num_pages: 334
description: This book marshals data from geology, astronomy, and biology to put forth a radical hypothesis: while primitive organisms such as microbes are very likely abundant across the galaxies, advanced life, depending as it does on a myriad of special circumstances, is altogether another story, In a thought-provoking departure from the widely held view that there must be countless civilizations of intelligent beings out there, Ward and Brownlee suggest that multicellular life-forms, let alone life-forms with whom we'd be able to communicate, must be exceedingly rare.
language: English
title: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe
titlecomplete: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe
genres: Biology, Physics, Astronomy, Science, Nature, Geology, Evolution, Nonfiction, History, Space
ratings_count: 1002
publisher: Copernicus Books