Five Billion Years Of Solitude: The Search For Life Among The Stars (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
An extremely well-written book about the search for extraterrestrial life. I find myself sticking post-it notes throughout with the book's revelation of interesting details. Frank Drake, the father of SETI, quickly scribbled his Drake's Equation, intending it as an impromptu guide for a meeting of scientist luminaries at the time. The contemporary Frank Drake, per an interview with the author, admits that we have evolved with surprising speed into a comparatively radio quiet civilization in the digital age with the use of fiber optics, ruminating on what that means for the traditional SETI searches. Then Drake posits a fascinating means to view other worlds in detail by using a corollary of Einstein's relativity, gravitational lensing, if we are willing to send a telescope beyond where Voyager has travelled thus far in the outer reaches of our solar system....Later chapters state via interviews with scientists working in the field that we could now, if we were willing to spend many billions of dollars, create an array of powerful telescopes on the far side of the moon that would be able to see the mountains and rivers of another world.The dog eat dog world of competition to find the exoplanets is elucidated in detail with all its scientific rivalries. At the same time, however, the discoveries themselves and how they have overturned our assumptions about solar system formation are thoroughly explained. Big gas planets are often found in close orbits around their sun, the opposite of the reality our system with the smaller rocky world first. My takeaway is that the rivalries produce greater precision in discoveries and inhibit overly optimistic claims of discovery of the existence of exoplanets.A chapter details the origin of life on earth, the creation of an oxygen atmosphere thanks to cyanobacteria shedding oxygen as a waste product, although it ultimately proved suicidal to the original organisms, the first life on earth. Then the flourishing and cyclical dying of oxygen-consuming life is reviewed, all within the context of an interview with a black shale geologist and Pennsylvania university professor whose soul seems uneasy regarding the exploitation of the ancient deaths that now fuel modern civilization. Climate change is explained in the process. I found the professor's discomfort fascinating. Yes, now we can extract natural gas in great quantities instead of relying on coal reserves. Natural gas burning causes less than 40% of the CO2 to be released into the atmosphere compared to coal, both fossil fuels, the remnant of ancient life. But will this new bounty of natural gas allow us to keep putting off the switch to non-fossil fuels, as parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere continue to rise?What does that have to do with exobiology and the search for life on other worlds? As explained in the first chapters with Frank Drake and the birth of SETI, the longevity of an extraterrestrial intelligence is of course vital in our ability to find them. Soon, if we are willing to spend the money, doubtful in this age of budget slashing, we could detect the spectrum lines from exoplanets, the composition of any atmosphere. We could tell if a world was like earth. But if civilizations burn themselves and their worlds out too soon, we may not like what we find. I wrongly assumed this would be similar to other books I have read on the search for life elsewhere in the universe. The author makes you at once understand how insignificant our planet is in the vast universe, yet how lucky we are to have it--it's all we've got, at least for the forseeable future. The writing style is approachable and clear, and explains concepts clearly. It delves into how our solar system formed and tours all of the stages Earth went through for us to be here to read this. He interviews some really amazing people I would love to meet, including one--Sara Seagal, whom I would work for for free. Then all of this knowledge is turned to understanding the requirements for other planets to support life and how we might detect them, and the struggles of the scientists, administrators, and legions of others to get projects funded to do that. Normally chatty biographical sketches of people annoys me, especially if it uncritically portrays people in a positive light, but the technique here merely revealed the quality of the people dedicating their lives to this pursuit, and the personal costs they are bearing.
What do You think about Five Billion Years Of Solitude: The Search For Life Among The Stars (2013)?
One of the best popular science books I have read in a long time. Highly recommended!
—PrettylitlleMe
a good read, although at times I found the science elements to be going over my head.
—yipiyipidoda
