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From Dying Stars to the Birth of Life – Book Review

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Title: From Dying Stars to the Birth of Life: The New Science of Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe
Publisher : Nottingham University Press
Author: Jerry L Cranford
ISBN : 978-1-907284-79-3
Price: £24.99 [237 pages hardcover]

Subtitled as “The new science of astrobiology and the search for life in the universe”, this is an abundantly illustrated book that attempts to cover the immensity of the universe and the minuteness of a living cell. The author establishes at the outset that he is not an astronomer. A now retired professor with years of experience in psychology and “brain sciences”, he brings his expertise of academia and research to his childhood passion of astronomy.

Astrobiology is a relatively new and still developing interdisciplinary field that studies origin and evolution of life throughout the universe. This book attempts to deals with some of the most poignant questions of Astrobiology that have faced humanity from the beginning. Where did life come from? What does it mean to be alive? Are we alone in the universe?  So dramatic are the developments in science and technology over the last half century that for the first time in human history tangible experiments can now be performed that have the potential to answer them.

The first half of the book takes the reader from the Big Bang to the emergence of stars, galaxies, and eventually supernovae that generate the fundamental elements to the complex compounds necessary for the development of life.  I found chapters 3 and 4 that described the constituent parts of living cells and how they work particularly interesting.

The final chapter is more rewarding than the title “Some final thoughts from the author” may at first suggest. In it the author turns to the question of why, in the technologically rich 21st century, science has been unable to provide a definitive answer to Fermi’s paradox – given that the universe is old and big enough to have nurtured life elsewhere than just that on Earth, why is it that life on Earth is the only one for which evidence exists?

Written in a somewhat unusual style, it has a freshness that readers new to the field may find attractive. The author jumps about between using the first and third person, variously talking about himself as “I”, “we” and “the author”.  He also uses “the present author” or “the present book” — why not simply “the author” or “the book”?    Initially oddities like these and others are a distraction, but they are relatively easy to get used to.

In the preface the author acknowledges support from many, including Seth Shostak from the SETI institute. Additional input like that from other specialists e.g. cosmologists, evolutionary biologists or planetary astronomers would perhaps have introduced a greater authority to the final product.

Many of the illustrations are sourced from the public domain, a welcome trend which I hope will flourish. This book lacked the typical highly formal scientific approach that an astronomer would have taken.  The author’s highly personal approach and an abundance of genuine passion for this subject is his unique contribution in this book.  If you wondered what astrobiology is all about, this detailed and enthusiastic review from a dedicated amateur is a good starting point to the current state of the subject.

Episode 33: January 27th 2010 : Ptolemy’s Almagest

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If you had the task of gathering all of humanity’s knowledge of cosmology in one place, how would you do it? Answers to questions such as, How big is the Earth? At what date and time will the Moon be full again? What makes the Sun shine? How old is the Universe? Today a good place to start the project would be to scour the sources online. In about 150AD Claudius Ptolemaeus, better known as Ptolemy, a Greek national with Roman citizenship living in Egypt, attempted to do just that. He is best known for his encyclopaedic work written in ancient Greek “Syntaxis Mathematica”, perhaps better known as the Almagest from the Arabic Al magisti “the greatest”. He was an industrious author of many scientific and mathematical treaties but he also collected works going back hundreds of years.

The Almagest was the premier source of knowledge for describing the cosmos for almost two thousand years. Nothing of the original survives, only hand written copies of hand written copies.

Today’s episode is partially about one such copy, A seven hundred year old manuscript identified recently in the special collections of the Brotherton Library in the University of Leeds. Only parts of it is the Almagest. The manuscript was kept by Anthony Askew,   Joseph windham and then  lord Brotherton who donated it to the University of Leeds.

This episode is also about how information is transmitted through history. The value that successive individuals, societies and civilisations put on them. The inevitable errors in the mishmash of translations over hundreds of years from one language (Ancient Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Latin and English) to another or the periodic attempts by one scribe to diligently copy the work of another. In early 2009 Dr Regine May and Professor Malcolm Heath came across a 14th century manuscript catalogued as a work of Astrology and discovered it contained elements of Ptolemy’s Almagest. The manuscript in three volumes has yet to receive detailed  scholarly scrutiny.

In today’s episode there are 4 contributors.  Dr Regine May outlines how the almost accidental discovery of this manuscript came about and Dr Oliver Pickering, the keeper of the special collections describes how the library acquired the manuscript. A live recording of Professor Malcolm Heath, Dr Allan Chapman and Dr Oliver Pickering inspecting the manuscript in the Brotherton Library.

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Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who read and wrote about the ancient Greek culture. Perhaps it was the writings from the ancient Greek civilisation which lead him to conclude The future influences the present just as much as the past.

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Episode25:Science and Religion

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Science is the product of human intellect, creativity and imagination. It helps answers the profoundest of all questions. Where did life come from? How old is the Earth? What is the structure of the universe? How did humans come to be? As the history of science shows, as it progresses so does the nature, accuracy and reliability the answers to such questions. The scientific picture of the physical world is a provisional and an ever changing one.

Science is not the only way to understand the world and our place within it.  Majority of the time humans have existed most of them have been equally content and secure with different answers to the same fundamental questions. For them ancient holly texts provide unambiguous solutions. Science is not needed because it is not required.

The debate between science and religion is as intriguing and contentious today in the 21st century as it has always been. Science progresses by actively challenging its core tenants through the rational exercise of reason. On the other hand religious beliefs have divine origins, don’t require changing and are thus inherently stronger.

There are surprising large number of high profile scientist who are also committed to a particular faith. Perhaps they can shed some light on how they reconcile this apparent contradiction.

Dr Allan Chapman who is not a scientist but a historian of science and a practising Christian with a particular interest in the history of astronomy talks about science and religion.  He is the author of several books including biographies on Mary Summerville and Robert Hook. Perhaps he is better known  for  “Gods in the Sky”  and as the presenter the  of the three part series of the same name on channel4.

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Episode22:Interstellar Dust

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As episode 21 indicated, the power of science fiction to motivate the imagination is perhaps as strong as science itself.

1957 is known for the launch of Sputnik but it was also the year that the scientist Fred Hoyle published a science fiction novel called The Black Cloud. One of its readers in Italy would be inspired by it to  become an astronomer and embark on a career which involves the scientific study such clouds.

Professor Paola Caselli was that reader and since the autumn of 2007 has been the professor of Astronomy at the University of Leeds where Fred Hoyle had been a student. Her area of interest is the study of those regions of space of dust and gas (“dark clouds”) from which stars and planet eventually form.

Dust comes in many forms – cosmic, cometery and interplanetary dust which is responsible for the zodiacal dust we can see from Earth. Professor Caselli investigates cosmic dust grains (atoms or molecules of Silicon, Magnesium, Carbon and others) which act like magnets and help suck out the volatiles from a dust cloud in the early stages of star formation. Some of these process are probably taking place right now in the recently announced discovery of HL Tau and its associated proto planet HL Tau b.

She will be speaking on “From Interstellar Clouds to Planets: the Universal Factory“at the now famous, Leeds Astromeet on Saturday 15th November at the University of Leeds.

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