Signatures of life
Subtitle: science searches the universe
By: Edward Ashpole
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press, The
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
ISBN-13: 9781616146689; 9781616146696
Subjects: Exobiology; Astrobiologie; Life on other planets; Au©erirdisches Leben; Interstellare Kommunikation
Description: Life is the greatest of all mysteries. Did it begin from a chance event, one never to be repeated in time and space, or is life on Earth just one example of a universal phenomenon that evolves wherever conditions are right? Although science could never confirm that we are a one-off miracle, it could confirm that we are part of a universal phenomenon, and this, for the last fifty years, has been the goal of astronomers who have attempted to discover life in remote regions of the universe by searching for intelligent signals from the stars.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-227).
Table of contents: title: Looking for universal life; title: Big questions. No right frequency ; A very strange story ; The unity of SETI; title: Facing the facts. New developments ; The BBC showed the way ; A limited principle ; A worrying situation ; The astronautical theory ; What's out there? ; Earth without humans ; Propulsion chauvinism ; Look out for robots ; Robots increase the colonization factor ; Better robots by natural selection? ; Only one certainty ; That something special ; How many? ; Why now?; title: The life of aliens. Electronic brains ; No food for aliens ; Codes for life ; Making exotic life ; Here by chance ; The trouble with humanoids ; Bogus bodies ; The Roswell legend ; Paths to technology ; Unknown life-forms ; Theologians, evolution, and the multiverse ; The fundamental constants ; Life's machines ; The timescale for SETI ; One way to life? ; No dice ; Big brains and the robots ; Throwing stones develops the brain ; Exotic life; title: Where are they? Tea with the aliens ; The broadcasting giveaway ; The ozone giveaway ; Finding more distant worlds ; That wide window of opportunity ; Timeless targets ; What to look for? ; The guessing game ; Ceilings ; A ceiling for robots ; Space arks ; Any recent visits? ; Back engineering; title: Testing time. Alien archaeology ; The dreaded min-mains ; Repeatable results ; Where saucers have landed ; Button's Theory ; Convenient frequencies ; Microwave and close encounters ; Life markers among the stars ; Planets for life ; SETI at home ; Project Phoenix ; SETI sees the light ; Photonstar ; Th lesson from twisted light ; Answers on the Moon and Mars? ; The lunar lights ; Artifacts on Earth? ; Landings on ice ; Photographic evidence ; Mysterious lights ; Abductions and artifacts ; Bring in the FBI ; going around in circles ; What's carving up my cattle? ; The science of options; title: Mythology and reality. Good-bye to classic cases ; The wrong questions ; The fantasy sect ; Welcome to all aliens; Aliens near and far ; Inexplicable technologies ; Books beyond the fringe ; One way forward.