Cosmic encounters with alien life
Numerous books have been penned on the exciting subject of life on other worlds, and the news almost daily carries stories about potential new habitable sites, ranging from water on Mars to oceans on Europa and exoplanets beyond the solar system. The Impact of Discovering Life Beyond Earth picks up where those books leave off and asks "what would happen if we actually discovered life?" The answer depends, of course, on the discovery scenario. The reaction to the discovery of microbes would be quite different to the reaction to the discovery of intelligent life. And if a message is deciphered, the reaction would quite different again, depending on the content of the message! All these scenarios and many more are covered in this highly original volume, written by scientists, philosophers, historians, anthropologists and theologians addressing the new field of astrobiology and society.