The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy
What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
DISCOVER HOW LIFE REALLY WORKS - ON EARTH AND IN SPACE
'A wonderfully insightful sidelong look at Earthly biology' Richard Dawkins
'Crawls with curious facts' Sunday Times
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We are unprepared for the greatest discovery of modern science. Scientists are confident that there is alien life across the universe yet we have not moved beyond our perception of 'aliens' as Hollywood stereotypes. The time has come to abandon our fixation on alien monsters and place our expectations on solid scientific footing.
Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution - which applies throughout the universe - Cambridge zoologist Dr Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be like. This is the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space.
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'An entertaining, eye-opening and, above all, a hopeful view of what - or who - might be out there in the cosmos' Philip Ball, author of Nature's Patterns
'A fascinating insight into the deepest of questions: what might an alien actually look like' Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins
'If you don't want to be surprised by extraterrestrial life, look no further than this lively overview of the laws of evolution that have produced life on earth' Frans de Waal, author of Mama's Last Hug
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"That life exists elsewhere in the universe seems almost inevitable," writes University of Cambridge zoologist Kershenbaum in his entertaining debut. To learn "a great deal about what aliens must be like, how they live, and how they behave," he writes, humans only need to look closer at animals on Earth. The author discusses ways animals behave in response to their environment: "Most forms serve a function: birds are colourful to attract mates; elephants' trunks are for manipulating food," and concludes that there will be as great a diversity in forms on other planets as there is on Earth. By looking at different methods of animal communication, he explores the senses through which aliens could communicate: smell is unlikely and inconvenient, he writes, unless they're very small, and extraterrestrial life will likely evolve to have vocal abilities, too. Rather than offer a fantastic version of extraterrestrial life, he gives readers something logical to consider, and in so doing provides insight on animals and humans as he explores how life, communication, and movement have evolved. This quirky study of biology is sure to please readers looking to learn about life on other planets, or even here on Earth.
