Are We Alone

Scientists and governments are actively searching for signs of life in the universe. Will their efforts meet with success? Award-winning author Paul Davies, an eminent scientist who writes with the flair of a science fiction writer, explores the ramifications that the discovery of extraterrestrial life would have for our science, our religions, and our worldview in general.

One of the world’s leading scientists explains why—and how—the search for intelligent life beyond Earth should be expanded. Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake first pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). After a half-century of scanning the skies, however, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence—eerie because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life. Physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies has been closely involved with SETI for three decades and chairs the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, charged with deciding what to do if we’re suddenly confronted with evidence of alien intelligence. He believes the search so far has fallen into an anthropocentric trap—assuming that an alien species will look, think, and behave much like us. In this provocative book Davies refocuses the search, challenging existing ideas of what form an alien intelligence might take, how it might try to communicate with us, and how we should respond if it does.

Examines the evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life.

The premise that alien life exists has had a grip on writers, artists, thinkers, and scientists since possibly the earliest days of civilization. This awesome text explores many of the critical parts of astrobiology from theories about exoplanets and the formation of solar systems to places like the Lowell Observatory and Roswell and people like H. G. Wells and Carl Sagan. Astrobiology, or the search for aliens, has never been so accessible as in this text. With full-color artwork and gripping, accessible main text, sidebars, and fact boxes, readers enjoy indulging in alien theories all the while learning science and history.

When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother’s garden, she begins to notice things that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully coloured clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where all of these things were taken away. When We Were Alone is a story about a difficult time in history, and, ultimately, one of empowerment and strength. Also available in a bilingual Swampy Cree/English edition. When We Were Alone won the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award in the Young People's Literature (Illustrated Books) category, and was nominated for the TD Canadian's Children's Literature Award.

A thoughtful exploration of how humans have endangered the Earth but can pull it back from the brink, as told by a renowned conservationist This personal and thoughtful book by renowned Kenya conservationist David Western traces our global conquest from Maasai herders battling droughts in Africa to the technological frontiers of California. Western draws on a half century of research in the savannas and his own life’s journey to argue that conservation is not a modern invention. The success of all societies past and present lies in conservation practices, breaking biological barriers and learning to live in large cooperative groups able to sustain a healthy environment. Our ecological emancipation from nature enabled us to expand our horizons from conserving food and water for survival to saving whales, elephants, and our cultural heritage. In the Anthropocene, our scientific knowledge and modern sensibilities offer hope for combating global warming and creating a planet able to sustain the wealth of life, but only if we use our unique cultural capacity of cooperation to plan our future.

Previous studies of the insurrection have centered on the initial stage of the movement in Cuzco and tended to misrepresent the phase in La Paz as an atavistic "race war" against whites. By focusing on La Paz, Thomson shows that a process of struggle at the local level, combined with transformations within Aymara indigenous communities over a period of decades, contributed to the overall breakdown of Spanish colonial order and shaped the dynamics of the insurgency. As peasant commoners increasingly challenged their traditional ethnic lords (caciques), they upset the established apparatus of colonial rule in the Andean countryside, and they brought about a democratization of power relations within their communities. These local struggles converged with more ambitious designs for Indian government and self-determination, as the insurgents envisioned the possibility of Indian-white equality, Indian hegemony over other peoples in the Andes, or outright elimination of the colonial enemy. This experience in the late colonial period continued to shape peasant community organization and influence national political life in the Andes into the present.

Life on Mars exists but we are too timid to accept the facts Life on Mars exists but are we brave enough to accept the facts? Extraterrestrial life exists and there’s evidence to prove it The question ‘are we alone?’ has haunted the human race for centuries. In this compelling and controversial work, Dirk Schulze-Makuch and David Darling argue that we already know the answer: no. Abundant extraterrestrial life is astrobiological fact and there is evidence to prove it. Far from existing light-years away in the outer reaches of space, it’s on our very doorstep. From methane oceans on Titan to advanced organic molecules on Mars, Schulze-Makuch and Darling contend that microbial life is a near certainty both in the Solar System and beyond. Using the latest scientific data, including from the Phoenix probe, which landed on Mars in 2008, We Are Not Alone stands to truly revolutionize our perception of our place in the universe.