Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own

Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own
Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages : 246
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780393089943
ISBN-13 : 0393089940
Rating : 4/5 (43 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own by : David Toomey

Download or read book Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own written by David Toomey and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Weird indeed, and not a little wonderful.”—Nature In the 1980s and 1990s, in places where no one thought it possible, scientists found organisms they called extremophiles: lovers of extremes. There were bacteria in volcanic hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, single-celled algae in Antarctic ice floes, and fungi in the cooling pools of nuclear reactors. But might there be life stranger than the most extreme extremophile? Might there be, somewhere, another kind of life entirely? In fact, scientists have hypothesized life that uses ammonia instead of water, life based not in carbon but in silicon, life driven by nuclear chemistry, and life whose very atoms are unlike those in life we know. In recent years some scientists have begun to look for the tamer versions of such life on rock surfaces in the American Southwest, in a “shadow biosphere” that might impinge on the known biosphere, and even deep within human tissue. They have also hypothesized more radical versions that might survive in Martian permafrost, in the cold ethylene lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan, and in the hydrogen-rich atmospheres of giant planets in other solar systems. And they have imagined it in places off those worlds: the exotic ices in comets, the vast spaces between the stars, and—strangest of all—parallel universes. Distilling complex science in clear and lively prose, David Toomey illuminates the research of the biological avant-garde and describes the workings of weird organisms in riveting detail. His chapters feature an unforgettable cast of brilliant scientists and cover everything from problems with our definitions of life to the possibility of intelligent weird life. With wit and understanding that will delight scientists and lay readers alike, Toomey reveals how our current knowledge of life forms may account for only a tiny fraction of what’s really out there.


Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own Related Books

Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own
Language: en
Pages: 246
Authors: David Toomey
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-02-26 - Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Weird indeed, and not a little wonderful.”—Nature In the 1980s and 1990s, in places where no one thought it possible, scientists found organisms they cal
Verity
Language: en
Pages: 295
Authors: Colleen Hoover
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-10-05 - Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling autho
Jo & Laurie
Language: en
Pages: 386
Authors: Margaret Stohl
Categories: Young Adult Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-06-02 - Publisher: Penguin

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bestselling authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz bring us a romantic retelling of Little Women starring Jo March and her best friend, the boy next door
Weird Al
Language: en
Pages: 222
Authors: Nathan Rabin
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-10-01 - Publisher: Abrams

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A “fun and colorful” biography of the accordion-toting comedy legend—with rare photos, lyrics, lists, tweets, and more from Al himself (Publishers Weekly)
Year's Best Weird Fiction
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Laird Barron
Categories: Speculative fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014 - Publisher: Undertow Publications

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The inaugural volume of the Year's Best Weird Fiction. No longer the purview of esoteric readers, weird fiction is enjoying wide popularity. Chiefly derived fro