From the Bookshelf of A Very Short Reading Group…

Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction

David C. Catling

Start date: June 27, 2018

Finish date: July 31, 2018

Discussion: Astrobiology

Discussion leader: Stockton Libraries

Why we're reading this: The research of astrobiology has become more crucial than ever in recent decades, as biologists have disc…more
[close] The research of astrobiology has become more crucial than ever in recent decades, as biologists have discovered microbes that live in ever more extreme settings, such as bubbling hot springs, in acid, or deep within rocks. Rooted in strong and rigorous research, astrobiology incorporates the work of microbiologists, geologists, and astronomers. In this Very Short Introduction, David C. Catling introduces the origins of astrobiology and demonstrates its impact on current astronomical research and potential future discoveries.

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Astrobiology

Astrobiology
By Nigel · 7 posts · 5 views

last updated Aug 16, 2018 08:47AM

What Members Thought

Jul 14, 2018 Nigel Bamber rated it really liked it

Shelves: very-short-introductions

Astrobiology is a very complex subject and calls upon a wide range of disciplines: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Particle Physics, Geology. It's difficult in a VSI to bring the reader up from an unknown initial knowledge in each of these areas, to a point where the arguments relating to the main topic can be explained. The book biased it's style towards that of a science reference book and so was not a casual read, but served it's purpose well.

For me, this is one of the biggest questions facing Astrobiology is a very complex subject and calls upon a wide range of disciplines: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Particle Physics, Geology. It's difficult in a VSI to bring the reader up from an unknown initial knowledge in each of these areas, to a point where the arguments relating to the main topic can be explained. The book biased it's style towards that of a science reference book and so was not a casual read, but served it's purpose well.

For me, this is one of the biggest questions facing humanity. My own view is that it is inevitable that there is other life in the universe. Given a big enough data domain, the extremely unlikely becomes the inevitable.
Even taking the origin of life as a given, I often think how incredibly tiny the chances of my existence are. How many hominid and non-hominid creatures in my ancestry had to avoid predators, diseases, accidents and other near-misses, meet particular mates and have offspring, to eventually arrive at the being that is me. But, like the national lottery, you have to “be in it, to win it”. All those things happened, and here I am.

Then, leading up to the origins of life on Earth, are a chain of other coincidences. The impact of Theia resulting in the Moon, which stabilises Earth's polar axis, aluminium 26 levels melting water, Jupiter acting as an Asteroid catcher. It is tempting to think “is this all planned”.
Douglas Adams deals with this temptation rather well. “This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!'

The Drake Equation merely tries to estimate the number of transmitting civilisations in our galaxy. There are hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the observable universe, and it is not clear how much more universe may lie beyond the observable horizon, which is limited by the speed of light since the Big Bang. So intelligent life, let alone life of any sort, does feel to me to be inevitable. Whether we could ever communicate with it or even detect it is entirely a different matter. If we don't find simple life within our Solar System, it is very unlikely that we will ever make direct with contact with even microbial life around the very closest stars because of the sheer distances involved. Once again, Douglas Adams nails the point. “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

The next issue is the length of time that civilisations may exist on life bearing planets, that are capable of sending or receiving messages. Based on our own miserable example, by the time anyone receives anything from the huge amount of data that we send out everyday, we're probably going to be long gone. That doesn't stop me, of course, from running SETI data through my home computer, whenever I have a moment. As pointed out previously, “You've got to be in it, to win it”.

So we're probably not alone, but we'll also probably never know for sure. All starting to sound a bit Kantian.

The biggest message in the book is the “Pale Blue Dot” pixel in the picture from Voyager 1.

Please listen to Carl Sagan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupTo...

The Pale Blue Dot is all we've got. Don't mess it up! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 24, 2018 lisa_emily rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-read, vsi-oxford

1 like · Like

Dec 09, 2021 Freso :watermelon: marked it as maybe-to-read

Shelves: non-fiction, astrobiology

Aug 09, 2019 Eduardo Blasco marked it as to-read

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