might have guessed if you’ve read this far—is Conversations on the Plurality
of Worlds, originally written in 1686 by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and since reissued countless times in numerous languages. An English translation
by H. A. Hargreaves was published by University of California Press in 1990.
A masterful and penetrating analysis of the lives and work of the Copernican
revolutionaries can be found in Arthur Koestler’s The Sleepwalkers (New
York: Macmillan, 1959). If you don’t want to slog through the whole thing, at
least read the sections on Kepler and Galileo. Further insightful sources on
Galileo are James Reston Jr.’s Galileo: A Life (New York: HarperCollins,
1994) and Dava Sobel’s Galileo’s Daughter (New York: Walker, 1999). If you want to dig more into an analysis of some of Kepler’s lesser known theories and
works, I recommend Bruce Stephenson’s The Music of the Heavens: Kepler’s
Harmonic Astronomy (Princeton University Press, 1994).
Cosmology: Historical, Literary, Philosophical, Religious, and Scientific
Perspectives, edited by Norriss S. Hetherington (New York: Garland, 1993),
*Much more extensive, irregularly updated notes can be found at funkyscience.net.
418
Notes on Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
provides a varied and well-chosen selection of chapters covering the history
of cosmology.
Norman H. Horowitz, one of the Viking biology investigators, gives a well-
written and accessible inside account of exobiology in the 1970s and the
Viking search for life on Mars in To Utopia and Back, the Search for Life in
the Solar System (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1986). A more detailed source
on the history of Mars exploration, with a focus on Viking and the early years
of exobiology, is On Mars, Exploration of the Red Planet, 1958–1978 by
Edward C. Ezell and Linda N. Ezell. This book was published in 1984 as part
of the NASA History Series (NASA Special Paper 4212). Recently, it was
posted on the Web in its entirety by the NASA History Office. Their Web site
at history.nasa.gov is a vast source of information on the history of space
exploration.
Valuable primary sources for the early history of SETI include the proceed-
ings from the First All Soviet Union Conference on Extraterrestrial Civilizations and Interstellar Communication in 1964, edited by G. M. Tovmasyan and published as Extraterrestrial Civilizations by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations (Jerusalem: 1967), and the proceedings of the First International
Conference on Extraterrestrial Civilizations and Problems of Contact with
Them in 1971, edited by Carl Sagan and published as Communication with
Extraterrestrial Life (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973).
A wonderful compendium of classic, seminal scientific papers and essays
ranging from circa 70 B.C. to 1980 is The Quest for Extraterrestrial Life: A
Book of Readings, edited by Donald Goldsmith (Mill Valley, Calif.:
University Science Books, 1980). This book also contains a typically icono-
clastic foreword by Fred Hoyle, who concludes, “It will be especially inter-
esting to see whether it is astronomy that absorbs biology, or the other way
around.”*
S E C T I O N I I : S C I E N C E
In my humble opinion, the best book about planetary science is my own
Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin
Planet (Reading: Addison Wesley, 1997). If you liked Lonely Planets, you’ll also enjoy Venus Revealed. If you hated this one, then don’t bother.
Actually, one book might be better: Worlds Without End: The Exploration
of Planets Known and Unknown (Reading: Perseus, 1998) by John Lewis,
my doctoral thesis adviser and scientific mentor.
An excellent collection of chapters about planetary science written by pro-
fessionals in the field is The New Solar System, edited by J. Kelly Beatty and Andrew Chaikin (Cambridge University Press). New editions are issued
every few years, so make sure you pick up the most recent one.
*Many of these books are out of print, but most can be purchased on the Web. If the book is still in print, please consider buying it new so that the author gets her dime.
Notes on Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
419
An underappreciated gem of a book about Cosmic Evolution is Atoms of
Silence: An Exploration of Cosmic Evolution by Hubert Reeves (translated from the original French by my old boss John Lewis and his wife, Ruth
Lewis; Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984).
A masterful summary of modern cosmology can be found in Timothy
Ferris’s The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1997).
Readers wanting to learn more about the history of ideas about, and the
recent discovery of, extrasolar planets should consult Ken Crosswell’s Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1997).
For further reading about the Gaia hypothesis, I recommend the proceedings
of the first “serious” scientific conference devoted to the subject, the American Geophysical Union’s Chapman Conference on the Gaia Hypothesis, held in San
Diego in March 1988, published as Scientists on Gaia, edited by Stephen
Schneider and Penelope Boston (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991). Another excel-
lent book presenting a “Gaian” picture of evolution is Microcosmos: Four
Billion Years of Microbial Evolution by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan (New York: Summit, 1986). Margulis and Sagan have written several other books,
all recommended for their infuriatingly provocative and insightful views of evo-
lution. Another valuable source about the important steps in biological evolu-
tion, written from a long-term global perspective, is The Major Transitions
in Evolution by John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary (Oxford: W. H.
Freeman, 1995).
Early roots of the Gaia concept can be found in Vladimir I. Vernadsky’s
fascinating and prescient The Biosphere, written in 1926 and finally translated in its entirety into English in 1998 (New York: Copernicus, 1998). The
concept of the noosphere is elaborated in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s bril-
liant and inspiring The Phenomenon of Man (1955; English translation,
New York: Harper & Row, 1965).
Two good treatments of complexity theory are James Gleick’s classic Chaos:
Making a New Science (New York: Viking, 1987) and Stuart Kaufman’s At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and
Complexity (Oxford University Press, 1995).
Some good recent books about exobiology and astrobiology are Amir Aczel’s
Probability 1: Why There Must Be Intelligent Life in the Universe (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998), David Darling’s Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science
of Astrobiology (Reading: Perseus, 2001), Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee’s Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (New York:
Springer-Verlag, 2000), Paul Davies’s The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the
Origin and Meaning of Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), Robert Shapiro’s Planetary Dreams: The Quest to Discover Life Beyond Earth (New
York: Wiley, 1999), and Christian De Duve’s Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic
Imperative (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).
Less current, but still well worth reading, are George Gamow’s Biography
420
Note
s on Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
of the Earth: Its Past, Present and Future (New York: Pelican, 1948), and Life Beyond Earth: The Intelligent Earthling’s Guide to Life in the Universe by Gerald Feinberg and Robert Shapiro (New York: William Morrow, 1980).
A fascinating essay that discusses the concept of a galactic habitable zone,
written by Polish science fiction writer and polymath Stanislaw Lem, is “The
World as Cataclysm” in the book One Human Minute. An English transla-
tion was published in 1986 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
S E C T I O N I I I : B E L I E F
The bible of books about SETI is still Intelligent Life in the Universe by Iosif Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, published originally in Russian as Shklovskii’s
Universe, Life, Mind (1962), and first published (to Shklovskii’s surprise, as described in the text) as a dual-author, English-language book in 1966. This
book has been reissued numerous times and is currently in print (Boca Raton:
Emerson-Adams, 1998). The quintessential Carl Sagan book about extrater-
restrial life is The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective (New York: Dell, 1975). Another worthy book from this era, often overlooked, is
The Galactic Club: Intelligent Life in Outer Space by Ronald N. Bracewell (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1974).
More recent good books about SETI include Is Anyone Out There? The
Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by Frank Drake and Dava Sobel (New York: Dell, 1994), and Seth Shostak’s Sharing the Universe:
Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life (Berkeley: Berkeley Hills, 1998).
Iosif Shklovskii’s recollections on his involvement in SETI, and his ratio-
nale for his increasingly pessimistic beliefs about alien contact, are described
in his autobiography, Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon: Tales of a
Soviet Scientist (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991).
A valuable collection of essays representing the “contact pessimist” school,
fueled by the Fermi-Hart paradox, is Extraterrestrials: Where Are They?
edited by Ben Zuckerman and Michael Hart (Pergammon, 1982).
The literature on UFOs and alien encounters is vast, and a complete bibli-
ographic essay would alone take up a large volume. An excellent recent book
that treats the subject from a religious studies perspective and contains
extensive references is Brenda Denzler’s The Lure of the Edge: Scientific
Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFO’s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). A lighthearted and delightfully illustrated account of
American UFO culture is presented in Douglas Curran’s In Advance of the
Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space (New York: Abbeville, 2001).
Numerous stories of alien encounters and other strange phenomena in
Colorado’s San Luis Valley can be read in Christopher O’Brien’s The Mysterious Valley (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996).
The scientific perspective on UFOs is well represented in UFO’s: A
Scientific Debate, edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page (W. W. Norton, 1972), in Carl Sagan’s The Demon Haunted Word (Random House, 1996),
and in the magazine Skeptical Enquirer.
Notes on Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
421
Two good books on the “Roswell incident” are The Roswell Report: Case
Closed by Captain James McAndrew of the United States Air Force
(Washington, D.C.: Headquarters USAF, 1997) and Roswell: Inconvenient
Facts and the Will to Believe by Karl T. Pflock, a veteran ufologist who describes his journey from Roswell believer to skeptic (New York:
Prometheus, 2001).
For a seemingly endless stream of superficially convincing reports of
crashed saucers, hidden alien bodies, and “black ops” government complic-
ity with alien civilizations, read Dr. Steven M. Greer’s Disclosure: Military and Government Witnesses Reveal the Greatest Secrets in Modern History
(Charlottesville: Carden Jennings, 2001).
John Mack’s work with experiencers and his interpretation of the abduction
phenomenon are described in Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation
and Alien Encounters (New York: Random House, 1999).
Frank Drake explains his strong belief that the aliens whom we will eventu-
ally contact through SETI are likely to come from immortal civilizations in “On
Hands and Knees in Search of Elysium,” Technology Review 78 (June 1976).
Index
ABC, 211
amino acids, 102
abduction phenomena, 331, 375–378,
ammonia, 48, 123
382, 386, 421
ancient atmosphere, 48
Abelson, Philip, 229
ancient Greece, beliefs about ET life
accidental contamination, 258
in, 7
accretion, energy of, 157
Andromeda, 29
Ackerman, Diane, 408
Apollo 12, 130
Aczel, Amir, 143, 147–148
“Area 51,” 306n
“adolescent optimism,” 305
Arecibo Radio Observatory, 289,
Africa, origin of life in, 126–127
306n, 322
Agassiz, Louis, 19
Aristotle, 7–8, 14
Age of Reason, 30, 33
invulnerability of, 15
Albee, Edward, 97
Armstrong, Neil, 52
Aldrin, Buzz, 52
Arnold, Kenneth, 335, 370
alien life
Arrhenius, Svante, 46, 131
belief in, 6
Asimov, Isaac, 52, 150–151, 187n
communicating with, 406–407
Associated Press, 335
as a cultural phenomenon, xvii, 5
astrobiology, xviii, xix, xx, xxxi, 6,
current knowledge about, xiii–xiv
112, 147, 237–251, 419
debunking, 351–352, 354
Astro-Theology, or A Demonstration
on Earth, 130
of the Being and Attributes of
groups of believers in, 11
God from a Survey of the
renewed hopes for finding, xiii, 64
Heavens, 26
stories about, 4–5, 337
comparative, 276
Allen, Paul, 306, 309
hive-mindedness, 245–246
Allen, Woody, 296n
the Mars rock, 249–251
Allen Telescope Array (ATA), 309
revolution in, xxix, 63–64, 237–242
Alpha Centauri, 47
Astrobiology Institute, see NASA
Altered States (movie), 295n
Astrobiology Institute
Altman, Sidney, 113
Astrobiology (journal), 239, 257
Alvarez, Luis, 338n
Astrobiology Science Conference,
Ambartsumyan, V. A., 301
xviii, xix
American Geophysical Union, 267
astrology, 244
Ames Research Center, xviii, xxxii,
astronomy, relationship with biology,
57, 111–112, 174, 223, 237, 309
xxxi
424
Index
“astroplankton,” on the Moon, 51
Browning, Robert, 334
astrotheology, 408–416
Brownlee, Donald, 143, 147, 215
ATA, see Allen Telescope Array
Bruno, Giordano, 16–17
atmosphere
Bryan, Richard, 306
ancient, 48
Buddhism, 383–385
of Pluto, 155
Bullock, Mark, 174
Bush, George W., 247
backgrou
nd, of cosmic microwaves,
Butler, Paul, 209–210
76
Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory,
Bacon, Francis, 255n
301
banned books, Catholic index of,
22
Cage, John, 310
Barrett, Syd, 191
Callisto, 192
BBC news, 184
Calvin, Melvin, 294
beliefs about ET life, 287–416
Cambrian explosion, 125, 128
in ancient Greece, 7
Campaign for Disclosure, 364–373
astrotheology, 408–416
Capra, Frank, 303n
believing is seeing, 153, 374–388
carbon chemistry, 83–84, 262
conspiracies, 358–373
carbon dioxide, xxii, xxiii, 94, 161
Fermi’s paradox, 310–333
liquid, 187
the immortals, 389–407
Carson, Johnny, 236
saucer sightings, 334–357
Cassini, xxvi, 61
silence, 289–309
catalysts, proteins as, 101
berserkers, 322n
Catholic index of banned books, 22
bias, xxxi
cattle mutilation phenomena, 348
Big Ear project, 307
Cech, Thomas, 113
biocentric planetary exploration,
Celera Genomics, 329n
248
celestial mechanics, 32
“biogenic elements,” 83
cells, formation of, 117, 120
Biography of the Earth, 139
Center for the Study of
biological evolution, role of
Extraterrestrial Intelligence
contingency in, 44
(CSETI), 365
“Biological Modulation of the Earth’s
CETI, see communication with
Atmosphere,” 267
extraterrestrial intelligence
biology, relationship with astronomy,
Challenger disaster, 194
xxxi
chemical evolution, 99, 165
biosphere
Chesterton, G. K., 88
of Earth, 176–177
Childhood’s End, 406
of Europa, 200–201
Chorley, Dave, 363
Biosphere, The, 419
chlorophyll, xxii–xxiii
Blues in the Mississippi Night, 334
Christ, 15
Borg collective, 120
Christianity
Boston Scientific Society, 39
anthropocentric, 15
Bova, Ben, 150
denying other worlds, 15
Bower, Doug, 363
doubts over, 33
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