First published 2000. Copernicus hardback, 2000, pp 361 (pp 287 main text), c.90,000 words (main text). I was planning to write a book about why humans have not yet encountered any evidence for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. My thesis was to be that the conditions that led to life here on Earth are […]
Rare Earth — Peter D Ward and Donald Brownlee Read More »
First published 2015. Springer paperback, 2015, pp 434, c.140,000 words (main text). The subtitle of this book is ‘Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life’; which just about encapsulates what it is all about. ‘Seventy-Five Solutions’ rather suggests a rather dull and dry academic exercise with a laundry list of
If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens… Where is Everybody? — Stephen Webb Read More »
First published 2009. National Geographic hardback, 2009, pp 309, c.88,000 words. The subtitle to this book is ‘A scientist’s search for extraterrestrial intelligence’, and with that Shostak is keen to reassure us that this isn’t some wacko’s alien encounter story. The cover also tells us that Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI institute,
Confessions of an Alien Hunter — Seth Shostak Read More »
First published 2014. Penguin paperback, 2015, pp 421, c.160,000 words. Tegmark is a very articulate physics communicator. On television he is excellent in explaining complex phenomena in an accessible fashion, and he always seems to have a twinkle in his eye. The same personality shines through this book. The opening five chapters are a master-class
Our Mathematical Universe — Max Tegmark Read More »
First published 1988. John Murray paperback, 2018, pp 351. I studied mathematics up to the age of eighteen, covering the fundamentals of calculus. That was a long time ago, and I have rarely used it since. Working through this book reacquainted me with the subject, and it covers the same ground as my school lessons.
Calculus, A Complete Introduction — Paul Abbot and Hugh Neill Read More »
First published 2021. Penguin, paperback, 2022, pp 310 (including 80 pages of notes and index), c.83,000 words (main text). Kate Darling studied economics and law before teaching and researching the legal and ethical implications of technology. This book distills her thoughts on how robots should be considered in these terms. Her big idea is that
New Breed, The — Kate Darling Read More »
First published 2016. 4th Estate, paperback, 2017, pp 440, c.150,000 words. du Sautoy is a professor of Mathematics at Oxford University as well as Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science and has presented several television programmes, so he is well qualified as a communicator of science, and this book explores some of the
What We Cannot Know — Marcus du Sautoy Read More »
First published 2020. David Fickling, paperback, 2021, pp 212, c.40,000 words. Nurse says that this is a question that has been asked from the dawn of time, and today there is no standard definition. The book is an attempt to lay out an answer even if it leaves some loose ends. Nurse has spent his
What is Life? — Paul Nurse Read More »
First published 2018. Sceptre, paperback, 2019, pp 182, c. 45,000 words. What is this book about? Don’t expect to learn any physics from it. It’s a philosophical meditation on how the study of physical phenomena have revealed incredible wonders about the origins, workings and fate of the universe, and also what the current limits to
Consolations of Physics, The — Tim Radford Read More »
First published 1953. Pan, paperback, 1957, pp 192, c.75,000 words. This book provides a snapshot of how the West viewed the possibility of space travel in the early 1950s. Leonard had been Science Editor of Time magazine for ten years at the time this was written, and he had excellent access in the USA to
Flight Into Space — Jonathan Norton Leonard Read More »