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This book considers the origins of the Universe, the formation of our solar system and the emergence life on Earth 3.9 billion years ago, leading to the eventual evolution of Homo sapiens some 200,000 years ago in East Africa. It argues in favor of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy and in the cosmos. Creation seeks to reconcile Darwinian evolution with intelligent design theory where possible. Human beings are not descended from modern apes, but bipedal hominids were evolved from a common ancestor some 7 million years ago. Kant's, Wallace's and Darwin's hypothesis that all life shares common ancestors is proved by the convergence of the sciences.Yet, it does not follow that new species originate from natural selection and random mutations, or that life emerged on its own from a prebiotic environment. Darwin's theory of origin of species remains unsubstantiated and is refuted by modern microbiology as a theory of origins.The Universe really is 13.7 billion years old and commenced with the Big Bang. The expansion is still ongoing and galaxies continue to rush away from each other. Earth is some 4.5 billion years old. But what caused the Big Bang? How was the Big Bang organized into the formation of galaxies, star systems and numerous living worlds? What is the role of black holes in galaxy formation? What caused complex life to emerge and evolve on Earth but nowhere else in this sun system --as of NASA's latest discoveries? Why have the Martian Rovers and other spacecraft uncovered no fossils or organic carbon on Mars although salty oceans once covered much of the Red Planet's surface? Why are three-quarters of the Earth's surface covered with liquid water yet liquid water has not been proved to exist on any other body in this sun system including Europa?Science and exploration offer the best hope of answering these questions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Dare to think
Dr. Umana's Creation:Towards a Theory of All Things, succeeds in doing what has not been done before -- reconciling creationism and intelligent design theory with portions of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.This is a remarkable and original new book, which I encourage everyone to read, scientists and the general public alike.It is a new theory of biological evolution.Dr. Umana draws an important dichotomy in that he endorses, on the one hand,the theory of common descent of species from earlier species, showing that it is proved by the convergence of the sciences.But on the other hand, he shows that Darwinists' notion that new species emerge from natural selection - random or chance incremental mutations over millions of years - is unsubstantiated and refuted by modern microbiology. He demonstrates that the core idea of Darwinism, though an interesting theory in the 1800's, is bad science today.Something else is going on to explain the emergence of life and the origin of species.These are the big issues of our day in the evolution debate, and this is the book we have all been waiting for.
What that "something else" is has never been explained by any scientist or philosopher before Creation.This is the first real effort to show how biological evolution operates in the origin of new species and the emergence of life.Dr. Umana, while agreeing that natural selection is a true force of nature as demonstrated by microevolution (e.g., the development of bacteria to resistance to antibiotics), shows that natural selection cannot explain emergence of new species.One of the author's arguments that caught my attention focused on recent DNA studies as to the evolution of all dog breeds 15,000 years ago in East Asia from a single gene pool of a small group of gray wolves.Dogs in North America did not evolve from North American wolves.Likewise, European dogs did not evolve from European wolves.As Dr. Umana argues, how could this be if natural selection were the explanation for dog evolution?What happened to natural selection in North America or Europe? This latest genetic evidence, among other evidence, disproves Darwin's notion of `natural selection' as the supposed mechanism for the origin of species.This book also analyzes NASA's discoveries on Mars and on other bodies in our solar system to show that life does not just arise one day on its own. Why did life emerge on Earth 3.9 billion years ago, but not on Mars or anywhere else in our solar system?This book offers a new approach in answering these questions.

One of the most intriguing parts of this book is the author's marshalling of the latest NASA findings as to the Big Bang evolution of the cosmos (in his Chapter 1), as scientific evidence to support his theory of evolution.No one has ever analyzed the Big Bang like this before.He also analyzes the crop circle phenomenon, the spate of crop circles being formed all around the world each year, from the latest scientific evidence (Chapter 8), such as the higher germination rates of seeds taken from plants that are found within crop circle formations and the higher radiation levels discovered in crop circles after formation.He demonstrates that something is going on here that cannot be explained away by the supposition of human pranksters.He ties this latest scientific research in with his theory that life emerged not only on earth but elsewhere in the cosmos.

Nothing like this has been done before in terms of the breadth and scope of the scientific phenomena analyzed and explained.It presents the "Big Picture" as to the emergence of life and the origin of species as has never before been done.

Great Book!
Must read. Check it out, give it to your friends! ... Read more

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ALGAE AND CYANOBACTRIA IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS is a unique collection of essays, contributed by leading scientists from around the world, devoted to algae and some related microbes observed in unexpected harsh habits, which it seems are an oasis or Garden of Eden for these organisms. This timely book on Extremophilic alga, including its especially impressive micrographs, may provide clues about the edges of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the universe.

Defining locations from the anthropomorphic point of view, the environments explored ranges from severe and distant to normal places. The algae discussed, microbial oxygenic phototrophs, are classified into various categories according to their habitats. They thrive in various temperature ranges, at the limits of pH values, in salt solutions, under UV radiation, dryness, heavy metals, anaerobic niches, under various levels of illuminations, and under hydrostatic pressure. Authors discuss bio-diversely algal territories ecologically the hot springs with the thermophiles or acido-thermophiles; Antarctica, the Artic, and permafrost zones with their cold lovers (Psychrophiles); soda lakes with the alkaliphiles, saltine areas with halophiles. In addition to general essays, Algal species discussed in detail include diatoms, Cyanidium, Galdieria, Dunaliella, and Chroococcidiopsis.

This volume is a must for students of the field of biodiversity, as well as those in Phycology, ecology and general biological research.

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This book explicitly investigates issues of astrobiological relevance in the context of cold aqueous planetary geochemistry.

At the core of the technical chapters is the FREZCHEM model, initially developed over many years by one of the authors to quantify aqueous electrolyte properties and chemical thermodynamics at subzero temperatures. FREZCHEM, of general relevance to biogeochemists and geochemical modelers, cold planetary scientists, physicochemists and chemical engineers, is subsequently applied to the exploration of biogeochemical applications to solar systems bodies in general, and to speculations about the limits for life in cold environments in particular.

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The scientific story of the coming centurythe inevitablediscovery of life on other planets and what it will mean for ourunderstanding of earth.

To many people, the main question about extraterrestrial life iswhether or not it exists. But to the scientific community, thatquestion has already been answered: It does. So confident arescientists of the existence of life on other planets that they'veinvested serious amounts of money, time and prestige in finding andstudying it. NASA has started an Institute of Astrobiology, forinstance, and the University of Washington, Seattle, began inSeptember 1999 to accept graduate students into its Department ofAstrobiology.

Life Everywhere is the first book to lay out for a general reader whatthe new science of astrobiology is all about. It asks the fascinatingquestions researchers are asking themselves and one another: --What islife?

--How does it originate?

--How often does life survive once it arises?

--How does evolution work?

--What determines whether complex or even intelligent life will emergefrom more primitive forms?

--Informed by interviews with most of the experts in this nascentsubject, Life Everywhere introduces readers to one of the mostimportant scientific disciplines of the coming century.Amazon.com Review
Are we alone? As the search for extraterrestrial intelligence comes moreand more into the mainstream, scientists like David Darling step up toexplain what we know and what's possible. His book Life Everywhereexplores the history and current state of the field called, perhaps unfortunately, astrobiology. Devoted neither to organisms skimming the sun's surface nor to possible signs of intelligence among celebrities--though not explicitly rejecting these phenomena--astrobiology is concerned with the basic questions of life: What is a living organism? Is it common, or likely, elsewhere in the universe? Is it worth trying to communicate across light years? Darling, an astronomer and science journalist, has a knack for explaining complexities and fine details that carries his prose forward where other authors have foundered; the reader is swept up in the enthusiasm of the researchers Darling describes. Writing of the astronomical search for signs of life far off in the galaxy, he captures the thrill of this work:

Their efforts will revolutionize astrobiology, more so perhaps thanspacecraft parachuting down out of the orange sky of Titan or roving therock-strewn deserts of Mars. The world-shaking headlines of the nexttwenty years will likely come from giant instruments, on the ground and inEarth orbit, gazing with far sight at the planetary systems of other stars.

Since most research germane to the field has been done here on Earth,Darling explores such hot topics as heat vents and other geothermalmini-biomes, meteoritic dissection, and, of course, SETI's radio telescopearrays. Mars, Venus, and the moons of the outer planets are all majorcharacters, and their stories will reinvigorate most readers' excitementabout the prospects of having neighbors just down the cosmic street. Ending with a set of hypotheses and brief explorations of their ramifications if shown to be true, Life Everywhere is an outstanding and thought-provoking look at what could ultimately be the most world-shaking research ever conducted. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Good, but becoming dated.
Life Everywhere was undoubtedly a much more groundbreaking book when it was published in 2001 than it is today. On the one hand, many of the ideas about the probable inevitability of extraterrestrial life which Darling was popularizing still seem to be in vogue today. Most likely, extraterrestrial life will be found to be carbon-and-water based on an earth-sized planet located around a star similar to our sun and located within a distance from it known as the habitable zone. A large moon and a Jupiter-sized planet within that solar system would greatly facilitate matters in a favorable way for life to arise. But cases can be made for exceptions to all these conditions. One thing that really dates this book however is a section near the end where the author looks forward to the advances in knowledge which we will gain by space missions in 2004, 2006, etc. I haven't been a follower of astrobiology up until recently, but I don't think these missions have revealed anything earthshaking or I would have heard about it. One discovery that has been momentous, of course, is the recently announced(April 21st, 2009)finding of an earth-sized planet 20 light-years away. It seems likely there are more to come, and that there will be a new crop of astrobiology books, inspired by this discovery, to come also. Another book on the subject of extraterrestrial life which is much more recent than Life Everywhere, is one called Beyond UFO's: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for our Future, by Jeffrey Bennett. Don't let the sensational sounding title fool you. This book was written by a scientifically trained writer of an astrobiology textbook and is endorsed by scientists in the field. In my opinion, besides being more recent, it provides more detail and a more systematic and comprehensive view of the field, although, of course, it predates discovery of the earth-size planet. Bennett, like Darling, also takes some time out to lecture a bit about the negative effects on science of creationism and intelligent design. This seems to be standard procedure in popular science books these days, and I'm not personally convinced these warning labels are warranted. Be that as it may, both books are good, but if I had to choose between the two, I would pick the Bennett book.

Nice change of perspective from "Rare Earth"
I think this is a good book to read after reading "Rare Earth".The writing style is definately more casual and as if you are inside the mind of Darling, compared to the more "here's the information" style of other books. It took a while to get used to it, but in the end it was a nice change to have that type of commentary.

The book does a good job of covering the various areas of astrobiology, however, I think Rare Earth probably does a better job in talking about a few things. This is one reason why I recommend reading Rare Earth first. The other reason obviously being the critique of the Rare Earth hypothesis, and one section that totally rips apart Guillermo Gonzalez's "hidden agenda" as he calls it. The two books are kind of like listening to a debate, and both seem to have good arguments in some place but slightly unreasonable arguments in other places. Overall it gives you a good feel for where we stand today in our knowledge and what we can reasonably assume about the possibility of life elsewhere (microbial or complex).

At times I did feel like Darling was being a bit unfair to the Rare Earth authors - attacking them or the book a bit too much. But in the end he settled down.

Overall a good book that complements Rare Earth well.

Includes a blistering critique of the "rare earth" hypothesis
Two things have happened in recent years to persuade most scientists that life beyond earth is not just possible, but likely.Indeed some people, including myself, believe there is, as the title of David Darling's book has it, "Life Everywhere."

Well, not in the center of the sun or on the surface of a neutron star--at least not life as we know it.

"Life as we know it."This is an important phrase that comes up again and again in discussions about astrobiology."Life as we know it" means life with a carbon base and liquid water.David Darling considers silicone-based life and even life forms so bizarre that we wouldn't recognize them if we saw them, but basically he sticks with life as we know it in this very interesting answer to those who think that life in the universe is rare.

The two things:

(1) The discovery of extremophiles, bacteria that live in sulfurous hot springs, deep inside the earth, and at the bottom of deep oceans.Instead of deriving their energy from the sun, they are able to use heat coming from within the earth to metabolize.

(2) The discovery of scores of planets (albeit not earth-sized planets--yet) revolving around other stars.

What the first discovery means is that life doesn't have to exist or begin in conditions such as there are or have been on the surface of the earth, but can thrive in places previous thought hostile to life.That opens up a whole lot of the universe to life including parts of our solar system previously thought inimical to life, such as in an ocean under the icy crust of Europa or beneath the inhospitable surface of Mars.And the fact that planets are now clearly plentiful means that there are numerous places for life to develop.

Darling, who is an unusually lucid writer and a man who gets to the bottom of things, begins with the nitty-gritty problem of just how to define life.If you haven't been introduced to this strangely knotty problem, this book may open your eyes.Do we consider reproduction, metabolism, growth, etc. in our definition?And which of these elements are essential and which are not?The postmodern definition now preferred by most people I have read is "undergoes Darwinian evolution."Is that adequate?Is that the essence?Darling puts all the cards on the table and lets you decide.

Next Darling recapitulates ideas about how life began.The main new idea is that life may be an inevitable consequence of the nature of matter and energy.It appears that matter is self-organizing.Darling reviews the ideas of how lifeless matter might replicate and how cells might develop from various molecules and water.These "leaky membranes" could be the precursors of the first biological cells. (p. 40)

He goes on to make the case for a universe with abundant life.But along the way he presents a blistering critique of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (2000) by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, in which it is argued that the circumstances that allow life are rare and that those circumstances as seen on earth are unlikely to be replicated anywhere else.Darling not only utterly destroys their argument, point by point, but even shows that part of the reason that it was advanced was because they were under the influence of one Guillermo Gonzalez, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, who is also a creationist with the usual supernatural agenda.

This was bombshell to me.But Darling shows that nearly every argument that Gonzalez makes is designed (pun intended) to discredit the idea that there is life anywhere but on earth.On page 112, Darling refers to an article entitled "Live Here or Nowhere" co-authored by Gonzalez for a publication called "Connections" published by Reasons to Believe, Inc. of Pasadena, California, whose mission is "to communicate the uniquely factual basis for belief in the Bible."The article concludes, "The fact that the sun's location is fine-tuned to permit the possibility of life--and even more precisely fine-tuned to keep the location fixed in that unique spot where life is possible--powerfully suggests divine design."

A couple more points:

First, Darling argues that life forms on other worlds, however dissimilar their chemistry, are likely to be familiar to us in the sense that if there is an atmosphere, some will have wings, and if there is an ocean, some with have fins, if there is a solid ground to walk upon, some will walk and run, and if there is light to see, some with have eyes.This idea of "convergence" is dictated by the laws of physics which requires evolutionary adaptations to take forms that work efficiently within certain environments.Of course if the life forms we eventually discover exist in great dust clouds, their adaptations may be very dissimilar and surprising.Even on solid ground here on earth some run and some hop, some crawl and some slither.

Second, since it is now known that bacteria spores can exist more or less indefinitely (some have been revitalized after hundreds of millions of years of dormancy: see page 150), the once discredited idea of panspermia, namely that life originated elsewhere in the universe and arrived here as spores, has been rejuvenated.Personally, I've always liked this idea championed by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe; however this book has convinced me that life could arrive from without or develop from within.Either way (or both) seem likely to me.

Is extraterrestrial life widespread?
This book is actually in the form of a long essay defending the hypothesis that life, at least in microbial form, is widespread in the Galaxy.

The author starts by trying to define life.Is it replication?Evolution?Metabolism?Next, he discusses the question of the atmosphere of the early Earth.A reducing atmosphere might produce complex organic molecules in some warm little pond.But the Earth is unlikely to have had such an atmosphere then.That leads to the question of where life originated.Near ocean vents, or on (or just under) the ocean floor?And when life originated.Over 4 billion years ago?When the Earth was still being bombarded by bolides?

The author then discusses meteorites, along with the possibilities for them having brought organic molecules (or even life) to Earth.After that, there's some material on extrasolar planets, including "hot Jupiters," which may migrate right through a stellar system, wiping out all the rest of the planets in it.

A very interesting section is Darling's critique of Ward and Brownlee's book, "Rare Earth."That book contains the view that although microbial life is probably widespread on other worlds, multicellular life (and especially intelligent life) will prove to be rare.Actually, that view, while a minority one, is unremarkable.After all, there is good evidence that unicellular life originated rather quickly on Earth while multicellular life took quite a bit longer.But Ward and Brownlee go further than that, claiming that several things about Earth are special and unusual: the Moon, the exact spacing between catastrophic events, being in the right part of the "habitable zone," having Jupiter to shield it from heavier bolide bombardment, having a high metallicity Sun, having plate tectonics, and being in the right part of the Galaxy!Darling presents interesting rebuttals to these points.And he finishes the chapter by pointing out that a collaborator of Ward and Brownlee, Guillermo Gonzalez, keeps finding signs that the Earth is unique.Darling asks if Gonzalez is letting his religious beliefs influence his scientific views (Gonzalez says that his views that life's origin involved the personal involvement of a supernatural creator have motivated his science and vice-versa). Um, that is a good question.Still, I wonder if that's altogether fair.Ought we ask about Simon Conway Morris, whose religious beliefs support his views on convergence? Or about, say, Fred Hoyle, with his views on panspermia?Or about Freeman Dyson, whose scientific ideas seem rather independent of his religious views? Or about, um, me?

In any case, Darling continues with the debate between Stephen Jay Gould and Simon Conway Morris.Gould argues for divergionism, and says that were we to "replay the tape of life," the odds are that the chordate worm that first incorporated what became the human body plan would have been lost and there would have been no humans.Conway Morris argues for convergionism, and says that no matter what specific species survive, niches tend to get filled.And that means that some creatures very much like humans would have evolved had we replayed that tape.Darling agrees, and adds that even intelligence appears to be convergent.

The author then tells about upcoming space missions to look for life in the solar system and to discover more about extrasolar planets.

Darling concludes that life is a universal phenomenon, life's most important characteristic is to engage in Darwinian evolution, life originates on planets and moons, planets are very common, the evolution of life involves contingency and convergence, and life can be both planet-wide and refugial.But he says that future events may get us to change our minds on some of this.What if we find life on Mars?Or find definitive evidence that Mars has always been sterile?Or find life (or even find complex life) on Europa?What if we spot an atmosphere on an extrasolar planet that suggests life abounds there?What if we findbacteria in interstellar space?What if we find life based on silicon instead of carbon?Or make contact with extraterrestrial artificial life?And while it might be tough to verify it, what if we were to discover that there is no other intelligent life (or no other life) in the universe?

While it wouldn't surprise too many people, the author says it would also be significant were we to verify the existence of a very deep, hot biosphere such as the one Thomas Gold has proposed.

This book is easy to read and informative.I recommend it.

"Politically Correct"
This is one of eight books on Astrobiology which were rushed out after the publication of Joseph's revolutionary and ground breaking text, in May of 2000. Like the other seven competing volumes, this text differs from Joseph's, in that it strictly holds to the "party" line, as approved by the United States government, and repeats, without any critical analysis, mainstream scientific dogma. Now, don't get me wrong. Although he avoids mentioning Joseph's book--which clearly triggered the writing of his own--Darling does an otherwise good job of provding a "politically correct" overview of thestatus quo. If you are interested in the views held by mainstream, government funded scientists, this is the book for you. ... Read more

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Written by two of the best US researchers in the field, this text investigates issues of astrobiological relevance in the context of cold aqueous planetary geochemistry. At the core of the technical chapters is the FREZCHEM model, initially developed over many years by one of the authors to quantify aqueous electrolyte properties and chemical thermodynamics at subzero temperatures. FREZCHEM is of huge relevance to scientists in a number of fields, including biogeochemists.

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Life on Earth came from other planets. Earth is not the center of the Biological Universe. Quantum Physics proves the universe is infinite and eternal and there was no creation, no "big bang," and no creator god. Given infinite time, life has an infinite number of possibilities to be created from non-life... and then the seeds of life spread throughout the cosmos, exchanging DNA and developing vast genetic libraries billions of years before Earth became a "twinkle in god's eye."

The likelihood that life on Earth was created in an organic soup is the equivalent of discovering a computer on Mars and proclaiming it was randomly assembled in the Methane Sea.

If Life were to suddenly appear on a desert island we wouldn't claim it was randomly assembled in an organic soup or created by the hand of god; we'd conclude it washed to shore or fell from the sky. Earth too, is an island, orbiting in a sea of space, and living creatures and their DNA have been washing to shore and falling from the sky since our planets creation.

SYNOPSIS

1) Complex living creatures appeared within a few hundred million years after the Earth's creation and while our world was bombarded with debris from the exploding parent star and its shattered planets. Life on Mars appeared at the same time, and there is fossil evidence of past life on Meteors. Life can survive in space & the most extreme environments.

2) The Organic Soup is a Myth. The theory of Earthly-abiogenesis has been repeatedly disproved and discredited. There is no evidence, -0- life on Earth was created from non-life. And yet, this myth is perpetuated as established fact by the scientific community.

3) The universe is infinite and continually gives birth to planets, galaxies and stars. Giant stars explode in vast supernovas generating hundreds even thousands of infant stars which come to be ringed with planets.

4) Our Sun & Solar System, were created from the debris of an ancient exploding star around which orbited living planets just like our own. Earth may be a rogue planet ejected from the parent star. Based on isotopes, residue and microbial fossils found in meteors, it appears life on Earth and Mars may have originated on the shattered planets that had circled the parent star.

5) The seeds of life, actual living creatures and their DNA, flow throughout the cosmos and have taken root on innumerable worlds much older than our own. And just as apple seeds contain the genetic instructions for the growth of apple trees, these genetic seeds contain the DNA-instructions for the tree of life and the metamorphosis of all life, including woman and man: the replication of creatures which long ago lived on other planets. And this is how life on our planet evolved and began. Life is an intrinsic feature of the living, infinite universe, and life on Earth is only a small sample of life's manifold possibilities.

6) Genes act on the environment, genetically altering the environment, and the altered environment (in conjunction with regulatory genes) acts on gene selection thereby giving rise to new species perfectly adapted for a world which has been prepared for them. Every species which has appeared on Earth was genetically precoded, and the genes and genetic instructions responsible for these species were inherited from the first creatures to appear on this planet.

7) Bacteria, viruses, & DNA, act as interplanetary genetic messengers, learning, acquiring genes and transferring genes from species to species. Bacteria/viruses play a major role in evolution and metamorphosis.

8) Extinction & Metamorphosis: Like programmed cell death, extinction is the nature of life. Species emerge, alter the environment, pass on their genes, and then become extinct ... Read more

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The study of life in our universe has been given the name 'astrobiology'. It is a relatively new subject, but not a new discipline since it brings together several mature fields of science including astronomy, geology, biology, and climatology. An understanding of the singular conditions that allowed the only example of life that we know exists to emerge and survive on our turbulent planet is essential if we are to seek answers to two fundamental questions facing humanity: will life (and especially human life) continue on Earth, and does life exist elsewhere in the universe?

Astrobiology of Earth adopts a unique approach that differs from most texts in the field which focus on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. In contrast, the central theme of this book is the fortuitous combination of numerous cosmic factors that together produced the special environment which enabled the emergence, persistence and evolution of life on our own planet, culminating in humanity. This environment has been subject to constant and chaotic change during life's 3.6 billion year history. The geologically very recent appearance of humans and their effect on the biosphere is discussed in relation to its deterioration as well as climate change. The search for extraterrestrial life is considered with a view to the suggestion that humans may escape a depleted Earth by colonizing the universe.

This book contributes to our understanding of astrobiology from the perspective of life on Earth and especially human welfare and survival. Astronomical and geological phenomena are related in turn to their biological relevance and impact. This introductory text assumes little or no prior knowledge of more specialized scientific fields and is designed for undergraduate and graduate level students taking related courses in departments of biology, earth science/geology, and environmental science. It will also serve as a useful biology primer for astronomy majors. ... Read more

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Historically, higher education institutions have required students to enroll in at least one discipline in the physical or natural sciences. Now, many schools offer an integrated science course to give students a taste of the natural and physical sciences. These courses are usually survey courses that do not demonstrate the interdependencies among the various science disciplines. Typically in such courses, students are exposed to each of the science disciplines individually. On the other hand, astrobiology, a relatively new science, is intrinsically multidisciplinary requiring the knowledge and skills of an astronomer, biologist, chemist, geologist, and physicist. Thus, an astrobiology curriculum can be offered as a new paradigm in the teaching of science, especially for non-science majors. In many institutions of higher education this is referred to as a student's general education. A sound higher education curriculum for a two semester (full-year) course in astrobiology based upon sound content and pedagogy is presented in this monograph. ... Read more

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Astrobiology, the study of life and its existence in the universe, is now one of the hottest areas of both popular science and serious academic research, fusing biology, chemistry, astrophysics, and geology. In this masterful introduction, Lewis Dartnell explores its latest findings, and delves into some of the most fascinating questions in science. What actually is 'life'? Could it exist on other planets? Could alien cells be based on silicon rather than carbon, or need ammonia instead of water? Introducing some of the most extreme lifeforms on Earth - those thriving in boiling acid or huddled around deep-sea volcanoes - Dartnell takes us on a tour of the universe to reveal how deeply linked we are to our cosmic environment, and shows why the Earth is so uniquely suited for the development of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

REview
An excellent book covering a subject with which I am fairly familiar. I think that the sections on what goes on inside stars and stellar nebulae are too long given that they are essentially speculative. More space should have been given to the factual aspects of life on Earth as deduced from fossils and rocks. The almost conclusive evidence that there is or has been until recently life on Mars deserved mention too. Apart from these criticisms I found the book well written, comprehensive and likely to be enjoyed by the interestd amateur as well as the professional.
Amazon's service was, as always, extremely efficient. ... Read more

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Astrobiology is a scientific discipline devoted to the study of life in the universe - its origin, evolution, distribution, and future. In 1997, NASA established an Astrobiology program (the NASA Astrobiology Institute - NAI) as a result of a series of new results from solar system exploration and astronomical research in the mid-1990s, together with advances in the biological sciences. To help evaluate the NAI, NASA asked the NRC to review progress made by the Institute in developing the field of astrobiology. This book presents an evaluation of NAI's success in meeting its goals for fostering interdisciplinary research, training future astrobiology researchers, providing scientific and technical leadership, exploring new research approaches with information technology, and supporting outreach to K-12 education programs. ... Read more

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Grades 5-8 ... Read more

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The “Gale Encyclopedia of Science” is written at a level somewhere between the introductory sources and the highly technical texts currently available. This six-volume set covers all major areas of science and engineering, as well as mathematics and the medical and health sciences, while providing a comprehensive overview of current scientific knowledge and technology. Alphabetically arranged entries provide a user-friendly format that makes the broad scope of information easy to access and decipher. Entries typically describe scientific concepts, provide overviews of scientific areas and, in some cases, define terms.

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Chapters: Extraterrestrial Life, Hypothetical Types of Biochemistry, Panspermia, Beagle 2, Planetary Habitability, Life on Mars, Rare Earth Hypothesis, Geysers on Mars, Exomars, Astroecology, Viking Biological Experiments, Murasaki, Astrobiology Field Laboratory, Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher, Allan Hills 84001, Habitability of Red Dwarf Systems, Murchison Meteorite, Blood Falls, Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets, Cosmic Evolution, Rio Tinto, Gravitational Biology, Brookings Report, Issol, Biosignature, David S. Mckay, Neocatastrophism, Orgueil, Carbon-Based Life, Carbon Chauvinism, Pavilion Lake, Shadow Biosphere, Beagle 2: Evolution, Lunar Receiving Laboratory, Chon, the Science of Aliens, Reports of Streptococcus Mitis on the Moon, Shergotty Meteorite, Contact Conference, Antonio Lazcano, Back-Contamination, Caleb Scharf, International Journal of Astrobiology, Forward-Contamination, Janet Siefert, Astrobiology Society of Britain. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 312. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Planetary habitability is the measure of a planet's or a natural satellite's potential to sustain life. Life may develop directly on a planet or satellite or be transferred to it from another body, a theoretical process known as panspermia. As the existence of life beyond Earth is currently uncertain, planetary habitability is largely an extrapolation of conditions on Earth and the characteristics of the Sun and solar system which appear favorable to life's flourishingin particular those factors that have sustained complex, multicellular organisms and not just simpler, unicellular creatures. Research and theory in this regard is a component of planetary science and the emerging discipline of astrobiology. An absolu...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2592906 ... Read more

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Rare Earth Hypothesis. Astrobiology, Panspermia, Abiogenesis, Metaphysical naturalism, Planetary habitability, Fermi paradox, Drake equation, Planetary science ... Read more

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You can read the 'product' description as often as you like...
Rare Earth Hypothesis. Astrobiology, Panspermia, Abiogenesis, Metaphysical naturalism, Planetary habitability, Fermi paradox, Drake equation, Planetary science Rare Earth Hypothesis. Astrobiology, Panspermia, Abiogenesis, Metaphysical naturalism, Planetary habitability, Fermi paradox, Drake equation, Planetary science...

...twice should be enough... AND ALL THE CONTENT OF THIS EXPENSIVE 'BOOK' IS STILL STRAIGHT FROM WIKIPEDIA. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Looks great BUT...
A friend of mine found this curriculum, and it looks fantastic.The downside? Once you have purchased the teacher guide, student textbook, and blackline masters, (or spent the time gathering the materials included within the BLMs) you have invested hundreds of dollars.And that doesn't include the cost of the actual lab materials.So, if you are planning to create an afterschool group, or are otherwise in a situation where you will be charging a fee and reusing materials, then this is a worthwhile investment.As a homeschooler of an only child, it becomes infinitely less so. ... Read more