Jon Willis Yale University Press £18.99 HB

We’ve all heard the argument before: with the seemingly unlimited expanse of the cosmos, Earth surely can’t be the only planet to harbour life. That being said, the scientific pursuit of extraterrestrial life, or astrobiology, is vast, complex and unnervingly youthful. But its youthfulness doesn’t mean that no progress has been made. Indeed, the past few decades have put astrobiologists in the throes of a renaissance. It is timely, then, that Jon Willis has sought to explain the entire gamut of the field of astrobiology for lay readers. After dealing with the eternal conundrum of ‘what is life?’ we take a useful tour of the Solar System, seeking out habitats conducive to the emergence of life and examining how we might investigate them. An entire third of the book is devoted to just four locations: Mars, Europa, Enceladus and Titan. Turning our gaze to the stars, we investigate exoplanets and consider the thorny problem of detecting indicators of life on these distant worlds. In the final few chapters the author discusses SETI and the societal implications of the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Each chapter is authoritative, accessible and fun and together they form a skillfully executed and entertaining book.

At the outset, Willis presents us with an interesting scenario. If we had $4 billion in our pockets for an astrobiology experiment, what would we spend it on? After reading this book, the reader would be well placed to make a good judgment.

ALASTAIR GUNN is a radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire