Comments on: Book review – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves

By: ingridcc

ingridcc — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 01:59:34 +0000

The book sounds very interesting but it’s really a guide to “intelligent life in the universe” – what (some) alien life forms might be like after a few billion years of evolution, if then. If aliens had investigated our planet during the first 3/4 of the time life existed here, they wouldn’t likely have found life forms with movement, communication, or language (that we know of, anyway!). I’ll be pretty excited if we find ANYTHING living and reproducing on another world, regardless if it can walk or talk!

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By: Book review – Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 14:58:17 +0000

[…] communication in animals. Zoologist Arik Kershenbaum impressed me with the previously reviewed The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy. That popular work on astrobiology was a diversion from his actual research on vocal communication […]

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

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:23:03 +0000

[…] Similarly, whether life could evolve along radically different paths or whether there are universal biological laws that constrain the possibilities is of particular interest to the matter of convergent evolution on […]

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By: BEWILDERMENT – Richard Powers (2021) | Weighing a pig doesn't fatten it.

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 07:59:29 +0000

[…] Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind, or the more accessible The Zoologist’s Guide to the Universe from Arik Kershenbaum. If you want a book about loss, the already mentioned Version Control does […]

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By: FIASCO – Stanisław Lem (1986) | Weighing a pig doesn't fatten it.

FIASCO – Stanisław Lem (1986) | Weighing a pig doesn't fatten it. — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 04:05:59 +0000

[…] on Astrobiology from Chris Impey, and 2020’s The Zoologist’s Guide to thr Galaxy by Arik Kerschenbaum, a much lighter book than […]

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By: Book review – Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 08:56:07 +0000

[…] Given this is not Hand’s expertise, that is reasonable. He also glosses over the question of what aliens might look like, though he speculates on the likelihood of intelligent life in ice-covered subsurface oceans. Even […]

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By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:17:14 +0000

In reply to bormgans.

This is certainly a more tradey title than Powell’s book. The n = 1 problem is astrobiology (we so far have a sample size of one, our planet) indeed means he is limited to making logical arguments.

As for this particular one, I didn’t go into it deeper here, but he discusses the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition. We have no virtually no fossils from the former, and a sudden proliferation of fossilisable shells, spikes, and teeth from the latter. One explanation is that this marked the birth of predation on Earth. Mark McMenamin has consequently dubbed this supposedly peaceful period the garden of Ediacara.

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By: bormgans

bormgans — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 17:53:55 +0000

This seems less rigorous than Powell´s book? I´m not sure you could prove something like “Predation is universal, because no ecosystem can exist for long without someone trying to take a bite out of somebody else”

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By: Book review – Convergent Evolution on Earth: Lessons for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:41:22 +0000

[…] now limited. My feeling is that most general readers will be better served by Kershenbaum’s The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, which I had a chance to flick through, though not yet read in-depth. For those wanting to get to […]

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