the Limits of Science	266	(3)
The Cultures of Science	269	(1)
Exobiology as Protoscience	270	(1)
Cultural Significance of the Debate	271	(3)
Select Bibliographical Essay	274	(5)
Index	279