Who is out there? | Nature


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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe SEARCH FOR LIFE/ASTROBIOLOGY * _Monica Grady_ Natural History Museum/Smithsonian Institution: 2001. 96 pp. £9.95/$14.95 (pbk) Living in the


thin but luxuriant biosphere of Earth, it stretches the mind to think that life would be difficult to find elsewhere. Only a century ago it was possible to imagine that creatures similar to


humans might live on our neighbouring planets, but a century of investigation has yielded no totally convincing evidence for extraterrestrial life. It surely exists, but it has not been easy


to find. The search is complicated by the probability that environments as favourable as Earth's are not common in the Universe, and it is likely that life elsewhere will not be nearly


as obvious as it is in our fecund biosphere. Instead of looking for people, Klingons or Wookies, the search will probably have to concentrate on detecting bacterium-like organisms similar


to those that have dominated more than 80% of the history of life on Earth. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your


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FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, Washington, USA Don Brownlee Authors * Don


Brownlee View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Brownlee,


D. Who is out there?. _Nature_ 411, 994–995 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35082643 Download citation * Issue Date: 28 June 2001 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35082643 SHARE THIS ARTICLE


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