Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique

John Gribbin

Wiley, Dec 20, 2011 - Science - 240 pages

The acclaimed author of In Search of Schrödinger's Cat searches for life on other planets

Are we alone in the universe? Surely amidst the immensity of the cosmos there must be other intelligent life out there. Don't be so sure, says John Gribbin, one of today's best popular science writers. In this fascinating and intriguing new book, Gribbin argues that the very existence of intelligent life anywhere in the cosmos is, from an astrophysicist's point of view, a miracle. So why is there life on Earth and (seemingly) nowhere else? What happened to make this planet special? Taking us back some 600 million years, Gribbin lets you experience the series of unique cosmic events that were responsible for our unique form of life within the Milky Way Galaxy.

• Written by one of our foremost popular science writers, author of the bestselling In Search of Schrödinger's Cat
• Offers a bold answer to the eternal question, "Are we alone in the universe?"
• Explores how the impact of a "supercomet" with Venus 600 million years ago created our moon, and along with it, the perfect conditions for life on Earth

From one of our most talented science writers, this book is a daring, fascinating exploration into the dawning of the universe, cosmic collisions and their consequences, and the uniqueness of life on Earth.

What people are saying

User Review -

I was somewhat disappointed with Gribbin's new book. He is absolutely right in my opinion about his thesis and I have been tempted to write a similar book in the past. But unfortunately when Gribbin gets off on subjects outside his expertise, he make careless mistakes suggesting that he is not in full command of the subject matter. The evolution of magmas is a good example. He postulates that the crust was formed by minerals being removed so that it became enriched in silica. The he uses quartz as an example. Quartz is late in the crystallization process and if it was removed it would make the magma less enriched in Si because qtz is almost pure Si. This is not the only mistake like this in other fields. But it is a must read for those that want to understand how we can be alone in the universe.  

Review: Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique

User Review  - Jack - Goodreads

I thought that the author was actually a little weak on the science. Gribbin would make certain assertions about why particular conditions or processes in evolution were likely to be uncommon, attempt ...

About the author

JOHN GRIBBIN is one of today's greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books including In Search of the Multiverse (Wiley), In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, and Science: A History. He trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is now Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique
• Author: John Gribbin
• Publisher: Wiley, 2011
• ISBN: 1118147979, 9781118147979
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Science / Physics / General