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Index
Entries correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Abbott, Edwin A., 207n
acetylene, 108, 125
Acidianus, 16
acidophiles, 3, 15, 23–24, 117–19, 120
metabolisms of, 118–19
pH levels tolerated by, 50
Adams, Douglas, 166
Adams, Greg, 134–36, 215
algae, xiii, xiv, 23–24, 25, 64, 117
alkaliphiles, 15, 16, 50
Allamandola, Lou, 124–29
Allen Telescope Array, 149
Alvin research submarine, 1, 6–7, 9, 10–11
amino acids, xv, 23, 30, 35, 46, 56–57, 86–87
chirality of, 55
methionine, 21, 98
2–methylamine acid, 49–50, 54
ammonia, xv, 21–22, 46, 63, 85–86, 96,
97, 101, 106, 107, 114, 120, 152
Anaerovirgula multivorans, 56
anhydrobiosis, 24–27
animal cognition, 160–61
Animalia, 15
Antarctica, xiii, xiv, 4, 64, 77, 99, 100n
Anthill (Wilson), 161
Archaea, domain of, 16, 19, 22–23, 29, 35n, 40–41, 45
archaeological excavations, 25
arsenic, 50–54
artificial intelligence, 152–55, 158
Asimov, Isaac, 168n
astronomy, 44–45, 95n, 103–4, 110–13, 125, 127–29, 131, 180, 181, 196
see also SETI
Atacama Desert, 42
ATP (adenosine triphosphate), 51
Australia, 57, 59
Bacillus infernus, 81
Bacillus spores, 25
bacteria, xi–xii, 15, 19, 25, 56, 58
acidophile, 3, 23–24
archaea’s similarity to, 40–41, 45
chemosynthesis by, 9–10
in clouds, 117
Halomonadaceae, 53
halophilic, see halophiles
in hydrothermal vent communities, xiii, xiv, 129
inside basalt rock, 42
intraterrestrials, 27, 229n–30n
number of species of, 40
as prokaryotes, 15–16, 230n
sphere and rod shapes of, 41, 45–46
stromatolites formed by, 59
thermophilic, see thermophiles and hyperthermophiles
Bacteria, domain of, 16, 40–41
Bacteria, kingdom of, 15
Bains, William, 93–95, 96–97, 101, 116
Barcode of Life project, 39
Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, 165
barophiles (pressure lovers), 15
Barrow, John D., 190, 206, 212
bathyscaphes, 8
bathyspheres, 8, 117
Baxter, Stephen, 168n
Benford, Gregory, 168n, 174n
Benner, Steven, 49–50, 57, 107
Bentley, Richard, 133
Bernal, John Desmond, 130
bestiaries, vii–xi
dinosaur, x–xi
fictitious, vii–ix
microbial, ix–x
biochemistry, xii, xv, 64, 65n, 86–87, 88, 89–93, 96, 98, 112, 144, 155, 202, 216, 219–20
“ammoniated,” 101, 152
in science fiction, 166, 167, 171, 173n, 177
silicon-based, 89–91, 152, 167, 168–69, 173n–74n
of Triton, 116
biodiversity, viii, 39, 43, 233n
biosignatures, 44–45, 78, 83, 219
biosolvents, 107, 167, 168n
Black Cloud, The (Hoyle), 172–73, 175
black holes, 132, 134, 135–36, 182, 215
event horizons of, 136, 193
as habitats, 168, 174n, 216
black smokers, 10–11
Bleak House (Dickens), xin
Borges, Jorge Luis, 206n
Bostrom, Nick, 212, 214n
Bradbury, Ray, 64n
Brin, David, 168n
brine inclusions, 25, 230n
brine shrimp (Artemia salina), 24–25
Brock, Thomas Dale, 11–14
brown dwarf stars, 134
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert, 160
Bruno, Giordano, 180
Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 64n
California redwood trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum and Sequoia sempervirens), 18–19
carbon, 1, 21n, 35, 46, 51, 88, 90–93, 94, 95–96, 106–7, 118, 125, 135, 199–202
Carter, Brandon, 113, 186, 187–91
Cassini spacecraft, 102–10
cell membranes, 19–20, 21, 22, 24, 30, 88, 95, 128
cells, xiv, 18, 19–21, 28, 33, 46, 56, 86–88, 98, 216, 230n
anhydrobiosis of, 24–27
cytoplasm of, 19–20, 22–23, 30, 87
division of, 87
first appearance of, 140
freezing of, 21
mitochondria of, 43–44
nuclei of, 87, 113
phosphorus in, 51
proteins in, 86–87
protoplasm of, 89n–90n
shared features of, 30
size of, 56–59, 67
vesicle precursors of, 128–29
cell wall, 19–20
Celsius temperature scale, 19
Census of Marine Life, 39
chemosynthesis, 9–10, 43
Chernobyl nuclear reactor, 28
chirality, 54–56
mirror, 55–56
chromosomes, xi, 28
Cisar, John, 58
Clarke, Arthur C., 154, 168n
Cleland, Carol, 34, 42, 45, 59, 60, 71
Clement, Hal, 173–75
closed-basin lakes, 4, 22–23
Mono Lake, 52–54, 56
clouds, 32
interstellar molecular, 125–26, 127, 129, 132
microbes in, xiv, 117–18
sentient interstellar, 172–73, 175, 189, 221
Venusian, 117–19
Cocconi, Giuseppe, 138–39, 147
cold lovers (cryophiles; psychrophiles), 15, 16
habitats for, 93–94, 97–98
Cold War, 6
Columbia River, 42
comets, 98n, 126, 127–30
Committee on the Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems, xvii
Communications Research Institute, 161–62
continental drift, 3, 4–11
convergent evolution, 46–47
Conway, John, 69, 209
Coon, Gene L., 168
Copely, Shelley, 34, 55
Corliss, John, 6–7, 9, 10–11, 14, 22, 28
COROT spacecraft, 219
Cosmic Connection, The (Sagan), 162
“cosmic intercourse,” language of, 158
cosmology, 130–32, 150, 179–217
principle of mediocrity in, 182, 183, 189, 194–95, 212
steady state theory in, 189
see also multiverse; universe
Cosmotheoros (Huygens), 103
Crick, Francis, xii
cryomagma, 106
cryophiles, see cold lovers
dark energy, 196–98
dark matter, 135
Darwin, Charles, xi–xii, 32, 43n, 66, 67–71, 89, 175, 177
desert varnish encountered by, 59–60
life defined by, 67
on origin of life, 28, 129, 231n–32n, 234n
on vital force, 233n–34n
Davies, Paul, 33–34, 36, 37, 45, 46, 48–49, 52, 54–56, 59, 81, 218
Dawkins, Richard, 68, 234n
Dead Sea, 4, 230n
halophilic microbial community of, 22–23, 231n
Deamer, David, 128
de Duve, Christian, 87
desert varnish, 59–60, 220
Dewdney, A. K., 208
DeWitt, Bryce, 186
Dick, Steven J., 163–64
Dickens, Charles, xin
dinosaurs, x–xi
DiSalvo, Frank, 92
DNA, xi–xii, xiv, xv, 39, 57, 58, 85n, 86–87, 101
arsenate-linked, 53, 54
base pairs of, 50, 86, 87
cellular container of, 19
chirality of, 55
molecular structure of, 17, 50
molecular weight of, 88
weird-life, 50
DNA amplification, 46
Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 67
dogs, awareness of, 160–61
dolphins, 141, 161–62
Dragon’s Egg (Forward), 171, 175
Drake, Frank, 139–40, 142, 144, 149, 155–56, 161, 170–71
Drake Equation, 139–40, 144, 145, 147–48, 149
dwarf planets, 98n
Dyson, Freeman, 130–32, 134, 172, 215, 221, 234n
Earth:
early, 35, 36
Gaia hypothesis of, 40, 73–74
habitable zone position of, 62, 96
heavy bombardment periods of, 36
stab
le atmospheric chemistry of, 73–74
ecology, 9, 65n, 209, 220–21
microbial, 11–17
weird, 120–22
ecosystems, 7, 167
ecologically separate, 42–43, 44, 48–54
thermophilic, 11–14
Eddington, Arthur, 131
Edmond, John, 6–7, 9, 10–11, 14, 22, 28
Ehman, Jerry R., 142n–43n
Einstein, Albert, 145, 181, 190, 193
electron degeneracy pressure, 135
Enceladus, 64, 102–3, 219
Encyclopedia of Life, viii, 39, 98
enzymes, 21, 33, 47, 49, 56, 67
Epsilon Eridani, 139
Erwin, Terry, 38–39
ESA (European Space Agency), xvi, 101, 104, 109n, 219
Escherichia coli, 41
ethane, 97, 106, 108
ethylene glycol, 21, 98
eukaryotes, 15–16
Europa, 63–64, 99–103
ocean of, 100–101
proposed missions to, 100–101
size of, 102
Everett, Hugh, III, 185–86
evolution, 45–47, 75, 86, 88, 118, 207–8
convergent, 46–47
in defining life, 67–71, 83, 209
Dyson’s view of, 130–31
of intelligence, 140–41
of machine intelligence, 153, 155
mutations in, 67, 198n
natural selection in, xi–xii, 67, 69, 89, 121, 175, 177, 198n
of nonlife, 67–69, 237n
in science fiction, 175, 177
evolutionary biology, 15, 30, 65n, 69, 83
extrasolar planets, 110–15, 219
in Drake Equation, 139–40, 144
Earthlike, 112–13, 144, 145, 146, 147
“hot Jupiters,” 110–11
Kepler-22b, 156
ocean, 111–12
of red dwarf stars, 111, 113–15
tidally locked, 114
“wobble detection” of, 110–11
extraterrestrial civilizations, 138–64, 170–71, 197n–98n, 217n
Drake Equation and, 139–40, 144, 145, 147–48, 149
galaxy colonized by, 146–48
interstellar travel by, 145–47
laser pulse communications of, 142, 144–45, 146
longevity of, 140, 151
machine-based life of, 152–55
mathematical symbols employed by, 156–59
nature of, 150–54
radio communications of, 138–39, 142, 144, 146, 155–62
simulated life created by, 210–15
of weird life, 145–48, 154–55
see also SETI
extraterrestrial intelligence, 136–37, 138–64, 202n, 217n