Open AccessThe Search for Life in the Universe, Third Edition
Author(s) -
Deamer David W.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2002eo000244
Subject(s) - writ , astrobiology , universe , extraterrestrial life , biosphere , astronomy , tree of life (biology) , physics , political science , biology , law , biochemistry , phylogenetics , gene
Astrobiology as defined by NASA, is the study of life in the universe. Some of my colleagues scoff at astrobiology and its definition. How can we study life in the universe when its only example is confined to a single planet? Others find a comfortable scientific home. The reason has to do with the metaphor of rising above the trees and discovering the forest. The space program has, for the first time in human history, lifted our eyes above the biosphere and allowed us to see universal connections between life on the Earth and its roots in stellar and even galactic processes. It is this story—evolution writ large—that is at the core of astrobiology.