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Available
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Description
For the past 20 years, Peter Ward has been at the forefront of popular science writing with books such as the influential and controversial Rare Earth. Ward, with his signature blend of eloquence, humour and learned insight, vividly details the latest scientific findings, cutting-edge research and intrepid new theories on the subject of alien life and the possible extraterrestrial origins of life on Earth. In lucid entertaining prose, Peter Ward once again challenges our notions of life on earth (and beyond).
User reviews
LibraryThing member JayDugger
This strikes me as an adequate, if opinionated, popular science text. The author would do better to concentrate the text with more science and less filler. For example, I do not care at all that the author had dinner with the "scary smart" Paul Allen. Leave name-dropping to the gossip rags, if you
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please. Not bad for a library book, but I won't read anything else he wrote that doesn't first withstand peer review. The few pages of taxonomy aren't quite worth the price of admission. The call for a manned Titan mission intrigues me, but his time estimates assume no one with will to use nuclear pulse drive. (Milksop!) Show Less
LibraryThing member fpagan
Regarding the possibilities for extraterrestrial life, Ward is somewhat less of a killjoy here than he was in _Rare Earth_.
LibraryThing member hailelib
A readable book that discusses : What is life? Can there be kinds of life different from our kind of life? Where in our solar system might we find Earth-like life and/or alien life? Could life have originated in the places where it could now live? My only problem with this book is that it really
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needed another round of copy-editing before publication. Otherwise, it is an enjoyable book on an interesting subject and it is fairly up to date, discussing findings as late as 2004. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Highly speculative. Boring and repetitive. Irritant style. Final chapters seem loosely slapped on. What irritated me most was the use of the noun / adjective "terroan" for "earth life".
LibraryThing member ScoutJ
A really intriguing look at the search for life here on earth as well as in the stars. Ward presents some compelling arguments for destinations and processes. Additionally, he tackles the topic of artificially created life here on earth and the ethical implications. Ward also argues, somewhat
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convincingly, that our current tree of life might be better as a bush. Show Less