The search for extraterrestrial life is an important but so far fruitless endeavor. So it is not surprising that a lot of time, money, and research is devoted to this topic. We have recently talked about the book «Oceans outside the Earth» by Kevin Peter Hand from «Bearded Tamarind», and she explored the same question. And today we’re going to discuss another of their books, «All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life», by Canadian astrobiologist John Willis. It also talks about the search for life in the universe, but does it differently. If you are interested in the topic, the book is worth reading.
Pluses:
excellent quality of the publication; an interesting and important topic that is presented in a simple and accessible way; the author not only knows how to present complex information easily, but also asks interesting questions;
Minuses:
this book is not for you if you think it's about flying saucers, aliens, etc.
«All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life»
Author John Willis
Translator Maxim Larchenko
Publisher Bearded Tamarin
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 272
Cover Solid
Illustrations Є
Year of publication 2023
Size 135×210 mm
Website tamarinbooks.com
As the author himself writes, the purpose of the book «All These Worlds Are Yours» is to tell about five plausible scenarios for detecting extraterrestrial life and to encourage astrobiologists to focus on them. So at first, it seems that this book was written just for them. But as you read on, you realize that its easy style and simple explanations of complex processes are designed for the widest possible readership. Of course, a basic knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, and physics is required for a better understanding, but even I, with my four points in the last two subjects at school, found everything clear and, most importantly, interesting.
The above-mentioned knowledge is required only in the first chapters, and not very often, and then the author generally moves away from the scientific presentation of the material as much as possible and makes his book truly «popular».
At the beginning of the book, John Willis says that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. And he immediately asks interesting questions. For example, what exactly should this life be like? In what form and in what way? What would we accurately perceive as extraterrestrial life, and what does not fit into this category?
For example, if we reject the theory that the temperature between 0 and 100 degrees Celsius is considered habitable, we will discover many places where it can exist. This means Titan and other planets or satellites where the temperature is either significantly higher or lower. And life can exist on them because even some earthly bacteria are not afraid of such trials, which means that similar things can exist there. In this way, John Willis not only gradually answers his questions, but also encourages the reader to think about them himself.
For most of the book, the author argues that the first extraterrestrial life we will encounter in space will most likely be microbes and not conscious organisms. He raises the above questions and then takes the reader to various planets, stars, and worlds to explain and show them.
However, the last part of the book «All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life» is devoted to the problem of finding highly developed alien civilizations, or at least those that are close to ours. And we are not talking about ufology or conspiracy theories, but about various SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) projects — programs to search for extraterrestrial civilizations using radio signals. Interestingly, the US government has stopped funding these projects since the end of the last century, so for almost thirty years now, they have been relying on donations, sponsorship from the rich and various companies.
We also talk about the interesting projects SETI@home and SETI@Phone. In the first case, any user on Earth can provide access to their computer to use its power to process information received from space. And the second is a smartphone application that does the same thing, only with your device. Through these projects, literally every fan of science, including astrobiology, can join the search for extraterrestrial life.
If we compare «Oceans beyond the Earth» and «All These Worlds Are Yours: The Scientific Search for Alien Life», I liked the latter better because it is written more simply. This does not mean that the former is not worth reading, but it is still more scientific than popular, as I wrote, and «All These Worlds Are Yours» is the opposite — despite the complexity and multifaceted nature of the topic, it is easier to understand and will be easier to access for readers who are less scientifically prepared for this, but are still interested in the topic. True, there are no drawings or color illustrations at all, but the cover and pictures on the flyleaves, as well as the overall quality of the publication, are just as good and excellent.
So, if you’re just starting to get interested in astrobiology, the search for extraterrestrial life, and want to have a general picture, then read «All These Worlds Are Yours» by John Willis first. If you get into it, and the topic seems even more worthwhile, then this will be useful «Oceans outside the Earth» Kevin Peter Hand. It explains in detail how and what scientists do for these searches, what they use and what tricks they go to, but more scientific knowledge is needed for it.
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