Life as We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and ... (ISBN 0143038494)

Thought-provoking on what all may constitute life, BUT with unwarranted sweeping generalizations elsewhere:
Ward is at his best when making statements that are based on the best and latest studies in molecular biology, evolutionary biology and related fields, such as classifying viruses as living. He's about as good when conjecturing that in other ways, we may have too limited a view of what constitutes life here on Earth. He combines this with his paleontologist's knowledge of geography to say that we ... especially "we" being folks like NASA, SETI, etc., may have way too narrow of a view of what constitutes life on other planets, and just what "alien" life may involve. But, from here, he goes into the unwarranted generalizations. First, even allowing for the diversity of alien types of life, I think he is unempirically and irrationally optimistic about the existence of life elsewhere in our solar system. The amount of methane on Mars or Titan may be due neither to extant life nor volcanism, contrary to his possibly false dichotomy, for example. Also, his souped-up overhaul of cladistics, with new classification levels above that of kingdom, have a bit of horn-tooting at times. From these two observations, it's not too far to Point C, as in, "Look at me! I'm on the cutting edge of astrobiology!" And, along with other reviewers, I'd have to agree with observations on the paucity of footnotes. Frankly, this seems connected with Point C. Finally, as a paleontologist, he has some non sequiturs about manned space exploration. He seems to blithely assume that humans can survive longer solar system trips, dodging bullets of cosmic radiation. However, recent research has indicated even a manned trip to Mars could be fraught with peril, not to mention his lusted-after visit to Titan. I was on the borderline of a fourth star, based on the good points, but I'm sure that someone else will come on with a more sober, and more in-depth, coverage of this fascinating topic soon enough.

Controversial and worthwhile but somewhat quixotic:
Two of the three deep questions about life, "What is life and how should it be defined?" are addressed in this book along with "Where might life be found?" Peter Ward and his colleague Don Brownlee addressed the third deep question, "Does life tend to evolve into intelligent life?" in their controversial book Rare Earth and came to the unpopular conclusion that intelligent life is very rare, and that overwhelmingly the vast preponderance of life in the universe is microbial. Here Ward concentrates on the possibility of microbial life in the solar system. Let's look at Professor Ward's goals in writing this book as presented in the preface. His first goal is "to bring the public up to date on the progress in...astrobiology..." Understandably Ward does not venture beyond the friendly (or not so friendly) confines of the solar system. Influenced as we all are by the recent discoveries of extremophiles in unlikely places on earth, Ward waxes hopeful about the possibility of microbial life under the surface of Mars, is less enthusiastic about life in the ocean under the ice cap of Europa, is pessimistic about life in the Venusian atmosphere, and is almost wildly excited about the possibility of life on the far-off Saturn moon, Titan, where he believes life could be especially exotic. Interestingly enough Ward thinks there is alien life on earth yet to be discovered, possibly descendants of ancient RNA life. He classifies viruses as being alive and concludes, somewhat whimsically, that alien life does exist on earth since viruses are not included in the family tree of life as defined by most biologists. (One notes in passing that Richard Dawkins's recent tome The Ancestor's Tale does not include any viruses.) I was uplifted and mostly convinced from Ward's analysis that life does indeed exist on Mars. (Yes!) Ward claims that some scientists now consider it a given, and he even hints darkly that NASA knows this (p. 189) but is keeping mum until they can present a stronger case to the public. His second goal is "to redefine...life...." Here I am confident that other scientists will find both his grasp and reach exceeded, but I suspect his attempt to reclassify the tree of life will be a harbinger of reclassifications to come. It is here that he is at his most quixotic. His third goal is "a rational look at what alien life might be like." He looks at life based on something other than DNA and the familiar twenty amino acids. He looks at silicone life. He looks at how life might have originated, going from "warm ponds" to clay substrates to hydrothermal vents to artificially created life. This leads him to his fourth goal which is to speculate on how likely it is that life could arise and exist in the extreme environments elsewhere in the solar system based on the latest information. I found this part of the book intriguing and optimistic. Ward urges us to send manned missions to both Mars and Titan because he believes that only space boots on the ground and instruments in gloved hands can best find the aliens he believes live there. Ward also makes the excellent point that only on the relatively unchanging surfaces of the moon and Mars we are likely to find evidence of early life on earth! This is because chunks of our planet flew into space and landed on the moon and Mars from a time not preserved in the geological record on earth because of weathering, etc. He even suggests that fossils of microbial life could exist in earth rocks on the moon and Mars. There are some minuses in this book. It is not as well written or edited as his previous works. Sometimes it is the case that once a writer becomes as successful as Ward has become, editors are afraid to actually edit, and the writer himself does not read the proofs as carefully as he might. Too bad. Another minus is his confused expression about the allocation of public funds for SETI as opposed to funds for exploring the solar system. I think Ward ought to say unequivocally that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the exploration of the solar system are both worthy projects that ought to receive strong support from the public. On pages 238-239 Ward actually makes fun of how humanity would benefit from a signal from intelligent extraterrestrial life. What he fails to appreciate is the deep philosophic and religious implications of such a signal. He also fails to realize that even though it may take anywhere from nine to fifty to a hundred years or more, depending on where the signal is coming from, for a stream of information to flow our way, that is still a wondrous prospect for humanity. Ward seems blithely unaware that contact of any kind from an extraterrestrial civilization would be one of the greatest events in human history. His conclusion that after such a signal we would discover that "nothing has changed" is...well, I hate to use the word "stupid" but in this case I think it really does apply. I also didn't care for Ward's little story (pp. 236-237) about trying to give a copy of his book Rare Earth to Microsoft billionaire John Allen only to be embarrassed by SETI scientist Jill Tartar's understandable reaction. Nor did I like his making fun of Carl Sagan's now obviously unwarranted enthusiasm for macroscopic Martian life (pp. 176-179) and his later obsequious praise of the popular scientist (e.g., p. 233). This is one of those books--Ward's 13th--that historians love because it unintentionally reveals so much about its author and his times. It's a bit breezy, a bit arrogant, and a bit quixotic, but this somewhat brazen report from the infancy of astrobiology is nonetheless an interesting and worthwhile effort.

Are there aliens among us?:
Not long ago, Peter Ward, with co-author Donald Brownlee, scandalised the SciFi world. In "Rare Earth", they assessed the contingencies that would lead to complex and intelligent life and found all those ET types seriously wanting. Too many binocular, bipedal and articulate organisms for their liking. "Alien" life, however, is very likely to exist in Ward's analysis in this successor volume. Indeed, he stresses, it may be very close. Alien life using survival methods we have little or no knowledge of, may have emerged in parallel with ours. We need to accept that possibility and learn to search for and identify it. Viruses, of course, are the prime candidates. Many biologists, however, reject the virus as part of life - they cannot reproduce without a host, and their genetic information is limited, usually to RNA instead of the DNA underlying the life we understand. Another "alien" life form - many of them, actually - have been found surrounding the "black smokers" at the bottom of the seas. Living entirely without sunlight, at temperatures that would annihilate surface life, they metabolise sulphur instead of oxygen, they violate every standard definition of life. Or did until they were discovered. Today, they are leading candidates to represent how life originated on this planet. For Ward, more than just their novelty, the organisms around the black smokers demonstrate how life can exist in extreme environments. "What does chemistry permit?" he asks, and spends the remainder of the book providing answers to that query. He reminds us that life on our planet has had nearly four billion years to experiment with conceiving life forms. How many attempts of various types have started? How many of succeeded? Charles Darwin, Ward says, laid down "an iron-clad doctrine that all life on Earth comes from a single ancestor". Yet Darwin knew nothing of genetics, black smokers or "extremophile" life. Ward, in keeping with taxonomic rules, wants to establish a new division of classification: Terroan life. He rests this proposal on three aspects of life: the time it has had to develop new forms, the wide variety of those forms and the almost astounding number being newly discovered. All of which leaves aside the numbers to emerge - even those made by us. Ward's chapter on "The Artificial Synthesis of Life" is certain to chain any reader's attention. Strides made in this field are, to put it mildly, compelling. Genetics researcher Jack Szostak, who figures large in this chapter, has estimated that a DNA-based life form could be achieved for about US$20 million - a paltry sum. Using the famous Urey-Miller experiment in the 1950s that produced amino acids, Ward moves on to note how important a membrane is to allow organisation and complexity to fulfill what the Urey-Miller experiment started. Ward argues that the "bottom-up" method, starting with basics is preferable to trying to create a new DNA-based organism. "Self-assembly" of the proper compounds is more promising. His DNA forecast notwithstanding, it is here that Jack Szostak is the stellar figure. The author outlines in detail the issues surrounding the formation of RNA in an organic envelope. From the origins of life here, and the attempts to start it anew in the lab, Ward moves into a more familiar realm. As a major figure in the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Ward and many of the figures mentioned in the book are refining the search for extra-terrestrial life. Mars, of course, is a tempting possibility, but the permanent drought there is likely to inhibit easily detectable forms. Jupiter's moon Europa has been a tantalizing candidate for some time. Since probes passing by showed the possibility of an under-ice ocean, the extremophile concept has been projected there. Ward's own favourite, however, is the methane-laden satellite of Saturn, Titan. Larger than other moons, it holds great promise for the possibility than truly alien organisms might be found there. His final chapter: "Send Paleontologists to Mars and Biochemists to Titan", spells out his manifesto perfectly. The book is a rich trove of information about life, updated from the earlier "Rare Earth" in many respects. The bibliography is rich with up-to-date (at least at time of publication) information on the latest research. The book is valuable now and will remain so until new probes reach the planets, satellites, and comets of our solar system. And until Jack Szostak and others finally achieve full synthesis of RNA in the laboratory (stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada)

Imagination As He Does Not Know It:
One might be surprised that serious scientists have been studying the possibilities of life beyond Earth, and there is plenty of evidence that alien life is indeed plausible, but probably won't look like science fiction archetypes. There are also quite believable chances of life, in some form, being found in the current locations of choice in our solar system - Mars, Europa, and especially Titan. This book presents some very intriguing up-to-date knowledge, but in an awkward presentation that is loaded with self-aggrandizement. Plenty of other reviewers here have commented on the strengths and weaknesses of particular aspects of Peter Ward's scientific statements, so I will discuss the style and writing of the book overall. Unfortunately, there is trouble in that department which badly diminishes the effectiveness of Ward's science, regardless of its plausibility. This book was probably written because Ward would be unable to get many of his pet theories through the peer reviewing process in the leading scientific journals, especially his attempts for immortality through the creation of entire new categories of taxonomy, among other fanciful thought experiments. (Also, no work in which a scientist talks about himself and his friends so much would ever make it into a serious journal.) Ward has a real weakness for dismissing other researchers' theories with less investigation than he demands from others who look at his own theories, and he has a pretty condescending point of view towards proponents of other realms of thought, such as "animal rights crazies" or Gaians who are guilty of "extreme nonsense." In effect, Ward criticizes speculation and scientific imagination in others, while advancing his own thought experiments which are highly speculative and imaginative, such as calling viruses "alien" or drawing up completely new orders of potential life on Titan. Most disappointingly, Ward generally slams the use of imagination by other scientists and thinkers, but refuses to admit that his own theories, while certainly built upon plausible science, are also influenced by a certain amount of imagination. Thus, interesting science is discussed in a book that becomes rather difficult to take seriously. (~doomsdayer520~)

Mediocre:
I recently came upon two other books by Mr. Ward in a discount bookstore, and, prodded, by their subject matters, decided to give both a chance. The first book was published in 2002, and was co-authored with a Donald Brownlee. It is called The Life And Death Of Planet Earth: How The New Science Of Astrobiology Charts The Ultimate Fate Of Our World, and is a followup to the duo's earlier Rare Earth. The second book is 2005's Life As We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search For (And Synthesis Of) Alien Life. On the positive side, both books are better works than Gorgon. On the negative side, neither are, in any way, shape nor form, first class books of science, although both books fail for different reasons. That stated, let me just comment on a problem many science books have, and that is their lengthy subtitles. Most are simply pretentious, and as is the case with the second book, was the parenthetical really necessary, especially considering that NASA's search for alien life really has little to do with ward's book, which is more or less Ward's own pat on the back for believing he has come up with new ideas and classifications for life on earth, even though he has not, to this time, offered his `research' up to peer review; instead trying to gain public acclamation for his ideas, so many of which are retreads from not only earlier speculations by scientists, but from science fiction writers as early as the 1930s. This seems to be a recurring problem in Ward's books- his own overweening belief in his scientific knowledge, and a narcissism devoted to his own existence above the science he examines. Fortunately, while that infects a good deal of Life As We Do Not Know It, it is far less recurrent in his co-authored text, The Life And Death Of Planet Earth. Still, even that book has some manifest flaws. Chief among them is the reliance on one of the oldest logical fallacies- that being the Fallacy of Uninterrupted Trends. While this may be a necessity for science fiction, for science fact, it's inexcusable. The idea behind Ward's and Brownlee's book is that life on earth- at least complex life, has only a few hundred million years to go, at best, before the earth slowly reverts, over the next five to seven billion years, to former states it had during its infancy, with bacterial life being the last thing remaining, as the sun becomes a red giant and burns earth to a cinder. In short, while the physical mass of the planet is still less than half its eventual age, life as we know it is in senescence These predictions are based upon supposed `known facts,' which they see as rising levels of certain gases in the earth's atmosphere, and an increase in the brightness of the sun. Yet, the patterns of star development are still in their infancy, and life, more complex than it was in the past (although the duo gives some arguments against that- complexity in terms of diversity vs. in terms of individuals and species), also seems to exhibit a greater stranglehold over the biosphere than was previously thought. By its nature, evolution is unpredictable, so how future life might evolve- especially if aided by our superhuman descendents, to cope with such changes is a crapshoot, at best. In short, the arguments used by Ward and Brownlee are akin to reading an ancient text claiming that the moon will never be reached. And, aside from their speculations- which are merely pessimistic when not unoriginal, neither man's writing takes a grip of the reader the way the writing of a Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, or Steven Pinker can. Nowhere is there the joy of just ruminating on the way they paint their pictures. And while Ward has a history of speculative science (his 2001 book Future Evolution), it has never been as interesting nor as exciting as that of his great rival, Dougal Dixon, and this is because Ward simply has a closed mind, and furthermore, cannot even recognize its closure. He dismisses almost any ideas that he does not agree with as mere piffle, even if they include plausible things such as FTL (faster than light) travel. Yet, even modern physicists admit that FTL travel is more of technical and financial problem than a physical one, and there are already several plausible scenarios to circumvent that stricture that do not violate known physics. Yet, Ward seems utterly ignorant of that whole field of science, not to mention that humans, if we do survive, will no longer even be humans.