The Science of Extraterrestrial Life

Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life

Science & Math

Jack Cohen

Biological Sciences

Ebury & Vermilion

Most books about alien life are by astrophysicists, and spend their time arguing whether other planets and solar systems are habitable. This one is different. The authors point out that aqueous planets are common and where water exists life is likely. The test here is to find those features of life and evolution that are universal, and then to work out how they might have operated to produce life in other worlds. Along the way, the authors use examples of the aliens on offer via films, books and TV. Many have entirely reasonable biologies, others - cuddlies like ET, or dragons like the Alien - fail to measure up to the tests the authors set, but help narrow the search for the 'scientific alien'. The authors conclude that humans are not alone as intelligent entities, and that many others have appeared, and will appear, on other planets. And now, they argue, we can even surmise what they will look like and why.

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

Evolving The Alien

Ian-Stewart

Penguin/Random House

The wizards discover to their cost that it’s no easy task to change history. Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures that lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator — they even intervened to rid the planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto a different time track. But now it’s all gone wrong — Victorian England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won’t be time for anyone to invent space flight, and the human race will be turned into ice-pops. Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur Nightingale’s dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles Darwin whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to refute the divine design of living creatures? Can the God of Evolution come to humanity’s aid and ensure Darwin writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the first place?

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (Discworld)

Terry-Pratchett

Ebury Press

Science's traditional answers to the question: "How does complexity arise in nature?" are given at the beginning of this book. It shows how intelligence and human culture can be traced back to atomic structure, reducing the whole of nature to simple laws of fundamental physics. However, the book then proceeds to show that "How does complexity arise?" is really the wrong question. It proposes that a more interesting question is "Why do simple structures exist at all?". Scientific reductionism is useful but does not give the whole truth: it tells how but not why; it looks at insides but not outsides, content but not context. The subject-matter of traditional science is re-examined from a different viewpoint, focusing on the ability of complicated rules to generate simple behaviour, through the "collapse of chaos".

The Collapse of Chaos (Penguin Science)

Penguin Books, Ltd.

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

Astronomy & Space Science

John Wiley&Sons

Stop Working & Start Thinking

Graham Medley

Taylor&Francis

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Books by Jack Cohen