The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia
📖 The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia
Anyone with no interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life must be deliberately avoiding the subject. Alongside “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”, “Am I alone?” has always been one of the classic great questions asked by every curious mind. Now the first reference work to answer that question in detail has appeared: The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia, by the astrobiologist David Darling. More than 2,000 entries define and explain concepts, fictions, theories, and technological ideas in exobiology. The book is widely sourced and cross-indexed, so it is easy to search and to browse. You might start with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)—after working through that eight-page entry, you will find yourself hesitating over whether to look up the SERENDIP project next, Joseph Shklovsky, or the Arecibo radio telescope.
Darling’s choice of entries is deliberate—this is no dry compilation of biographies and dates. You will find 2001: A Space Odyssey, the ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes, and the deep-sea hydrothermal vents tied to that “big question.” The book supplies enough facts for a hundred term papers, yet it also recognizes the strong interplay between science and popular culture, which makes the reading both entertaining and often surprising. (Who knew that so many serious astrophysicists also write science fiction?) The truth may be out there, or it may not, but The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia will keep us in step with the search. —Rob Lightner
The book contains more than 1,900 entries covering a wide range of subjects; biographical sketches of more than 300 contributors; more than 90 illustrations; a detailed guide to websites; a careful timeline; and more. Paperback. Subject: Life on other planets—Encyclopedias.
Since humans first looked up at the stars, the possibility of life on other worlds has stirred the imagination and fueled scientific curiosity. From Aristotle to Star Trek to the latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope, looking again at this ancient question keeps awakening a deep excitement, and it has found expression throughout human culture—from the earliest cosmologies to the latest theories of the origin of life, running through oral tradition, literature, and film, and through fast-moving fields such as astrobiology, space exploration, and exoplanet detection.
In this comprehensive and captivating guide, David Darling draws together the many threads of the search for alien life. This one-of-a-kind resource runs from the Arecibo message, brown dwarfs, cell membranes, Dyson spheres, and extremophiles to biographical portraits of leading scientists such as Carl Sagan and Jill Tarter, the lives of philosophers such as René Descartes and William Whewell, and introductions to science-fiction writers such as Olaf Stapledon and Arthur C. Clarke.
The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia offers an unprecedented wealth of information in a single volume: nearly 1,900 informative entries covering subjects from serious science to popular culture; biographical sketches of more than 300 major contributors to the field; 94 illustrations; user-friendly cross-references that make it easy to move among topics; a detailed list of websites to guide further research; a careful timeline that places the search for alien life in historical perspective; and detailed tables of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) programs from 1960 to the present.
About the Author
David Darling holds a doctorate and is a…
📚 Source:UFO Evidence Bookstore
