The ITC.ua Book Club welcomes readers and fans of literature once again. Today, we are not talking about «fiction» — we are going to talk about the popular science book «Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space» by the famous American astrobiologist and planetary scientist Kevin Peter Hand. It was published in Ukraine by the «Borodatyi Tamaryn» publishing house. The book contains a wealth of information about various scientific studies and the search for extraterrestrial life. If you are interested in the topic, and you are not one of those who wear tinfoil hats on their heads, then this book is for you.
Author Kevin Peter Hand
Publisher Bearded Tamarin
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 288
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 135×210 mm
Website tamarinbooks.com
It should be noted right away that although this is a book about the search for extraterrestrial life, there are no conspiracy theories, flying saucers, green humanoids, etc. This is a serious book that combines modern research by various scientists, including planetary scientists and astrobiologists. And the life they are looking for is usually reduced to microscopic bacteria or something similar. This doesn’t make the book any less interesting, it’s just that usually the perceptions of people who are not involved in this are very different from reality.
«Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space» — a popular science journey through potential places of life outside our planet. First, the author directs readers’ attention to various moons of Jupiter and Saturn (Titan, Europa, Enceladus). Here, life is possible under thick layers of ice, at the bottom of the boundless oceans. The story goes on to take the reader beyond the Solar System and discusses life on many exoplanets that are relatively close to Earth by cosmic standards. The author also talks about SETI — the famous project to search for extraterrestrial civilizations.
The book not only reveals potential species of life. It also shows a wide variety of mechanisms and ways of exploring the universe that scientists use. These are satellites and research stations, lunar rovers, mars rovers, telescopes, etc. In their quest, scientists sometimes create really cool and unexpected things that help them search for extraterrestrial life. And all of this is explained as simply and as accessible as possible in this case.
However, it will not be easy because «Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space» is first and foremost a scientific book, and then a popular one. Kevin Peter Hand knows how to write, sometimes even jokes and does it well, but his research requires knowledge of physics and astrophysics, chemistry, biology and astrobiology, astronomy, algebra, etc. And all of this makes it difficult to read if your level is not sufficient.
My knowledge of the above-mentioned sciences is relatively limited, so reading was often interrupted by Internet searches for a term, event, formula, etc. However, I have to say that the book explains all this in the most detailed and accessible way possible, but my knowledge was not enough even for that.
If your chemistry, biology, or physics didn’t go beyond high school, or even that you didn’t always learn or remember, then reading «Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space» will be difficult. However, this is probably more of a straw man for the reader than for the book or the author, because the latter has just made a titanic effort to get his powerful scientific work into this form.
I should also note that the book is not written dryly, and this is very important. All of the above, of course, creates certain difficulties for the reader, but this has its own purpose — to weed out a certain number of people who do not have the relevant knowledge and are not so deeply interested in the topic. If you’re not one of them, you won’t be interested, of course, but if this topic is about you, it will be easy to read. Kevin Peter Hand has managed to refresh a complex scientific narrative, and most importantly, not to squeeze all the juices that fill the format with popular science publications.
I liked that the author not only gives out tons of different information, shares research results, and shows what is planned for the future. He constantly poses different questions to the reader. Sometimes they are rhetorical, and sometimes they are quite reasonable and fair. Is there really life beyond the Earth? If so, how and where should we look for it? What tools and devices are needed for this? Who will do it, and what is the real benefit to humanity? And the main thing is that the author often answers his own questions, and he does so exclusively on the basis of real scientific research. He also tells how they were conducted, what scientists came up with, how they implemented it, etc.
Like other books by the «Borodatyi Tamaryn publishing house, «Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space» has a bright cover. The flyleaves have spectacular illustrations of Titan, Jupiter, and Saturn, and the book itself has high-quality color inserts with photos of satellites and planets. It definitely complements the story and visualizes it. I also liked the font and its size. It is convenient for long reading.
