Abstract
Before the Space Age, searching for life and intelligence on the other planets of our solar system always left room for doubt. We knew that our telescopes might not be able to detect evidence of living things or the artifacts of another civilization at interplanetary distances. If we had confined ourselves to peering through our atmosphere, we might have remained forever uncertain; debates could have continued without any prospect of final resolution.
Life is, after all, just a state of matter, albeit a weird one. —Physicist Paul Davies, 20051
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Paul Davies, “A Quantum Recipe for Life,” Nature, Vol. 437 (6 October 2005), 819.
Dick, The Biological Universe, 141–142; Dick and Strick, 18.
Luann Becker, et al., “Higher Fullerenes in the Allende Meteorite,” Nature, Vol. 400 (15 July 1999), 227–228; Dick, The Biological Universe, 372; David Darling, Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology, New York, Basic, 2001, 49.
Faint Echoes, Distant Stars: The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth, New York, Morrow, 2002 Bova, 91; Dick and Strick, 78.
Darling, 58; Dick and Strick, 80.
Sean C. Solomon, et al., “New Perspectives on Ancient Mars,” Science, Vol. 307 (25 February 2005), 1214–1219; Richard A. Kerr, “On Mars, A Second Chance for Life,” Science, Vol. 306 (17 December 2004), 2010–2012; Richard A. Kerr, “And Now, the Younger, Dry Side of Mars is Coming Out,” Science, Vol. 307 (18 February 2005), 1025–1026.
H. Strughold, “Is Mars Covered with Ice?” International Science and Technology, Number 30, June 1964, 11–12; Philip R. Christensen, “The Many Faces of Mars,” Scientific American, July 2005, 32–39.
G.L. Chaikin, “A Transitional Hypothesis Concerning Life on Interstellar Bodies,” Popular Astronomy, Vol. 59, Number 1 (January 1951), 50–51.
Kenneth Chang, “Life on Mars? Could Be, But How Will They Tell?” The New York Times, 29 March 2005; Michael Carroll, “Europa: Distant Ocean, Hidden Life?”, Sky and Telescope, December 1997, 50-55.
Christopher P. McKay, in Dick, editor, Many Worlds, 45–56.
James Lovelock, “The Living Earth,” Nature, Vol. 426 (18/25 December 2003), 769–770; James E. Lovelock, “The Recognition of Alien Biospheres,” Cosmic Search, Year End 1980, 2-4, 18; E.G. Nisbet and N.H. Sleep, “The Habitat and Nature of Early Life,” Nature, Vol. 409 (22 February 2001), 1083–1100; George Gaylord Simpson, “The Nonprevalence of Humanoids,” in Goldsmith, editor, 214–221, originally published in Science, Vol. 143 (1964), 769–775.
See, among others, Luis P. Villarreal, “Are Viruses Alive?” Scientific American, December 2004, 101–105.
Philip Ball, “Seeking the Solution,” Nature, Vol. 436 (25 August 2005), 1084–1085.
George A. Seielstad, At the Heart of the Web: The Inevitable Genesis of Intelligent Life, Boston, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovitch, 1989, 238.
Steven J. Dick, “Extraterrestrial Life and Our World View at the Turn of the Millennium” (Dibner Library Lecture), Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution, 2000, 31–32.
Darling, xiii, 169.
Tony Reichhardt, “NASA Beefs up Life Science Involvement,” Nature, Vol. 399 (27 May 1999), 293; Christopher P. McKay, “All Alone After All?” (review of Rare Earth), Science, Vol. 288 (28 April 2000), 625.
Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, “Where Are the Dolphins?” Nature, Vol. 409 (22 February 2001), 1119–1122; Dick, Dibner Lecture, 34–36.
Gerald Feinberg and Robert Shapiro, Life Beyond Earth: The Intelligent Earthling’s Guide to Life in the Universe, New York, Morrow, 1980, 415.
Svante Arrhenius, “The Propagation of Life in Space,” in Goldsmith, editor, 32–33.
F.H.C. Crick and L.E. Orgel, “Directed Panspermia,” in Goldsmith, editor, 34–37, originally published in Icarus, Vol. 19 (1973), 341–346; David Warmfl ash and Benjamin Weiss, “Did Life Come from Another World?”, Scientific American, November 2005, 64–71. Also see M. Mautner and G.L. Matloff, “Directed Panspermia: A Technical and Ethical Evaluation of Seeding Nearby Solar Systems,” JBIS, Vol. 32 (1979), 419–423.
A.D. Taylor, et al., “Discovery of Interstellar Dust Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere,” Nature, Vol. 380 (28 March 1996), 323–325; G.J. Flynn, “Collecting Interstellar Dust Grains,” Nature, Vol. 387 (15 May 1997), 248; G.M. Muñoz Caro, et al., “Amino Acids from Ultraviolet Irradiation of Interstellar Ice Analogues,” Nature, Vol. 416 (28 March 2002), 403–405; Robert Irion, “The Science of Astrobiology Takes Shape,” Science, Vol. 288 (28 April 2000), 603–605; Kathy Sawyer, “Far-Out Building Blocks,” International Herald Tribune, 31 January 2001; Darling, 45; Max P. Bernstein, Scott A. Sandford, and Louis J. Allamandola, “Life’s Far—Flung Raw Materials,” Scientifi c American, July 1999, 42–49. Studies of interstellar dust suggest that old stars and ultraviolet light can create a pervasive prebiotic haze. “Astronomers Sweep Space for the Sources of Cosmic Dust,” Science, Vol. 310 (28 October 2005), 614–615.
Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Life Cloud: The Origin of Life in the Universe, London, Sphere, 1979 (first published by Dent in 1978); Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Diseases from Space, New York, Harper and Row, 1980, originally published in the United Kingdom by Dent in 1978; Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Cosmic Life Force, New York, Paragon House, 1990, originally published in the United Kingdom in 1988; Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Our Place in the Cosmos: The Unfi nished Revolution, London, Dent, 1993; Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe, London, Michael Joseph, 1983; Fred Hoyle, The Black Cloud, New York, Penguin, 1957, originally published in London by Heinemann.
N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, “Why Alien Intelligence May Not Be So Alien,” in SearchLites (published by the SETI League), Vol. 8, Number 4 (Autumn 2002), 3–7.
Irion, “The Science of Astrobiology Takes Shape,” 605.
Crowe, 403; Dick, The Biological Universe, 326-327.
Kenneth Chang, “Martians Landing on Earth? If You Mean Bacteria, Maybe,” The New York Times, 31 October 2000.
David S. McKay, et al., “Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite LH84001,” Science, Vol. 273 (16 August 1996), 924–930. For a brief overview, see Oliver Morton, Mapping Mars, New York, Picador USA, 2002, 252–257.
John Noble Wilford, “Replying to Skeptics, NASA Defends Claims About Mars,” The New York Times, 8 August 1996; Dick and Strick, 179–201. For a defense of the McKay team’s position, see Everett K. Gibson, Jr., et al., “The Case for Relic Life on Mars,” Scientific American, December 1997, 58–65.
Jeffrey J. Walker, et al., “Geobiology of a Microbial Endolithic Community in the Yellowstone Geothermal Environment,” Nature, Vol. 434 (21 April 2005), 1011–1014.
Morton, Mapping Mars, 313.
Paul C.W. Davies, “Biological Determinism, Information Theory, and the Origin of Life,” in Steven J. Dick, editor, Many Worlds, Philadelphia, Templeton Foundation Press, 2000, 15–26; “No Panspermia Between Stars,” Sky and Telescope, May 2000, 23; Sun Kwok, “The Synthesis of Organic and Inorganic Compounds in Evolved Stars,” Nature, Vol. 430 (26 August 2004), 985–990.
Faint Echoes, Distant Stars: The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth, New York, Morrow, 2002 Bova, 199.
Freeman J. Dyson, “Looking for Life in Unlikely Places,” in Yoji Kondo, et al., editors, Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generation Space Ships, Burlington, Ontario, Apogee, 2003, 105–119.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Michaud, M.A.G. (2007). A New Era. In: Contact with Alien Civilizations. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68618-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68618-9_3
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-28598-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-68618-9
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)