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Origins of Life: A Cosmic Perspective
Origins of Life: A Cosmic Perspective presents an overview of the concepts, methods, and theories of astrobiology and origins of life research while presenting a summary of the latest findings. The book provides insight into the environments and processes that gave birth to life on our planet, which naturally informs our assessment of the probability that has arisen (or will arise) elsewhere. In addition, the book encourages readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and to engage in lively discussions.
The text is intended to be suitable for mid- and upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students and more generally as an introduction and overview for researchers and general readers seeking to follow current developments in this interdisciplinary field. Readers are assumed to have a basic grounding in the relevant sciences, but prior specialized knowledge is not required. Each chapter concludes with a list of questions and discussion topics as well as suggestions for further reading. Some questions can be answered with reference to material in the text, but others require further reading and some have no known answers. The intention is to encourage readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and, in a classroom setting, to engage in lively discussions with class members.
The text is intended to be suitable for mid- and upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students and more generally as an introduction and overview for researchers and general readers seeking to follow current developments in this interdisciplinary field. Readers are assumed to have a basic grounding in the relevant sciences, but prior specialized knowledge is not required. Each chapter concludes with a list of questions and discussion topics as well as suggestions for further reading. Some questions can be answered with reference to material in the text, but others require further reading and some have no known answers. The intention is to encourage readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and, in a classroom setting, to engage in lively discussions with class members.
154 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 7, 2017
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January 6, 2022
I got this as part of a Humble Book Bundle while I was doing an introductory course on Astronomy at uni, and this is very much as very academic book, with lots of references/citations to other literature and studies. It is not a popular science book. I’m not sure how much you will get from this if you don’t have at least a basic high school level of knowledge about Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Geology. The book is very good at introducing a lot of the concepts used, but also uses a lot of chemical formulae and other technical terminology to explain various processes (the formulae do not show properly on my ebook reader which I’m not sure if because of my reader having old software or due to limitations of the ePub ebook format—either way, this definitely does not make them easier to read!).
All of that said, if you do have knowledge of these things, this is an, IMHO, excellent introduction to astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life. The book covers both current theories of how life has come to be on Earth (which is relevant in what to look for elsewhere), the search for life on Mars and on exoplanets, and the potential for other bodies in our solar system to possibly host life in the future (whether or not life has evolved there on its own). And ends up with a good summary of the current search for life elsewhere, “intelligent” or not.
On that note, one criticism I do have is that the author does not question “intelligence” at all, merely taking for granted that humans 1) are “intelligent”, and that 2) we’re unique in this compared to non‐human animals. I also wish he’d more pointedly noted how we’re currently driving ourselves to a climate catastrophe likely to end human civilisation when discussing the lifespan (L) variable of Drake’s equation. Ah well.
All of that said, if you do have knowledge of these things, this is an, IMHO, excellent introduction to astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life. The book covers both current theories of how life has come to be on Earth (which is relevant in what to look for elsewhere), the search for life on Mars and on exoplanets, and the potential for other bodies in our solar system to possibly host life in the future (whether or not life has evolved there on its own). And ends up with a good summary of the current search for life elsewhere, “intelligent” or not.
On that note, one criticism I do have is that the author does not question “intelligence” at all, merely taking for granted that humans 1) are “intelligent”, and that 2) we’re unique in this compared to non‐human animals. I also wish he’d more pointedly noted how we’re currently driving ourselves to a climate catastrophe likely to end human civilisation when discussing the lifespan (L) variable of Drake’s equation. Ah well.
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