"Intelligent Life in the Universe: From Common Origins to the Future of Humanity" by Peter Ulmschneider
Abstract
Book Review Intelligent Life in the Universe: From Common Origins to the Future of Humanity, by Peter Ulmschneider. Springer, Berlin, 2003, 251 pp., ISBN: 3540439889. A into the mainstream, astrobiology texts (Kutter, 1987; Goldsmith and Owen, 2002; Bennett et al., 2003; Gilmore and Sephto, 2004; Lunine, 2004) compete for our attention. By penning the majority of these texts, physical scientists are displacing biology âmemesâ and putting a deterministic imprimatur on our understanding of what astrobiology is. Peter Ulmscheider, an astrophysicist at the University of Heidelberg specializing in acoustic waves in the solar chromosphere, continues this pattern with his new book on this popular topic. I enjoyed reading it. The book is a well-illustrated review of the basics of astrobiology. An amazing amount of important information is clearly summarized between its well-bound covers. The trick in cooking up such a comprehensive synthesis is to marinate the spiciest ingredients from disparate fields into a narrative, without concocting a dogâs breakfast of diversions and caveats. In this respect, Ulmschneider has succeeded. The book has three sections: âPlanets,â âLife,â and âIntelligence.â âPlanetsâ is an authoritative review of what we know about stellar evolution, planet formation, and circumstellar habitable zones. Ulmschneider knows stars