ISBN:
9781009229265
Language:
English
Pages:
1 online resource (698 pages)
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
DDC:
306.44
Abstract:
Could we communicate with lifeforms on exoplanets? This thought-provoking book explores the likelihood of life and language beyond Earth.
Abstract:
Cover -- Half-title page -- Endorsement page -- Title page -- Imprint page -- Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Preface -- How to Use This Book -- Part I Introduction -- 1 Approaching the Topic -- 1.1 Four Basic Questions -- 1.2 Working Backwards for a Moment -- 1.3 Questions, Questions, Questions -- 1.4 An Unlikely Story -- 1.5 Back to Reality -- 2 Looking beyond Earth -- 2.1 Are We Alone in the Universe? -- 2.2 What We Know about Exoplanets -- 2.3 Exobeings and Their Planetary Environment -- 2.4 Exobeings and Humans on Earth -- 2.5 From Knowns to Unknowns -- 2.6 Sources of Energy and Biological Evolution -- 2.7 The Brains of Exobeings -- 2.8 Emergence and Consciousness -- 3 Striving to Understand -- 3.1 What Is Scientific Speculation? -- 3.2 What Counts as Proof? -- 3.3 What Do Scientists Know and Not Know? -- 3.4 How Accurate Are Facts? -- 3.5 What We Still Cannot Explain -- 3.6 Problems and Mysteries -- 3.7 The Nature of Exceptions -- 3.8 What About 'Weird Life'? -- 3.9 How Different Could They Be from Us? -- 3.10 Two Other Questions -- Part II The Universe We Live In -- 4 Trying to Grasp Size -- 4.1 Astronomy and History -- 4.2 How Has the Universe Developed? -- 4.3 Estimating the Size of the Universe -- 4.4 The Observable Universe -- 5 Star Formation and Planets -- 5.1 Red Dwarfs -- 5.2 Brown Dwarfs -- 5.3 The Life of a Star -- 5.4 Where Do the Elements Come From? -- 5.5 Peering into the Future -- 6 The Likelihood of Life -- 6.1 Basic Preconditions -- 6.2 Favouring Factors -- 6.3 Key Developments and Events -- 6.4 Mass Extinctions in Earth's History -- 6.5 Strikes from Beyond -- 7 Possible Conditions on an Exoplanet -- 7.1 The Fine-Tuning Problem -- 7.2 Small-Scale and Large-Scale Structures -- 7.3 The Underlying Basis of Structure -- 7.4 Emergent Properties -- 7.5 Unintended Side Effects -- 7.6 Things Which Only Happened Once.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
