A Brief Guide to Aliens From Myth to Modern Science

About this book

Everyone is curious about life in the Universe, UFOs and whether ET is out there. Over the course of his thirty-year career as an astrophysicist, Adam Frank has consistently been asked about the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. Are aliens real? Where are they? Why haven't we found them? What happens if we do?

We've long been led to believe that astronomers spend every night searching the sky for extraterrestrials, but the truth is we have barely started looking. Not until now have we even known where to look or how. In A Brief Guide to Aliens, Frank, a leading researcher in the field, takes us on a journey to all that we know about the possibility of life outside planet Earth and shows us the cutting-edge science that has brought us to this unique moment in human history: the one where we go find out for ourselves.

In this little book with big stakes, Frank separates nonsense fron science and gives us a rundown of everything we need to know, from the scientific origins of the search for intelligent life, the Fermi Paradox, the Kardashev Scale, the James Webb Telescope, as well as UFOs and their conspiracy theories. Drawing from his own work and that of other scientists studying the possibility of alien life, he brings together the latest scientific thinking, data, ideas, and discoveries to equip us with the critical facts as we stand at what may be the last moment in human history where we still believe we are all alone. This book is about everything we do – and do not – know about life, intelligent or otherwise, beyond Earth. In language that is engaging, entertaining and fun, A Brief Guide to Aliens provides a comprehensive first look at how close we are to finding out if others actually exist – and if they do, what they might be like.

Humankind is on the precipice of finding its neighbours. So, what comes next? No person is better suited to answer that question – and lead the search – than Adam Frank.

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Biography

Adam Frank is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester and a leading expert on the final stages of evolution for stars like the sun. Frank's computational research group at the University of Rochester has developed advanced supercomputer tools for studying how stars form and how they die. A self-described “evangelist of science", he is the author of several books and the co-founder of 13.8, where he explores the beauty and power of science in culture with physicist Marcelo Gleiser.