The Drake Equation

The Drake Equation
Author: Douglas A. Vakoch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2015-07-02
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1107073650

Leading scientists and historians explore the equation that guides modern astrobiology's search for life beyond Earth.

The Drake Equation

The Drake Equation
Author: Bart King
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-05-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1484725778

Noah Grow is a bird-watcher. If you're picturing some kid in a big floppy hat, peering up into trees through giant binoculars . . . well, good job. That's exactly what he does. Right now, Noah is on a quest to find a wood duck. According to his calculations, aka the Drake Equation, the odds are good -- really good -- for spotting one. That's why he gets off the bus at the wrong stop. And that's how he ends up running down a hill, crashing into a fence, and landing right next to a strange, glittery disk. Noah and his best friends, Jason and Jenny, soon discover that the mysterious disk is, well, mysterious. It gives Noah peculiar powers. As things go from odd to outrageous, Noah is swept up in a storm of intergalactic intrigue and middle-school mayhem. There's much more at stake than Noah realizes. Bart King delivers a hilarious sci-fi adventure with just the right mix of heart and humor that will have readers looking out for birds-and strange alien objects.

Information is Beautiful

Information is Beautiful
Author: David McCandless
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2009
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0007294662

Miscellaneous facts and ideas are interconnected and represented in a visual format, a "visual miscellaneum," which represents "a series of experiments in making information approachable and beautiful" -- from p.007

Mathematical SETI

Mathematical SETI
Author: Claudio Maccone
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 757
Release: 2012-08-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642274374

This book introduces the Statistical Drake Equation where, from a simple product of seven positive numbers, the Drake Equation is turned into the product of seven positive random variables. The mathematical consequences of this transformation are demonstrated and it is proven that the new random variable N for the number of communicating civilizations in the Galaxy must follow the lognormal probability distribution when the number of factors in the Drake equation is allowed to increase at will. Mathematical SETI also studies the proposed FOCAL (Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens) space mission to the nearest Sun Focal Sphere at 550 AU and describes its consequences for future interstellar precursor missions and truly interstellar missions. In addition the author shows how SETI signal processing may be dramatically improved by use of the Karhunen-Loève Transform (KLT) rather than Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Finally, he describes the efforts made to persuade the United Nations to make the central part of the Moon Far Side a UN-protected zone, in order to preserve the unique radio-noise-free environment for future scientific use.

Rare Earth

Rare Earth
Author: Peter D. Ward
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2007-05-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0387218483

What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

The Dark Forest

The Dark Forest
Author: Cixin Liu
Publisher: Tor Books
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1466853433

The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem! Over 1 million copies of the Three-Body Problem series sold in North America PRAISE FOR THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM SERIES: “A mind-bending epic.”—The New York Times • “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Fascinating.”—TIME • “Extraordinary.”—The New Yorker • “Wildly imaginative.”—Barack Obama • “Provocative.”—Slate • “A breakthrough book.”—George R. R. Martin • “Impossible to put down.”—GQ • “Absolutely mind-unfolding.”—NPR • “You should be reading Liu Cixin.”—The Washington Post The Dark Forest is the second novel in the groundbreaking, Hugo Award-winning series from China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion-in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret. This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead. The Three-Body Problem Series The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books by Cixin Liu Ball Lightning Supernova Era To Hold Up the Sky The Wandering Earth A View from the Stars At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Astronomy Notes

Astronomy Notes
Author: Nick Strobel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2010
Genre: Astronomy
ISBN: 9780078042713

Is Anyone Out There?

Is Anyone Out There?
Author: Frank D. Drake
Publisher: Delta
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1994
Genre: Astronomers
ISBN: 9780385311229

The leader of NASA's controversial multimillion-dollar transglobal search for signs of extraterrestrial life pulls fact from fiction in this accessible and entertaining book. Essential reading for anyone concerned with the stirring prospect that We are not alone'.--Carl Sagan. Illustrations. 16-page photo insert.

The Contact Paradox

The Contact Paradox
Author: Keith Cooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2019-10-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1472960440

What will happen if (perhaps when) humanity makes contact with another civilisation on a different planet? In 1974 a message was beamed towards the stars by the giant Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, a brief blast of radio waves designed to alert extraterrestrial civilisations to our existence. Of course, we don't know if such civilisations really exist. For the past six decades a small cadre of researchers have been on a quest to find out, as part of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. So far, SETI has found no evidence of extraterrestrial life, but with more than a hundred billion stars in our Galaxy alone to search, the odds of quick success are stacked against us. The silence from the stars is prompting some researchers to transmit more messages into space, in an effort to provoke a response from any civilisations out there that might otherwise be staying quiet. However, the act of transmitting raises troubling questions about the process of contact. In The Contact Paradox, author Keith Cooper looks at how far SETI has come since its modest beginnings, and where it is going, by speaking to the leading names in the field and beyond. SETI forces us to confront our nature in a way that we seldom have before – where did we come from, where are we going, and who are we in the cosmic context of things? This book considers the assumptions that we make in our search for extraterrestrial life, and explores how those assumptions can teach us about ourselves.