Extraterrestrials

Wade Roush MIT Press £12.99  PB

It was in 1950 that Enrico Fermi first theorised that, given the age and size of our Galaxy, the number of stars and planets within it and the odds of intelligent life developing on each planet, the Milky Way should be teeming with extraterrestrials. That being so, he asked: “Where is everybody?”

Wade Roush’s Extraterrestrials delves into this paradox. We are taken through the history of philosophical speculations about life on other worlds, from the ancient Greeks right up to the scientific surveys, experiments and investigations being made by astronomers and astrobiologists today.

Using the famous Drake equation as a road map, the author guides us through our search for aliens, the birth and evolution of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) to scan the skies for signals from alien civilisations and the messages that we have broadcast to reach out to them. He explores the advances in the fields of extremophile and exoplanet research that have extended our ideas of where life could thrive – the ever more varied potential homes for aliens both on moons in our own Solar System and on planets orbiting in habitable zones around distant stars.

All the various solutions to Fermi’s paradox are discussed – from the pragmatic to the bizarre – in this clear, concise and engagingly written book. It is a perfect stepping off place for anyone wishing to investigate how far we have come in answering one of the biggest questions in science: are we alone in the Universe? ★★★★★ Jenny Winder is a freelance science writer, astronomer and broadcaster