‘Titan from Cassini-Huygens’ by Robert Brown, Jean Pierre Lebreton & Hunter Waite (eds)
The Cassini-Huygens mission has provided an incredible diversity and wealth of information about Titan. This claim is supported by this sizable book that encompasses all the scientific results of the Cassini-Huygens mission with regards to Titan. The immensity of new data and the complexity of this fascinating moon has entitled Titan to its own volume, and the results concerning Saturn and its other moons are contained within a single volume entitled Saturn from Cassini-Huygens [1]. This book aims to encompass the enormity of scientific research that has utilized data accumulated from the...
Read More‘Talking about Life: Conversations on Astrobiology’ by Chris Impey (ed)
Astrobiology is still a young and growing science. For the first time, scientists and philosophers alike are able to chart the development of the field in real-time. Chris Impey’s book, Talking about Life: Conversations on Astrobiology, takes a novel approach to this in seeking the views and professional opinions of scientists intimately associated with astrobiological theory and research, through relaxed and informal conversations. The book features 37 interviews from disparate personalities: from the current president of the Royal Society, Martin Rees, to prodigious science fiction writer...
Read More‘Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier’ by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Space Chronicles is a journey from the past to the present of U.S. space exploration, with speculation about what the future may hold for NASA at the end of the Space Shuttle era. It also re-evaluates why space exploration is so important and why it demands our attention more than ever. If all this weren’t enough, it’s also incredibly funny. This book is a collection of interviews, speeches, articles and Tweets written by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, the American Museum of Natural History. The book starts with a prologue about the role of...
Read More‘The Search for Life Continued: Planets Around Other Stars’ by Barrie W. Jones
Astrobiology is a complex, wide-ranging subject embracing biology, astronomy, geology, climatology, engineering, chemistry, computer modelling and, probably, a dozen other subjects I’ve not even thought of. It’s impossible for anyone to be truly expert in all these aspects and it takes a real optimist to attempt a synthesis. Barrie Jones is the quintessential optimist and makes a damn good attempt in this semi-popularization. The book’s organization is very much that of a textbook but the style and atmosphere invoke the best kind of popular science book; one that introduces you to new...
Read More‘The Scientific Exploration of Mars’ by Fredric W. Taylor
It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that the myth and superstition surrounding Mars began slowly to be replaced by observation and scientific fact. Its orbit was first calculated by Copernicus in the early 1500s, who assumed the path traced around the Sun to be a perfect circle. Soon after, Brahe and Kepler came on the scene to provide us with the picture we know today. With the invention of the telescope a century or so later Mars was recognised as the planet it is, and investigations into this alien, yet Earth-like, world could begin in earnest. As the prologue to The Scientific Exploration of...
Read More‘Science, Society, and the Search for Life in the Universe’ by Bruce Jakosky
This book explores the relationship between science and society, using the field of Astrobiology as an example. Jakosky’s goal, as he states in his preface, is to investigate the philosophical and societal issues in astrobiology. This focuses in particular on encouraging the specialists in science and the humanities to communicate more effectively with each other, with the idea that both sides will benefit greatly from doing so. The book begins on a scientific note, by introducing astrobiology as a popular and historical science, and then discusses deeper questions such as determining what...
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