Light of the Stars

April 9, 2018
Astrophysicist and NPR commentator Frank (The End of the Beginning) explores “the astrobiology of the Anthropocene” in this skillfully written volume. With an evenhanded approach to issues like the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the threat posed by climate change, Frank’s simple, effective narrative interlaces biology, astrophysics, population science, and more to lend a cosmic perspective on the fate of life and earth. “Earth has worn the masks of many worlds” throughout its history of sweeping transformations, he observes, and studying other planets can cast new light on this one’s challenges, such as how Venus reveals the dangers of a runaway greenhouse effect. Big-picture summaries of Fermi’s paradox and philosophical inquiries into “exo-civilizations” lay out how humans have historically grappled with the question of alien life. The Easter Island civilization’s collapse demonstrates “what is true for an isolated island, its ecosystems, and its inhabitants should also be true for planets in the isolation of space.” Coupling a bevy of exoplanet data with his own research, Frank approximates the odds of humanity being the only civilization to ever exist as “one in ten billion trillion.” Engrossing readers start to finish with persuasive, smooth prose, Frank offers a new take on humanity’s place in this “vast and ancient metropolis of stars.”

Starred review from May 1, 2018
An engaging effort "to tell a different story about ourselves and our fate among the stars and their many worlds."With the 21st-century discovery that planets circle most stars in our galaxy, books on alien life are pouring off the presses. In his latest, Frank (Astrophysics/Univ. of Rochester; About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang, 2011), co-founder of NPR's 13.7: Cosmos and Culture blog, focuses on its implication for earthly life, crafting one of the best introductions to the genre. Since ancient times, writers have speculated about alien civilizations, but a famous scientist once asked a disturbing question: Where are they? On billions of planets over billions of years, surely advanced societies exist. High school math proves that any civilization capable of building ships that travel at 10 percent the speed of light will colonize our galaxy in 650,000 years. With the odds that humans are unique approaching zero, Frank introduces an unsettling idea: Perhaps advanced societies develop routinely and then quickly self-destruct. All life extracts energy from the environment, which changes that environment, often for the worst. But nonhuman life works slowly. Primitive bacteria extracted energy and produced oxygen as a waste product. This eventually killed them, but it took a few billion years. Our technically advanced society became possible when we developed spectacularly great sources of energy. Fifty years ago, researchers worried about nuclear Armageddon, but worries about human-induced climate change and environmental destruction have taken priority. Plenty of species and human cultures--Easter Island, Maya, Norsemen on Greenland--have crashed after exhausting their resources. As Frank writes, we must "stop seeing civilizations like our own as standing apart from the world that gave them birth. All civilizations, including those that might occur on other worlds, are expressions of their planet's evolutionary history."An intriguing account of the ongoing search for alien civilizations whose failure to appear may be a warning for humans to get their act together.

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July 1, 2018

NPR commentator Frank (astrophysics, Univ. of Rochester; About Time) presents a well-researched and hopeful call for humanity to slow its impact on the planet in order to save it and ourselves. The author frames his discussion of our move to the Anthropocene era (where Earth is impacted by human technologies) on the Drake Equation for predicting the likelihood of other intelligent species in the universe. Frank's and others' research indicates there have been or are other intelligences, but if so, as Enrico Fermi asked, why haven't we heard from them? And, Frank adds, what can we postulate about them, and learn from them, in order to not ruin ourselves and our planet? Enlivening the narrative are discussions of Frank Drake, Carl Sagan, Steve Squyres, Jill Tarter, and other scientists in terms of their personal drives towards understanding the universe (as well as their work). VERDICT Will hold the interest of both teens and adults interested in climate change, physics, or civilization's possible fates. This work can be enjoyed on a narrative as well as deeper scientific level as it features an extensive bibliography for those interested in further research.--Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lib., Pasadena, CA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2018
Frank, an NPR blogger and science commentator for All Things Considered, comes across in his usual way, as knowledgeable, witty, irreverent, provocative, and very entertaining. His premise is that we citizens of Earth need to stop acting like egocentric teenagers. We need to grow up and realize that it's extremely improbable that we're the only cognizant species to have ever inhabited a planet. We also need to stop beating ourselves up over how we're destroying our planet. It's obvious that our global civilization has had considerable impact, but Mother Earth is pretty tough. Humans exist only because conditions were created that allowed it. Surely this has happened before, where a nurtured civilization's technology has grown to the point where it's in conflict with its home planet. Frank argues that we should seek out these exocivilizations and learn from them and suggests how to do exactly that. Along the way, he refers to and succinctly but satisfactorily explains extraterrestrial existence theories, such as Fermi's Paradox, the Great Filter, and Drake's Equation. For us normal earthlings, he also incorporates accessible references to H. G. Wells, Carl Sagan, the Mars rovers, Easter Island, and prosthetic Klingon foreheads. This offers solid science and lots of fun, so expect high demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)