The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology - Softcover

Dick, Steven J.; Strick, James E.

3.67

6 ratings by Goodreads

9780813537337: The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813537339 ISBN 13: 9780813537337

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2005

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The Living Universe is a comprehensive, historically nuanced study of the formation of the new scientific discipline of exobiology and its transformation into astrobiology. Among many other themes, the authors analyze how research on the origin of life became wedded to the search for life on other planets and for extraterrestrial intelligence. Many scientific breakthroughs of the last forty years were either directly supported or indirectly spun off from NASA’s exobiology program, including cell symbiosis, the discovery of the Archaea, and the theories of Nuclear Winter and the asteroid extinction of the dinosaurs.

Exobiology and astrobiology have generated public fascination, enormous public relations benefits for NASA, and––on the flip side of the coin––some of the most heated political wrangling ever seen in government science funding. Dick and Strick providea riveting overview of the search for life throughout the universe, with all of the Earthly complexities of a science-in-the-making and the imperfect humans called scientists. Their book will appeal to biologists, historians and philosophers of science, planetary scientists (including geologists), and an educated general readership interested in the investigation of life on other planets.

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About the Author:

Steven J. Dick is the Chief Historian at NASA and associate editor of the International Journal of Astrobiology. Among his books are Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000, and Life on Other Worlds, which has been translated into four languages. James E. Strick is the author of Sparks of Life: Darwinism and the Victorian Debates over Spontaneous Generation. He is an assistant professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Franklin and Marshall College.

Review:

"All that has happened in the brief history of astrobiology is but a prelude to some of the most important future discoveries in the history of science and philosophy. This book is the only place where you can find out what really happened in the struggle to make astrobiology respectable." - Frank Drake, senior scientist and director of the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute "This is a wonderful book by two of the best historians of biology in the business." - Michael Ruse, author of Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose?"

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