{"id":586,"date":"2019-07-23T14:45:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T14:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/?p=586"},"modified":"2019-07-23T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T15:03:09","slug":"researching-life-on-other-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/researching-life-on-other-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Researching Life on Other Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/astrobiology_books.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"703\" src=\"http:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/astrobiology_books-1024x703.jpg\" alt=\"Astrobiology books\" class=\"wp-image-582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/astrobiology_books-1024x703.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/astrobiology_books-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/astrobiology_books-768x527.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>My next book, due to be published in September, is on the subject of Astrobiology. It\u2019s my third contribution to the <a href=\"http:\/\/iconbooks.com\/group\/hot-science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hot Science<\/a> series from Icon Books, after <a href=\"http:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/out-now-destination-mars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Destination Mars<\/a> (July 2017) and <a href=\"http:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/cosmic-impact-out-now\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cosmic Impact<\/a> (Feb 2019).<\/p>\n<p>For most of my previous books, while I\u2019ve been writing them I\u2019ve done a blog post showing some of the research material I\u2019ve been using. I forgot to do that for this one, so I\u2019ll do it now the book is on its way to the printers.<\/p>\n<p>Actually only 8 of the 9 books pictured above actually qualify as \u201cresearch\u201d. The one in the middle of the top row \u2013 <em>Life on Other Worlds<\/em> by Sir Harold Spencer Jones \u2013 is something I only acquired a couple of days ago \u2013for 50 pence from a flea market. It was originally written in 1940, which must make it one of the earliest books ever written on the subject. My copy is a second edition from 1952 \u2013 but that\u2019s still prehistory as far as astrobiology is concerned.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, most of the books pictured are ones that I\u2019ve reviewed. The four books on the bottom row, and the one at the right-hand end of the top row, are review copies that <em>Fortean Times<\/em> sent me. My favourite of them, and the most unusual, is <em>The Great Silence<\/em> \u2013 which I also reviewed on Brian Clegg\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/popsciencebooks.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Popular Science blog<\/a>. The two books with \u201cAliens\u201d in the title are remaindered copies I got from The Works \u2013 and found interesting enough to review on Brian\u2019s site. So the only thing I actually bought as research for my own book is <em>What Does a Martian Look Like?<\/em> \u2013 a rather scruffy copy I found on eBay.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My next book, due to be published in September, is on the subject of Astrobiology. It\u2019s my third contribution to the Hot Science series from Icon Books, after Destination Mars (July 2017) and Cosmic Impact (Feb 2019). For most of my previous books, while I\u2019ve been writing them I\u2019ve done a blog post showing some &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/researching-life-on-other-worlds\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Researching Life on Other Worlds&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,39,33],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-astrobiology","tag-popular-science","tag-writing-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrew-may.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}