Extraterrestrials by Wade Roush

Extraterrestrials by Wade Roush

Are we alone in the universe? If not, where is everybody? An engaging exploration of one of the most important unsolved problems in science.

Everything we know about how planets form and how life arises suggests that human civilization on Earth should not be unique. We ought to see abundant evidence of extraterrestrial activity-but we don't. Where is everybody? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, science and technology writer Wade Roush examines one of the great unsolved problems in science- is there life, intelligent or otherwise, on other planets?

This paradox (they're bound to be out there; but where are they?), first formulated by the famed physicist Enrico Fermi, has fueled decades of debate, speculation, and, lately, some actual science. Roush lays out the problem in its historical and modern-day context and summarizes the latest thinking among astronomers and astrobiologists. He describes the long history of speculation about aliens (we've been debating the idea for thousands of years); the emergence of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) as a scientific discipline in the 1960s, and scientists' use of radio and optical techniques to scan for signals; and developments in astrobiology (the study of how life might arise in non-Earth like environments) and exoplanet research (the discovery of planets outside our solar system). Finally, he discusses possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox and suggests way to refocus SETI work that might increase the chances of resolving the paradox-and finding extraterrestrials.

Wade Roush is a freelance science and technology writer, columnist at Scientific American, and host and producer of the tech-and-culture podcast Soonish. His work has appeared in Science, Xconomy, and MIT Technology Review. He is the editor of the science fiction anthology Twelve Tomorrows (MIT Press).

Clifford V. Johnson, Professor of Physics at the University of Southern California, gives many public lectures about his research and appears often in television documentaries as an expert. He has been science advisor for several movies and television series, including Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok and the National Geographic Channel's Genius. He received the American Association of Physics Teachers 2018 Klopsteg Memorial Award for outstanding communication of the excitement of contemporary physics to the general public.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262538435
ISBN 10	0262538431
Title	Extraterrestrials
Author	Wade Roush
Series	Mit Press Essential Knowledge Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2020-04-07
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.