What Does a Martian Look Like?: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life

by Jack Cohen; Ian Stewart

• ISBN13: 9780471447085
• ISBN10: 0471447080
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: WILEY

Summary

"A fascinating and useful handbook to both the science and science fiction of extraterrestrial life. Cohen and Stewart are amusing, opinionated, and expert guides. I found it a terrific and informative piece of work-nothing else like it!" -Greg Bear "I loved it." -Larry Niven "Ever wonder about what aliens could be like? The world authority is Jack Cohen, a professional biologist who has thought long and hard about the vast realm of possibilities. This is an engaging, swiftly moving study of alien biology, a subject with bounds and constraints these authors plumb with verve and intelligence." -Gregory Benford "A celebration of life off Earth. A hearteningly optimistic book, giving a much-needed antidote to the pessimism of astrobiologists who maintain that we are alone in the universe-a stance based on a very narrow view of what could constitute life. A triumph of speculative nonfiction." -Dougal Dixon, author of After Man: A Zoology of the Future

Author Biography

Jack Cohen is an internationally known reproductive biologist Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at Warwick University in the United Kingdom

Table of Contents

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1. Astrobiology and Xenoscience.

2. The Invisible Book.

3. Aliens, Aliens and Aliens.

4. Not-Quite Life.

5. Possibilities of Life.

6. The Drake Equation.

7. The Evolution of Alien Life.

8. Dragons, Teddy Bears, and Toddlers.

9. Modelling Alien Ecosystems.

10. Not As We Know It.

11. The Sensual Tribble.

12. The Universality of Extelligence.

13. Have Aliens Visited Us?

14. Galactic Empires.

Popular Xenoscience Reading List.

Technical Xenoscience Reading List.

Index.