Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe - Hardcover

Ward, Peter Douglas; Brownlee, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0387987010 ISBN 13: 9780387987019

Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc., 2000

Synopsis

What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

About this title

Review

"Do you feel lucky? Well do ya?" asked Dirty Harry. Palaeontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee think all of us should feel lucky. Their rare Earth hypothesis predicts that while simple, microbial life will be very widespread in the universe, complex animal or plant life will be extremely rare. Ward and Brownlee admit that "it is very difficult to do statistics with an N of 1. But in our defence, we have staked out a position rarely articulated but increasingly accepted by many astrobiologists."

Their new science is the field of biology ratcheted up to encompass not just life on earth but also life beyond earth. It forces us to reconsider the life of our planet as a single example of how life might work, rather than as the only example.

The revolution in astrobiology during the 1990s was twofold. First, scientists grew to appreciate how incredibly robust microbial life can be, found in the superheated water of deep-sea vents, pools of acid, or even within the crust of the Earth itself. The chance of finding such simple life on other bodies in our solar system has never seemed more realistic. But second, scientists have begun to appreciate how many unusual factors have co-operated to make earth a congenial home for animal life: Jupiter's stable orbit, the presence of the Moon, plate tectonics, just the right amount of water, the right position in the right sort of galaxy. Ward and Brownlee make a convincing if depressing case for their hypothesis, undermining the principle of mediocrity (or, "Earth isn't all that special") that has ruled astronomy since Copernicus. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Review

"...likely to cause a revolution in thinking..."
The New York Times

"...[the book] has hit the world of astrobiologists like a killer asteroid..."
Newsday (New York)

"...a sobering and valuable perspective..."
Science

"...a startling new hypothesis..."
Library Journal

"...Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee offer a powerful argument..."
The Economist
"...provocative, significant, and sweeping..."
Northwest Science & Technology

"...a stellar example of clear writing..."
American Scientist

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387987010
• ISBN 13: 9780387987019
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 372