Comments on: Book review – Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space

By: "Alien Oceans: The Hunt for Life in Our Solar System's Water Worlds" - Editverse

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 07:56:50 +0000

[…] /2021/07/28/book-review-alien-oceans-the-search-for-life-in-the-dept… […]

By: Book review – Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:53:19 +0000

[…] long after primordial heat has dissipated and radioactive decay has slowed down. This allows for ocean worlds and cryovolcanism such as on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. “When it comes to keeping worlds […]

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By: Book review – Fire & Ice: The Volcanoes of the Solar System | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 13:07:15 +0000

[…] Alien Oceans introduced me to the concept of other habitable zones with conditions favourable for life outside of the classic one that is determined by distance to the parent star. On these moons, heat is generated through friction when their insides are squeezed and stretched in response to tidal tugs from the parent planet or other moons. As revealed by various missions over the years, this results in ice-covered moons with liquid subsurface oceans. Here, geysers release plumes of water, salts, and hydrocarbons, while cryovolcanoes erupt magma consisting of e.g. cold slurries of ammonia-water and liquid methane. Starkey discusses Triton (Neptune), Enceladus and Titan (Saturn), and Europa (Jupiter). A surprise entry is Pluto, with a fly-by of the New Horizons mission revealing a fresh surface, though its heat source remains mysterious. […]

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By: Book review – Life in the Cosmos: From Biosignatures to Technosignatures | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:23:16 +0000

[…] into e.g. spectroscopy or the mechanics of exoplanets transiting their stars. The possibility of life in subsurface oceans receives a well-deserved separate chapter. The more speculative third part of the book looks at the […]

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By: Book review – Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 11:58:44 +0000

[…] alkaline vents and the possibility of life on moons such as Saturn’s Enceladus, discussed in Alien Oceans. Pleasingly, he adds details not mentioned in either book. This includes Deamer’s fieldwork […]

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By: Book review – The Genesis Quest: The Geniuses and Eccentrics on a Journey to Uncover the Origin of Life on Earth | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 10:45:09 +0000

[…] Lost City hydrothermal field in 2000. These would provide a gentler environment and, from reviewing Alien Oceans, it is clear that alkaline vents still have […]

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By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:09:25 +0000

In reply to bormgans.

I’m a bit of a completist, so I’ll probably end up reading both ; )

As for that review of Arrival of the Fittest, that’s an interesting critical review. One of those reviews that makes you question yourself: “Am I just easily impressed? Do I know what the fuck I’m doing? Am I really knowledgeable enough? Should I even be reviewing all these books?” I’ll have to make a point of rereading it in the future keeping the criticism of that review in the back of my mind.

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By: bormgans

bormgans — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 06:12:21 +0000

In reply to inquisitivebiologist.

Thanks for that list!

That The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution seems very interesting, I would read that rather than Dawkin’s book, 2 birds with one stone so to say.

As for the Wagner one, I’m a bit reluctant to start it after reading this review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1547263271?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

As for the Thomas, I think I share his basic premises (except for techno-optimism, should he have that), but for me climate change & the sixth extinction aren’t about the survival of nature as a whole (the earth will abide, so much is clear), but the threat to my children.

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By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:34:39 +0000

In reply to bormgans.

Three books that I read before I started this blog immediately come to mind
– Andreas Wagner’s Arrival of the Fittest
– Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction
– Chris Thomas’s Inheritors of the Earth

Another one (seriously, you haven’t read that?!) is Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene, though I might tie that in with a future review of with a new book from Oxford University Press, The Gene’s Eye View of Evolution.

Maybe I need to start making some time in my schedule for one “retro-review” each month *rubs chin*

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By: bormgans

bormgans — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 19:15:37 +0000

In reply to inquisitivebiologist.

Care to list some of the others?

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