Our biology and our beliefs limit our alien-hunting abilities (Image: Harvard University Press)
THE search for life beyond Earth has philosophical and religious implications which science books often skirt around. Lucas John Mix, a biologist and Episcopalian priest, tackles these issues head-on. Though too detailed at times, Life in Space is a broadly researched and refreshingly personal account of astrobiology. Mix shows how our understanding of where and how to look for extraterrestrial life is biased by the fact that we have only a single example of life to go by. We are further biased, he says, by the…
