Aliens by Jim Al-Khalili

Aliens Reviews

• 
  Heather

  Like any collection written by several different authors some of these essays are better than others A few were simply over my head but I thought most were fascinating There are some very different opinions about the likelihood of alien life existing in the Universe and this collection explores several of them well Different scientists have studied the same evidence and come to different opinions Most believe that alien life is nearly certain following the logic of Stephen Hawking when he said “To my mathematical brain the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational Others think the development of life on earth was an incredibly lucky fluke They all provide strong arguments to support their theories which are interesting to think about no matter what conclusions you come to yourselfI enjoyed the philosophical debates in this collection as well as the scientific facts and hypotheses As a Christian who considers science fully compatible with my faith uestions about the actual definition of life believe it or not there's not complete consensus on this among scientists and what the implications would be if we detected alien life are very intriguing to me No matter what you believe about God or your opinion about the existence of aliens this is a very thought provoking collection for those interested in the topicI'll wrap this up with the two most mind blowing things I learned one scientists have recently developed the technology to determine what's in the atmospheres of planets light years away particularly the signature gasses of life as we know it oxygen methane and many others NASA's James Webb Space Telescope which should launch in 2018 will be able to perform atmospheric studies of the planets around nearly half a million nearby stars Two many scientists believe that alien intelligence if we ever detect it will be in the form of artificial intelligence meaning that they'll have made the transition from decaying mortal organic lifeforms to silicon based machines Alien robots Don't panic; there's an entire essay about why aliens would be unlikely to want to cause us any harm and fortunately it's very convincing
• 
  Boudewijn

  For those who have ever wondered Is there anybody out there?In Aliens The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Jim Al Khalili a British Irai theoretical physicist shines a light on some of the latest scientific theories supporting the existence of alien life The book is a collection of essays covering some of the latest theories and shows why scientists are optimistic than ever before that we’re not alone in the universeThe various contributors discuss some of the most basic uestion involving the search for alien life The first and most obvious uestion is ofcourse where is everybody? What are we looking for? Where to look? But also non scientific uestions such as an overview how aliens have been depicted in popular cultureThis is one of the strong points of this book essays from a broad spectrum of the scientific community cosmologists astrophysicists NASA planetary scientists and geneticists to name just a few discussing the latest research and theories relating to alien lifeSo are we alone? This book allows you to find the latest theories and evidence that move us closer to answering that uestion
• 
  Amber Martingale

  Far too dry and academic for my taste Put me to sleep three words into it
• 
  Scottsdale Public Library

  This collection of scientific essays examines the myriad of possibilities about the existence of life beyond our planet It examines uestions such as What is life? How does it form? Is life a cosmic imperative or a miraculous oddity on our planet alone? And just how accurate is Hollywood in depicting probable alien life?If you have ever looked up at the stars and wondered if there is anyone else out there try this book – Wendy M
• 
  Scott Kardel

  I've recently read a lot of books on the search for extraterrestrial life and this one is one of the better ones It is a collection of 19 essays by top minds in the field such as Sir Martin Rees Sara Seager Paul Davies Seth Shostak and that are mostly very informative and representative of the diverse scientific opinions in this field I very much recommend it for those interested in the topic
• 
  Zachary F.

  The obvious problem with a collection of scientific essays about aliens published in 2017 is that we do not as of yet have any concrete evidence of their existence Since scientists as a rule tend to avoid making bold claims without any proof or means of testing their theories there’s not a ton to be said about aliens from a scientific perspective until we have a bit to go onThere’s certainly a lot of good information here about the origins of life on earth the surprising difficulty of defining “life” in the first place the probability that aliens exist at all spoiler there’s no consensus and the methods by which scientists hope they might detect extraterrestrial life in the future and I suppose that’s all the subtitle really promises; but readers looking as I was for a speculative exploration of the sorts of life that may be out there and the ways in which we may someday interact with them will be left wanting More often than not these essays boil down to a big “We really don’t and at the moment can’t know” Which is totally reasonable but also not super compelling readingMaybe my review is a little too lukewarm though It took me than a month to read this due both to other reading and my own scientific illiteracy so some of my indifference is probably just fatigue I did learn a lot and I feel I have a better understanding of the search for extraterrestrial life as it stands now and may stand in the future than I did going in Several of the essays the ones about Hollywood aliens or the history and psychology of UFO sightings for instance were pure filler and some felt as if they were re hashing chapters I’d already read But there were some genuinely enlightening ones too If you’re already interested in the subject and don’t know much about it this collection is definitely worth at least perusing If not you’d probably be better off passing it by
• 
  Ailith Twinning

  It's fine but not worth buying the audiobooknew Basically it's just kinda boring Here I'll sum up the whole thing for you1 If we can find life that is not related to the known life tree on Earth then life in the universe is or less certain 2 If we can find life anywhere but here or Mars life then in the universe is or less certain3 We should consider types of life than we can comprehend except that by definition we cannot4 We might be looking for alien AI not bio life 5 The origins of life of Earth are pretty well understood tho we have not nailed down a specific starting point6 It is either the height of hubris to assume there is ETI or the height of hubris to assume there is notIn other words The very nature of the uestion is such that only positive confirmation could currently provide anything like knowledge of the uestion Not just the answer but the uestion itself Which I cannot help but feel most people already know this And my personal thoughts on the matter or the thoughts of others I have adopted are irrelevant to the above criticism of the book It doesn't matter what you believe the book provides no light Not that I expected it to do so; I expected it to be entertaining and it just wasn't good at that
• 
  Myra

  This book is written by a bunch of different people each author has one chapter So naturally there were some chapters I enjoyed than others As an example the chapter about Aliens and SciFi was my favourite in the entire book while there were other chapters that I didn't care all that much for Overall I think this is a good book if you're at all interested in the science behind the search for and the idea of aliens or just interested in aliens in general It has a lot of information crammed into uite few pages and I found the majority of it to be very interesting However some of the chapters were almost overwhelming in the amount of info that was crammed into them Of course many of the chapters were written by scientists so for someone with that kind of knowledge the language and writing would be accessible But I'm not a scientist in the slightest and I found some of the chapters too complicated Call me stupid all you want because frankly I probably am kinda stupid but sometimes there was just too much information rapidly thrown at the reader and I couldn't always keep up I think that was why I gave it 3 stars in the end It wasn't super special but I did find it interesting So if you're interested in the topic i would recommend it but if you're not particularly interested in the topic I'd say don't bother
• 
  Marin

  I knew the answer before I bought it we don't know yet but the last book I read on the subject was 30 years ago and I trust the editor Jim Al Khalili a scientist who has the gift of presenting science to laymen in an incisive mode full of fascinating details I bought it in an airport and I have to confess the lure of the bogo 50% free offer increased my interest in the excuse being this is my petty contribution to keeping the bookstores in businessThere are several chapters each wrote by a different scientist tackling the subject from a different angle I found them intriguing informative and very readableWe know only one type of a watercarbon based life and it is difficult to surmise how else the life can be but hopefully our uestions research and a bit of luck will give us an answerAmong many uestions a basic one we did not have an answer to one is how the life started The basic ingredients are everywhere in the universe but even in a uiet pond the chances of the first organisms to emerge from the primordial soup are so statistically slim that we might be the only ones around at least for the time beingAnother troubling thought is that once started the life heats up and the civilisation will be self destructing or subjected to many possible external attackscosmic events to survive much above the level we are at nowAnd even if our civilisation will survive the future beings will machine type than humans being which cannot travel as the science fiction writers dreamt of This was a downer but I am getting older and pliable to disappointments As was the case with all popular science books I enjoyed before I will re read some of the chapters of this very good essay collection
• 
  Lachie

  Absolutely loved this bookI read it at the perfect time as I have been interested about this stuff lately which always improves a bookIt felt like it had a good flow despite being written by many different scientistauthors all contributing a roughly 10 page essay in their topicReally thorough and thought provoking I would definitely recommendOh and don't forget the cover This is one of the best looking books I own The eery cover and the green tipped page edges give it a true alien feel