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Deep Life: The Hunt for the Hidden Biology of Earth, Mars, and Beyond
Deep Life takes readers to uncharted regions deep beneath Earth's crust in search of life in extreme environments and reveals how astonishing new discoveries by geomicrobiologists are helping the quest to find life in the solar system.
Tullis Onstott, named one of the 100 most influential people in America by Time magazine, provides an insider's look at the pioneering fieldwork that is shining vital new light on Earth's hidden biology--a thriving subterranean biosphere that scientists once thought to be impossible. Come along on epic descents two miles underground into South African gold mines to experience the challenges that Onstott and his team had to overcome. Join them in their search for microbes in the ancient seabed below the desert floor in the American Southwest, and travel deep beneath the frozen wastelands of the Arctic tundra to discover life as it could exist on Mars.
Blending cutting-edge science with thrilling scientific adventure, Deep Life features rare and unusual encounters with exotic life forms, including a bacterium living off radiation and a hermaphroditic troglodytic worm that has changed our understanding of how complex subsurface life can really be. This unforgettable book takes you to the absolute limits of life--the biotic fringe--where today's scientists hope to discover the very origins of life itself.
Tullis Onstott, named one of the 100 most influential people in America by Time magazine, provides an insider's look at the pioneering fieldwork that is shining vital new light on Earth's hidden biology--a thriving subterranean biosphere that scientists once thought to be impossible. Come along on epic descents two miles underground into South African gold mines to experience the challenges that Onstott and his team had to overcome. Join them in their search for microbes in the ancient seabed below the desert floor in the American Southwest, and travel deep beneath the frozen wastelands of the Arctic tundra to discover life as it could exist on Mars.
Blending cutting-edge science with thrilling scientific adventure, Deep Life features rare and unusual encounters with exotic life forms, including a bacterium living off radiation and a hermaphroditic troglodytic worm that has changed our understanding of how complex subsurface life can really be. This unforgettable book takes you to the absolute limits of life--the biotic fringe--where today's scientists hope to discover the very origins of life itself.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published November 8, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 7, 2017
DNF @ 15%
I like to think that I'm fairly smart, and can comprehend some pretty complex concepts. I majored in astronomy and minored in physics the first time I went to college, and have four degrees now.
This book, though, is extremely difficult to read. The concepts are very interesting, but the execution isn't geared toward the layman. It's rife with hard-to-understand scientific terms from both biology and geology. I'm sure there is a very small audience that would appreciate this book, but unfortunately, it will be completely lost on the "common" reader.
I like to think that I'm fairly smart, and can comprehend some pretty complex concepts. I majored in astronomy and minored in physics the first time I went to college, and have four degrees now.
This book, though, is extremely difficult to read. The concepts are very interesting, but the execution isn't geared toward the layman. It's rife with hard-to-understand scientific terms from both biology and geology. I'm sure there is a very small audience that would appreciate this book, but unfortunately, it will be completely lost on the "common" reader.
November 13, 2016
Adventure! Bacteria!
This book is sort of like a popular science version of a tractor pull. As the tractor moves down the course the weight slides, becoming harder and harder to pull until the tractor finally can't move forward any more. Same here. You start a chapter and it gets more and more demanding until you hit the details of rRNA and pause. The beauty is, first, you had a good time getting to that point, and, second, you can start the next chapter and start the pull all over again.
In the meantime you will visit a number of exciting field sites and experience them with the author in an engaging, informative and colorful way, and without any phony breathless embroidery or ominous background music.
You'll also learn a good deal about the details of field geology and exploration. Ever wonder how you get core samples with a drilling rig? You'll practically be a roustabout by the time you finish here. Ever wonder how to ventilate a two mile deep gold mine? The answer is here. Did you ever consider how groundwater can ruin deep earth rock samples? These guys spend a lot of time wondering about that very issue.
On the con side, we cover many more professional conferences and specialty papers than I needed. But on the much more compelling and satisfying pro side, you'll come out of this book feeling like you got to be on the best post-doc field geomicrobiology gallivant ever. And there's no final exam. This is real science made available for interested readers. It is accessible without ever being dumbed down. A happy and sometimes purely fascinating find.
(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
This book is sort of like a popular science version of a tractor pull. As the tractor moves down the course the weight slides, becoming harder and harder to pull until the tractor finally can't move forward any more. Same here. You start a chapter and it gets more and more demanding until you hit the details of rRNA and pause. The beauty is, first, you had a good time getting to that point, and, second, you can start the next chapter and start the pull all over again.
In the meantime you will visit a number of exciting field sites and experience them with the author in an engaging, informative and colorful way, and without any phony breathless embroidery or ominous background music.
You'll also learn a good deal about the details of field geology and exploration. Ever wonder how you get core samples with a drilling rig? You'll practically be a roustabout by the time you finish here. Ever wonder how to ventilate a two mile deep gold mine? The answer is here. Did you ever consider how groundwater can ruin deep earth rock samples? These guys spend a lot of time wondering about that very issue.
On the con side, we cover many more professional conferences and specialty papers than I needed. But on the much more compelling and satisfying pro side, you'll come out of this book feeling like you got to be on the best post-doc field geomicrobiology gallivant ever. And there's no final exam. This is real science made available for interested readers. It is accessible without ever being dumbed down. A happy and sometimes purely fascinating find.
(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
January 31, 2017
A history of the search for microbial life in the deepest parts of the Earth, with an obvious eye towards implications for Life on Mars, Europa and beyond. Although an interesting subject, the book was written by a practicing scientist deeply immersed in this field of research and it tells. The books is filled with technical jargon and many, many long, tedious discussions of field research that all sounded the same -- we went here, drilled deep, or went very deep into a mine, got some samples, it had microbes in it. As a result, a topic that should be interesting and exciting because of its large implications for the history of life here on Earth and chances for it elsewhere is smothered by what is, for the lay reader, mostly boring minutia.
July 16, 2017
Four-and-a-half stars (would be five stars, but it does get repetitive in places). A fascinating book on a fascinating subject. It does get a bit detail-oriented and leaves off most of the academic politics (which would have been interesting), but it really is a popular science book, if a more challenging one than most (really: I last took biology or chemistry in High School, and that was over 40 years ago, and I've only taken a handful of physical geography courses in college and no geology, and I didn't find it all that hard to follow). There really is the thrill of the chase in the hunt for deep life, and this book clearly shows it.
October 4, 2017
A combination travelogue/diary/popular science book. It follows the author on his travels around the world to various mine and drill sights in his search for life at extreme depths. Lots of jargon and it can be confusing at times to one not familiar with the subject (which I am not) but I found the subject fascinating.
September 9, 2025
Deep Life is a detailed eyewitness account of our discovery of Earth's subsurface biosphere, though the focus on the "how" threatens to smother the fascinating subject matter. Read the full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2025...
September 19, 2017
Pretty deep reading. Find the parts you're most interested in and the book will give an answer to your questions.
December 25, 2018
A fascinating, technical book that seems a bit dense at first glance but is eminently readable.
October 3, 2019
I tried but could not make myself care about the details of drill sites...DNF
February 14, 2017
I seem to be good at picking out 3-star-ers for my annual Christmas book.
In the end, I'm not positive what audience this book was shooting for. There wasn't quite enough detail about the science to learn anything that useful (or, sadly, that interesting) and while Professor Onstott is an adequate writer, as a narrative--such as, it must be said, non-fiction can ever have a narrative with a definite trajectory--it wasn't that absorbing. I was hoping to hear more specifics about the subsurface life discovered, but that might have required a little bit more background in the book to start with to give the reader a baseline of comparison with the wonder of the team's discoveries. So maybe this isn't meant for a more casual science reader--I assume such a thing exists--and for someone with substantial background in biology. I have some, but not sufficient to fully appreciate the information here, I think. Once you realize you're not absorbing a lot of the actual science, as I said, the narrative aspect of the story, while extremely interesting at parts, is overall not quite enough to sustain the book. Again, maybe it's just not meant for a more casual reader, but really meant for someone with an extensive science background and very familiar with the ins and outs of the academic world. With a bit more background information on any of these topics, I think that would transform the book entirely.
Unlikely to read a second time, but still an overall interesting topic. Perhaps I was just hoping too much for a book aimed at more beginner science enthusiasts.
In the end, I'm not positive what audience this book was shooting for. There wasn't quite enough detail about the science to learn anything that useful (or, sadly, that interesting) and while Professor Onstott is an adequate writer, as a narrative--such as, it must be said, non-fiction can ever have a narrative with a definite trajectory--it wasn't that absorbing. I was hoping to hear more specifics about the subsurface life discovered, but that might have required a little bit more background in the book to start with to give the reader a baseline of comparison with the wonder of the team's discoveries. So maybe this isn't meant for a more casual science reader--I assume such a thing exists--and for someone with substantial background in biology. I have some, but not sufficient to fully appreciate the information here, I think. Once you realize you're not absorbing a lot of the actual science, as I said, the narrative aspect of the story, while extremely interesting at parts, is overall not quite enough to sustain the book. Again, maybe it's just not meant for a more casual reader, but really meant for someone with an extensive science background and very familiar with the ins and outs of the academic world. With a bit more background information on any of these topics, I think that would transform the book entirely.
Unlikely to read a second time, but still an overall interesting topic. Perhaps I was just hoping too much for a book aimed at more beginner science enthusiasts.
May 1, 2018
Believe it or not, this was another "bedtime story," -- I read it aloud to my twelve-year-old. Deeply grateful that I have a degree in environmental microbiology -- so I knew how to pronounce most of the words.
This book was both kind of amazing and also sometimes frustrating. The amazing part is that for a "popular science" book, I have never seen a better portrayal of how science actually happens. The grants, the collaborations, the conferences, working with outside agencies, sharing knowledge and expertise, the establishment of new protocols and paradigms. All that was conveyed by making this a personal narrative -- changing the focus from "here is a bunch of cool science stuff" to "here is how we discovered a bunch of cool science stuff." Though sometimes that got a little too personal for me -- I don't really need to hear about the restaurants you used to hang out and drink in. But I suppose that could be interesting and humanize to other readers.
The science though, is really cool. The idea that there could be microorganisms "living" or at least viable in rocks hundreds or thousands of meters below the surface -- that those microbes could be responsible for some of the geologic processes that we previously thought of as abiotic. Well, it's a notion I'd barely been made acquainted with by my advisor's work on caves when I was in grad school -- but I'd never thought of it much deeper than that. Parts of this book were so exciting to me that they inspired some light internet stalking, some new grad school fantasies and a few geology scientists I now follow on twitter.
The book does get into the nitty-gritty of science, which some reviewers have found to be too tedious or challenging. I am tempted to just say, well, my twelve-year-old enjoyed it. But again, it was being read to him by someone with a degree in environmental microbiology, and we occasionally yelled into the next room to ask materials science questions of my husband. So prepare to be challenged.
But I think it's well worth it.
This book was both kind of amazing and also sometimes frustrating. The amazing part is that for a "popular science" book, I have never seen a better portrayal of how science actually happens. The grants, the collaborations, the conferences, working with outside agencies, sharing knowledge and expertise, the establishment of new protocols and paradigms. All that was conveyed by making this a personal narrative -- changing the focus from "here is a bunch of cool science stuff" to "here is how we discovered a bunch of cool science stuff." Though sometimes that got a little too personal for me -- I don't really need to hear about the restaurants you used to hang out and drink in. But I suppose that could be interesting and humanize to other readers.
The science though, is really cool. The idea that there could be microorganisms "living" or at least viable in rocks hundreds or thousands of meters below the surface -- that those microbes could be responsible for some of the geologic processes that we previously thought of as abiotic. Well, it's a notion I'd barely been made acquainted with by my advisor's work on caves when I was in grad school -- but I'd never thought of it much deeper than that. Parts of this book were so exciting to me that they inspired some light internet stalking, some new grad school fantasies and a few geology scientists I now follow on twitter.
The book does get into the nitty-gritty of science, which some reviewers have found to be too tedious or challenging. I am tempted to just say, well, my twelve-year-old enjoyed it. But again, it was being read to him by someone with a degree in environmental microbiology, and we occasionally yelled into the next room to ask materials science questions of my husband. So prepare to be challenged.
But I think it's well worth it.
November 2, 2016
This book is far too difficult for somebody who is not already up to date with the subject. So I recommend it to experts.
Questo libro é difficile perché chiunque non sia giá un esperto in materia, quindi raccomanderei la sua lettura solo a chi é giá pratico dell'argomento.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!
Questo libro é difficile perché chiunque non sia giá un esperto in materia, quindi raccomanderei la sua lettura solo a chi é giá pratico dell'argomento.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!
April 15, 2017
This book reads as a very detailed diary of the authors involvement in the search for life deep beneath the surface of our planet. Unfortunately he does very little to explain the science or interpret the research. He spends more time detailing the drilling equipment, mine shafts, and people involved in the research than the science itself. Give this one a pass.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews