Book Review: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe

Authors: Dr. Peter D. Ward and Dr. Donald Brownlee
Spiritual Bias: Unknown
Origins Bias: Evolutionary
Rating: Top Shelf
Level: Intermediate

Comments: The authors of this book pose the "Rare Earth" hypothesis which basically states that planets that can harbor advanced animal life like Earth are indeed rare. They list several scientific reasons ranging from the existence of an asteroid catcher like Jupiter to the presence of liquid water. They also show why the Drake equation exaggerates the number of planets with advanced life in our galaxy. This book is a breath of fresh air in a time when everyone seems to believe in the existence of ET. I highly recommend this book for the scientific information and the candidness of the authors.

Summary Quote: "Our planet coalesced out of the debris from previous cosmic events at a position within a galaxy highly appropriate for the eventual evolution of animal life, around a star also highly appropriate- a star rich in metal, a star found in a safe region of a spiral galaxy, a star moving very slowly on its galactic pinwheel. Not in the center of the galaxy, not in a metal-poor galaxy, not in a globular cluster, not near an active gamma ray source, not in a multiple-star system, not even in a binary, or near a pulsar, or near stars too small, too large, or soon to go supernova. We became a planet where global temperatures have allowed liquid water to exist for more than 4 billion years- and for that, our planet had to have a nearly circular orbit at a distance from a star itself emitting a nearly constant energy output for a long period of time"