Life on Other Worlds The 20th-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate [Paperback]

Life on Other Worlds places the twentieth century extraterrestrial life debate in historical perspective.Life on Other Worlds places the 20th century extraterrestrial life debate in historical perspective. It covers a broad range of topics, ranging from the search for life in the solar system to the search for planetary systems, the origins of life, UFOs, and aliens in science fiction.Life on Other Worlds places the 20th century extraterrestrial life debate in historical perspective. It covers a broad range of topics, ranging from the search for life in the solar system to the search for planetary systems, the origins of life, UFOs, and aliens in science fiction.Are we alone in the Universe? From the furor over Percival Lowell's claim of canals on Mars at the beginning of the century to the more recent controversial rock from Mars and the sophisticated Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), the prospect of otherworldly life has often titillated and occasionally consumed science and the public. The search for planetary systems, the quest to explain UFOs, and inquiries into the origin of life have fueled an abundance of popular and scientific literature. They have also provided Hollywood with fodder for some of the most popular films of our time, including ET, Aliens, Independence Day, and Contact. Lucid and accessible, Life on Other Worlds chronicles the history of the twentieth-century extraterrestrial debate. Putting the latest findings and heated controversies into a broader historical context, Steven Dick documents how the concept of extraterrestrial intelligence is a world view of its own--a biophysical cosmology that seeks confirmation no less than physical views of the Universe. The debate rests at the very limits of science, and attempts at confirmation only illuminate the nature of science itself. Dick shows that appreciating the history of the debate enables a better understanding of the nature of science, and is central to any forward-loolÃÐ