Publications

(with Niels Henrik Gregersen) Cambridge University Press (2010)

Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake 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). But after a half-century of scanning the skies, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence -- eerie, because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life. The problem could be that we've been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way. In this book I offer a new and exciting roadmap for SETI’s future, arguing that we need to be far more expansive in our efforts, by questioning existing ideas of what form an alien intelligence might take, how it might try to communicate with us, and how we should respond if we ever do make contact. It will appeal to fans of science and science fiction alike.Publication Details:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2010) U.S.A. Penguin Books (2010) U.K.

Life’s origin remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. Recent discoveries in astrobiology suggest that life might have started on Mars and come to Earth in rocks blasted off the Red Planet by comet impacts. The discovery of microbes living deep underground or round scalding volcanic vents on the sea bed supports the idea that life began in an exotic locale. 

in S. J. Dick and M. L. Lupisella (Ed.), Cosmos and Culture, NASA Press, p. 383 (2009). 

interview with Astronomy Now, (14 December 2009).

Astrobiology Magazine Online, (25 May 2009).

Physical Review A 79, 032103 (2009).

with S. Benner, C. Cleland, C. Lineweaver, C. McKay and F. Wolfe-Simon, Astrobiology 9 (2), (2009).

Focus 198, 27 (January 2009).

with M. Rees, M. Tegmark, A. Guth and A. Linde in Closer to Truth: Cosmos. Consciousness. God. Season 1, Episode 2 (2008). 

 interview with Niezbednik Inteligenta (Poland) 42, 19 (2008).

 by Leonard Susskind, Nature 454, 579 (2008).

Seed Magazine, (June 2008).

in R. Dawkins (Ed.), The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, Oxford University Press, p. 323 (2008).