Is there life beyond Earth? NASA astrobiologist Dr. Chris McKay has searched the earth's most extreme environments on his quest to understand what factors are necessary to sustain life. Pamela S. Turner offers readers an inside look at Dr. McKay's research, explaining his findings and his hopes for future exploration both on Earth and beyond. Behind-the-scenes photos capture Dr. McKay, his expeditions, and the amazing microbes that survive against all odds.
An engaging account of our quest for habitable environments, recounting fascinating recent discoveries and providing insight into future space missions.
This book discusses the big questions about how the discovery of extraterrestrial life, whether intelligent or microbial, would impact society and humankind.
The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.
Habitability of the Universe before Earth: Astrobiology: Exploring Life on Earth and Beyond (series) examines the times and places—before life existed on Earth—that might have provided suitable environments for life to occur, addressing the question: Is life on Earth de novo, or derived from previous life? The universe changed considerably during the vast epoch between the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and the first evidence of life on Earth 4.3 billion years ago, providing significant time and space to contemplate where, when and under what circumstances life might have arisen. No other book covers this cosmic time period from the point of view of its potential for life. The series covers a broad range of topics encompassing laboratory and field research into the origins and evolution of life on Earth, life in extreme environments and the search for habitable environments in our solar system and beyond, including exoplanets, exomoons and astronomical biosignatures. - Provides multiple hypotheses on the origin of life and distribution of living organisms in space - Explores the diversity of physical environments that may support the origin and evolution of life - Integrates contemporary views in biology and cosmology, and provides reasons that life is far more mobile in space than most people expect - Includes access to a companion web site featuring supplementary information such as animated computer simulations
APPENDIX A: Chronology of the Exploration of Subsurface Life -- APPENDIX B: Chronology of the Meeting of the U.S. DOE's SSP Meetings -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX
Drawn from an original PBS documentary, this book strikingly juxtaposes Hubble Space Telescope photos with cover art from pulp science fiction books, and hand-drawn maps of Mars's canals by astronomer Percival Lowell with the crystal-clear images of the Viking lander. 200 photos.
In 1988 Todd discovered the secret of time travel from his step brother Jeff. Together they traveled to the Fourth Dimension where they met a species made of energy. The encounter quickly led to war as Todd assembled a team to explore and fight with him and Jeff. After a three year period the journeys into the Fourth Dimension along with war against the energy beings suddenly stopped. Twenty years later Todd becomes obsessed with time travel once again and wants to return to the Fourth Dimension. He assembles a new team after creating a new device to get him there as he begins a new series of explorations, along with his kids.
