Astrobiology/Exobiology Education Note
Dear Astrobiology & Exobiology Educators:
As more college courses are planned in astrobiology & exobiology, it is useful to share information about course content and the feedback we receive from students and colleagues. I am facilitating this sharing of information and experiences. I therefore request that teachers who would like to participate in an e-mail dialog with other teachers please contact me. I am also especially interested to know what topics you are covering and what texts are being used. The initial focus of this discussion is on introductory college courses for non-science majors.
Following for your information is preliminary text information for undergraduate introductory courses in astrobiology “Astrobio 101″. The first three are rather comprehensive, while the next three are more focused on the origin of life on Earth.
I also list several recent trade books in astrobiology or related fields that are sometimes used as supplementary reading for undergraduates. I would be interested to know if you have used any of these books, and if so what success you have had with them.
David Morrison
Senior Scientist, NASA Astrobiology Institute
NASA Ames Research Center
Tel 650 604 5094
david.morrison@arc.nasa.gov or dmorrison@arc.nasa.gov
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Life in the Universe
By Jeffrey Bennett, U. Colorado at Boulder, Seth Shostak, SETI Institute, Bruce Jakosky, U. Colorado at Boulder
Publisher: Addison Wesley (2003)
1. A Universe of Life?
2. The Science of Life in the Universe.
3. The Nature of Life.
4. The Geological History of the Earth.
5. The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth.
6. The Search for Life in Our Solar System.
7. Mars.
8. Life in the Outer Solar System.
9. The Evolution of Habitability.
10. Distant Abodes for Life.
11. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
12. Interstellar Travel.
13. The Fermi Paradox.
14. Contact–Implications of the Search and Discovery
Astrobiology Laboratory Manual to accompany Bennett, Shostak & Jakosky
By Edward Prather, Erika Offerdahl, and Tim Slater, U. Arizona
Activity 1: The Universe is a Really Big Place
Activity 2: The Nature of Life
Activity 1: The Universe is a Really Big Place
Activity 2: The Nature of Life
Activity 3: The Extreme Environments and the Creatures That Live There
Activity 4: The Evolving Earth: Geologic and Biologic Time
Activity 5: Designer Genes for a Designer World
Activity 6: Living a Polar Lifestyle: The Importance of Water for Life
Activity 7: Remote Sensing - What Can We See When We Can’t Touch?
Activity 8: To Terraform or Not to Terraform Mars, That is the Question
Activity 9: Interstellar Real Estate: Defining the Habitable Zone
Activity 10: The Rare Earth: How Rare is Earth-Like Life?
Activity 11: Wobbling Star - How Extra-Solar Planets are Discovered
Activity 12: The Drake Equation
Activity 13: Is There Anybody Out There?
The Search for Life in the Universe (3rd edition)
By Donald Goldsmith, Interstellar Media, & Tobias Owen, U. Hawaii
Publisher: University Science Books (2002)
1. The Search from the Human Perspective
2. The Universe Small and Large
3. The Birthplaces of Stars
4. Energy Liberation in Stars
5. How Stars End Their Lives
6. Galaxies and the Expanding Universe
7. The Nature of Life on Earth
8. The Origin of Life
9. From Molecules to Minds
10. How Strange Can Life Be?
11. The Origin and Early History of the Solar System
12. Venus
13. Mars
14. Is There Life on Mars?
15. The Giant Planets and Their Satellites
16. Is the Earth Unique?
17. The Discovery of Extrasolar Planets
18. Extraterrestrial Civilizations: How Many? How Distant?
19. Interstellar Spaceflight
20. Interstellar Radio and Television Messages
21. Extraterrestrial Visitors to Earth?
22. Where is Everybody?
The Search for Life on Other Planets
By Bruce Jakosky, U. Colorado at Boulder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (1998)
1. The Search for Life in the Universe
2. Impacts, Extinctions, and the Earliest History of Life on Earth
3. The History of Life on Earth
4. The Earth’s Geological Record and the Earliest Life
5. Energy and Life in Unique Environments on Earth
6. Origin of Life on Earth
7. Requirements for Extraterrestrial Life
8. Is Life on Mars Possible?
9. Possible Fossil Martian Life in Meteorites from Mars
10. Implanting Life on Mars
11. The Exobiology of Venus
12. Titan — A Natural Exobiology Laboratory
13. Exobiology in the Jupiter System
14. Formation of Planets Around Other Stars
15. Searching for Planets Around Other Stars
16. The Habitability of Planets Around Other Stars
17. Intelligent Life in the Universe
18. Life in the Universe
Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World
By Jonathan I. Lunine, U. Arizona
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (1999)
1. An Introductory Tour of Earth’s Cosmic Neighborhood
2. Largest and Smallest Scales
3. Forces and Energy
4. Fusion, Fission, Sunlight, and Element Formation
5. Determination of Cosmic and Terrestrial Ages
6. Other Uses of Isotopes for Earth History
7. Relative Age Dating of Cosmic and Terrestrial Events: The Cratering Record
8. Relative Age Dating of Terrestrial Events: Geologic Layering and Geologic Time
9. Plate Tectonics: An Introduction to the Process
10. Formation of the Solar System
11. The Hadean Earth
12. The Archean Eon and the Origin of Life: Properties of and Sites for Life
13. The Archean Eon and the Origin of Life: Mechanisms
14. The First Greenhouse Crises: The Faint Early Sun
15. Climate Histories of Mars and Venus, and the Habitability of Planets
16. Earth in Transition: From the Archean to the Proterozoic
17. The Oxygen Revolution
18. The Phanerozoic: Flowering and Extinction of Complex Life
19. Climate Change Across the Phanerozoic
20. Toward the Age of Humankind
21. Climate Change Over the Past 100,000 Years
22. Human-Induced Global Warming
23. Limed Resources: The Human Dilemma
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe
By Peter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee, U. Washington
Publisher: Copernicus (Springer-Verlag) (2000)
1. Why Life Might Be Widespread in the Universe
2. Habitable Zones of the Universe
3. Building a Habitable Earth
4. Life’s First Appearance on Earth
5. How to Build Animals
6. Snowball Earth
7. The Enigma of the Cambrian Explosion
8. Mass Extinctions and the Rare Earth Hypothesis
9. The Surprising Importance of Plate Tectonics
10. The Moon, Jupiter, and Life on Earth
11. Testing the Rare Earth Hypothesis
12. Assessing the Odds
13. Messengers from the Stars
The Spark of Life: Darwin and the Primeval Soup
By Christopher Wills and Jeffrey Bada, U. C. San Diego
Publisher: Perseus Publishing (2000)
1. Introduction
2. The Rise and Fall of Spontaneous Generation
3. Primordial Soup
4. The Earth’s Apocalyptic Beginnings
5. Prebiotic Soup: The Recipe
6. Sorting Out the Gemisch
7. The First Protobionts
8. From Top to Toe
9. Journey to the Center of the Earth
10. Life Elsewhere
11. Epilogue
Some recent trade books that might be suitable as supplementary student resources
Captured by Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe
by Joel Achenbach. Simon & Schuster (1999)
T. Rex and the Crater of Doom
By Walter Alvarez. Princeton U. Press (1997)
Planet Quest
by Ken Croswell. Harcourt (1997)
Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology
by David Darling. Basic Books (2001)
The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life
by Paul Davies. Simon & Schuster (1999)
Origins of Life (2nd edition)
By Freeman Dyson. Cambridge U. Press (1999)
The Hunt for Life on Mars
by Donald Goldsmith. Dutton (1997)
Here be Dragons: The Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life
by David Koerner & Simon Levay. Oxford (2000)
Night Comes to the Cretaceous
By James Lawrence Powell. Harcourt (1998)
Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life
by Seth Shostak. Berkeley Hills Books (1998)
Rivers in Time: The Search for Clues to Earth’s Mass Extinctions
By Peter D. Ward. Columbia U. Press (2000)
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