Sie haben keine Artikel im Warenkorb.

Weird Life von David Toomey

The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own
CHF 32.85
Verlag: WW Norton & Co
ISBN: 978-0-393-07158-0
GTIN: 9780393071580
Einband: Fester Einband
Verfügbarkeit: Folgt in ca. 15 Arbeitstagen
+ -

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.

*
*
*
*

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.

Autor Toomey, David
Verlag WW Norton & Co
Einband Fester Einband
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
Seitenangabe 288 S.
Lieferstatus Folgt in ca. 15 Arbeitstagen
Ausgabekennzeichen Englisch
Abbildungen 10 illustrations
Masse H21.7 cm x B14.7 cm x D2.5 cm 400 g

Über den Autor David Toomey

David Toomey ist Professor für Englisch an der University of Massachusetts, wo er Kurse über das Schreiben und die Geschichte der Wissenschaft unterrichtet. Als Autor widmet er sich den außergewöhnlichsten und skurrilsten Bereichen der Naturwissenschaft. Neben spielenden Tieren beschäftigt er sich u. a. mit Zeitreisen und außerirdischen Lebensformen.

Weitere Titel von David Toomey