Astrobiology, history, and society: life beyond earth and the impact of discovery

Description

Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part I. The early extraterrestrial life debate: 1. The extraterrestrial life debate from antiquity to 1900 / Michael J. Crowe and Matthew F. Dowd; 2. Early modern ET, reflexive telescopics, and their relevance today / Dennis Danielson; 3. Extraterrestrial life as the great analogy, two centuries ago and in modern astrobiology / Woodruff T. Sullivan III; 4. Hegel, analogy, and extraterrestrial life / Joseph T. Ross; 5. The relationship between the origins of life on earth and the possibility of life on other planets: a nineteenth-century perspective; 6. Pioneering concepts of planetary habitability / Florence Raulin Cerceau -- Part II. The modern extraterrestrial life debate: 7. The twentieth century history of the extraterrestrial life debate: major themes and lessons learned / Steven J. Dick; 8. The creator of astrobotany, Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov / Danielle Briot; 9. Life beyond earth and the evolutionary synthesis / Douglas A. Vakoch; 10. The first thousand exoplanets: twenty years of excitement and discovery / Chris Impey; 11. Extraterrestrial life in the microbial age / Aaron L. Gronstal;This book addresses important current and historical topics in astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth, including the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).