Great book and worth the credit

Very good set of lectures and very interesting. I find all of this very interesting and Dr. Sarah Rugheimer does a great job of not over doing it like some authors do. She sticks to the facts it seems and does a great job of helping people like me start to understand things that are way over my head! I definitely recommend this book.

6 people found this helpful

Filled with the author's politics rather than cont

the author cant help but interject her political views. which is par for the course for the indoctrination of our over priced universities. Note to author, if you want to write political books that is wonderful, just don't try to hide it in subjects that have nothing to do with politics

2 people found this helpful

Exciting Survey of the Search for Alien Life

I got this Great Courses book solely because of the title and imagined reading about Area 51 and other popular stories about secret contact. What I got was much better. Sarah Rugheimer walks us through what we know about the possibilities of life in the universe and how our scientists are trying to discover if it actually exists. I was absolutely fascinated. It’s never bad for a fan of science fiction to indulge in a little genuine science—especially when it’s conveyed by someone as capable as Dr. Rugheimer.

2 people found this helpful

Eye-opening stuff.

Loved the steady and firm control of the arguments presented. If you’re a person interested in science, you probably knew some of the facts presented in the lectures. But the true power of this series is about connecting the dots and putting everything into a wide frame of reference. Makes you want to become an astrobiologist!

2 people found this helpful

A fantastic introduction to one of the hottest topics in science

Sarah is a force to be reckoned with and this course is extremely well organized, well thought out, and a delight to listen to. Everybody from Sci fi to hard core science fans with delight in this lovely, lovely discussion of aliens and their possible origin stories.

1 person found this helpful

Pretty good, but a bit too many unrelated materials

The audiobook is nice and the author communicated clearly on quite difficult subjects. However, I would actually prefer she goes through a few more planets and galaxies on what we know about them so far, instead of talking about evolution and the origin of life for two lectures ( I think one is enough). Also, I did not enjoy her stories like meeting Obama or the intelligence of dogs vs cats. It’s not like the stories or the knowledge are bad, but I just think they are irrelevant.

1 person found this helpful

Not as titled

This is an interesting book but is more of an overview of climate change, evolution and extremophiles. The first few lectures seem to be headed in a good direction and then tales off to loosely related ideas.

Fascinating and Approachable

A really interesting series of lectures that together give a great overview of the current state of the field of Astrobiology. I particularly appreciated the tone of the lectures, they were welcoming and approachable without being patronizing. They avoided using unnecessary technical jargon or deep diving into esoteric/expert topics, but still respected the audience and didn't resort to pop science style surface level fun facts. I also really appreciated how the author explains and champions the scientific method, and makes sure to illustrate how every discovery or announcement is rightly up for scrutiny from the scientific community, and how many things we cannot know for certain. It was a refreshingly honest and humble take.

An up date of astrophysics and related subjects.

Very well presented. It deals with astrophysics and living organisms. Easy to read with essential up date on practical current thinking.

Anazing Stuff

I was into astronomy in the thitd grade (around 1949), ham radio by 1955,, computing by 1964, telesco making by 1970, personal computing by 1976, and AI in the early 90's. I even attended some of Project Cyclops lectures, not realizing how Barney Oliver's shirt pocket would change my life. So Rugheimer could be my baby sister! The depyh and breadth of her knowledge is stunning. I think I will play these lectures again, while polishing my next mirror!

Are we alone? Most certainly not! But space is BIG. The aliens are so far away, we might as well be alone. And let us hope they do not get curious and try to map earth by radar astronomy- the required power would toasr us!