Alien Biology

Long before space travel was possible, the idea of life beyond Earth transfixed humans. In this fascinating book, astronomer Jon Willis explores the science of astrobiology and the possibility of locating other life in our own galaxy. Describing the most recent discoveries by space exploration missions, including the Kepler space telescope, the Mars Curiosity rover, and the New Horizons probe, Willis asks listeners to imagine - and choose among-five scenarios for finding life.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human In Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of...

A clinical psychiatrist explores the effects of DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. A behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of psychedelic research. Provides a unique scientific explanation for the phenomenon of alien abduction experiences. From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick...

From a noted Cambridge zoologist, a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space. Scientists are confident that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Yet rather than taking a realistic approach to...

An intriguing new scientific theory that explains what life is and how it emerges. What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand...

A New York Times–bestselling astrophysicist and a Nobel laureate describe the quest to discover how and where the universe breathed life into matter For a long time, scientists have wondered how life has emerged from inanimate chemistry, and whether Earth is the only place where it exists...

Richard Dawkins transformed our view of God in his blockbuster, The God Delusion, which sold millions of copies in English alone. He revolutionized the way we see natural selection in the seminal bestseller The Selfish Gene. Now, he launches a fierce counterattack against proponents of...

What if the Internet goes dark? We think of the Internet as wireless, weightless, ever-present—but its true foundation lies in the ocean’s depths, where nearly 900,000 miles of fiber-optic cables quietly pulse with all the world’s information. In The Web Beneath the Waves, the acclaimed...

In these lively and fascinating essays, scientists from around the world weigh in on the latest advances in the search for intelligent life in the universe and discuss just what that might look like. Since 2000, science has seen a surge in data and interest on several fronts related to E.T...

“Every page of this book makes our shared universe feel larger and more interesting than ever before, a true gift of fascinating science and engrossing storytelling.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed A spellbinding exploration of alien life and the cosmos, examining how the possibility of...

How can we prepare for an event that is literally beyond anything humanity has ever faced? Making Contact presents multiple perspectives on what no longer can be denied: UFOs and their occupants are visiting our world. The book answers questions which remain in the wake of the recent...

Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). But after a half century of scanning the skies, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence---eerie because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life.

From a long-term planning lead for the Mars Exploration Rover Project comes this vivid insider account of some of NASA’s most vital and exciting missions to the Red Planet—a wondrous chronicle of unprecedented scientific discovery and the search for evidence of life on Mars. “There are...

A hunger for space travel. A perilous journey to another galaxy. A terrorist plot that could turn first contact into last rites. Raya Salian is a bundle of nerves. Humble despite an unsurpassed talent for manipulating the elements, the sixteen-year-old prodigy is both flattered and terrified when she’s tapped for a secret mission – a solo trip to Earth to observe and report. But she barely gets off-world with her life after extremists attack the launch site, potentially leaving her with no way back. Crash-landing near a rural Canadian community, Raya takes cover with a group of locals ...

This engaging memoir reveals the true story of the Search for ExtraterrestrialIntelligence (SETI), and discloses what we may very soon discover. Chronicling the program’s history with insight and humor, SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak assures us that if there is sentient life in the universe, we are within decades of picking up its signal.

Murderous super-intelligent beings threaten a pacifist human colony … The Dromish, an evil species based near Bernard’s Star plots to enslave the people of Enceladus. Leaving his husband and young family behind, Corvis Santos, RN accepts the mission to visit the Dromish and persuade them not to try to conquer the Solar System. Corvis completes his training and is awarded the black band which endows him with superpowers. After traveling at nearly the speed of light for seven years, he arrives at the Dromish’s home planet. There he must fight for his life to prove his worthiness. ...

You're no idiot, of course. You know Heisenburg's uncertainty principle has nothing to do with where you put your car keys. But modern cosmology is relatively complicated. The mystery of the universe definitely isn't one we can flip to the end to see whodunit. That hasn't stopped physicists...

A young queer millennial physicist unveils some of the most mind-bending physics concepts in the universe—and uses them to illuminate their own fascinating life story “I see physics everywhere,” Karmela Padavic-Callaghan writes. “It offers itself to me when I try to make sense of all the...

In Strange New Worlds, renowned astronomer Ray Jayawardhana brings news from the front lines of the epic quest to find planets—and alien life—beyond our solar system. Only in the past two decades, after millennia of speculation, have astronomers begun to discover planets around other stars—thousands in fact. Now they are closer than ever to unraveling distant twins of the Earth. In this book, Jayawardhana vividly recounts the stories of the scientists and the remarkable breakthroughs that have ushered in this extraordinary age of exploration.

Something is happening at a remote outpost in the New Mexico desert… A group of scientists at the Tanner Biological Research Station has discovered an anomaly. Part of some creature that should not be there. Bringing in a pair of experts from the upper echelons of academia to assist in identifying the potential new species, more questions than answers are generated among the unnerved staff at the isolated station. Soon, though, the outpost is not simply isolated—it is cut off, communications with the outside world severed by some inexplicable predatory force, leaving the scientists ...