Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Astrobiology, History, and Society pp 133–173Cite as

The Twentieth Century History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate: Major Themes and Lessons Learned

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics ((ASTROBIO))

Abstract

In this chapter we provide an overview of the extraterrestrial life debate since 1900, drawing largely on the major histories of the subject during this period, The Biological Universe (Dick 1996), Life on Other Worlds (Dick 1998), and The Living Universe (Dick and Strick 2004), as well as other published work. We outline the major components of the debate, including (1) the role of planetary science, (2) the search for planets beyond the solar system, (3) research on the origins of life, and (4) the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). We emphasize the discovery of cosmic evolution as the proper context for the debate, reserving the cultural implications of astrobiology for part III of this volume. We conclude with possible lessons learned from this history, especially in the domains of the problematic nature of evidence, inference, and metaphysical preconceptions; the checkered role of theory; and an analysis of how representative general current arguments have fared in the past.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abir-Am, Pnina G. 1992. “The Politics of Macromolecules: Molecular Biologists, Biochemists and Rhetoric.” Osiris 7: 164–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aitken, Robert G. 1938. “Is the Solar System Unique?” Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflet 112: 98–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asimov, Isaac. 1965. “A Science in Search of a Subject.” New York Times Magazine, 23 May, 52–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barabashev, Nicholas P. 1952. A Study of the Physical Conditions of the Moon and Planets. Kharkov, Russia: Kharkov Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrow, John D., and Frank J. Tipler. 1986. The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianciardi, Giorgio, Joseph D. Miller, Patricia A. Straat, and Gilbert V. Levin. 2012. “Complexity Analysis of the Viking Labeled Release Experiments.” International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences 13: 14–26. Accessed July 30, 2012. http://ijass.org/On_line/admin/files/2)(014-026)11-030.pdf.

  • Billingham, John. 1981. Life in the Universe. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briot, Danielle. 2013. "The Creator of Astrobotany, Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov. In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brush, Stephen. 1996. Nebulous Earth: The Origin of the Solar System and the Core of the Earth from Laplace to Jeffreys. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, Bernard, ed. 2007. Universe or Multiverse? Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, Brandon. 1974. “Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology.” In Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data, ed. Malcolm S. Longair, 291–298. Dordrecht: Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlin, Thomas C., and Forest R. Moulton. 1900. “Certain Recent Attempts to Test the Nebular Hypothesis.” Science 12: 201–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleland, Carol E. 2001. “Historical Science, Experimental Science, and the Scientific Method.” Geology 29: 978–990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleland, Carol E. 2002. “Methodological and Epistemic Differences between Historical Science and Experimental Science.” Philosophy of Science 69: 474–496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coblentz, William W., and C.O. Lampland. 1924. “New Measurements of Planetary Radiation.” Science 60: 295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cocconi, Giuseppi, and Philip Morrison. 1959. “Searching for Interstellar Communications.” Nature 184: 844–846.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. 1831. In Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Henry N. Coleridge. Remark made 18 December 1831. Accessed July 30, 2012. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8489/pg8489.html.

  • Columbia Accident Investigation Board. 2003. Report, vol. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway Morris, Simon. 1998. The Crucible of Creation. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway Morris, Simon. 2003. Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowe, Michael J. 1986. The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowe, Michael J., and Matthew F. Dowd. 2013. "The Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Antiquity to 1900." In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Paul C.W. 2007. Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, Richard. 1997. Climbing Mount Improbable. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Des Marais, David J., Joseph A. Nuth III, Louis J. Allamandola, et al. 2008. “The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap.” Astrobiology 8: 715–730.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeVaucouleurs, Gerard. 1954. Physics of the Planet Mars: An Introduction to Areophysics. London: Faber and Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dick, Steven J. 1982. Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dick, Steven J. 1996. The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dick, Steven J. 1998. Life on Other Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dick, Steven J. 2003. "Cultural Evolution, the Postbiological Universe and SETI." International Journal of Astrobiology 2: 65–74. Reprinted as Steven J. Dick. 2009. “Bringing Culture to Cosmos: The Postbiological Universe.” In Cosmos & Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context, ed. Steven J. Dick and Mark Lupisella, 463–488. Washington, DC: NASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dick, Steven J. 2009. “Cosmic Evolution: History, Culture and Human Destiny.” In Cosmos & Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context, ed. Steven J. Dick, and Mark Lupisella, 25–59. Washington, DC: NASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dick, Steven J., and Mark Lupisella, eds. 2009. Cosmos & Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context. Washington, DC: NASA. Also available online. Accessed July 29, 2012. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4802.pdf.

  • Dick, Steven J., and James E. Strick. 2004. The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiGregorio, Barry E., Gilbert Levin, and Patricia A. Stratt. 1997. Mars: The Living Planet. Berkeley, CA: Frog Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky, Theodosius. 1972. “Darwinian Evolution and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 15: 157–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duve, Christian de. 1995. Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyson, Freeman. 1988. Infinite in All Directions. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eddington, Arthur S. 1929. The Nature of the Physical World. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ezell, Edward C., and Lin Ezell. 1984. On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet, 1958–1978. Washington, DC: NASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fry, Iris. 2000. The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gatewood, George, and Heinrich Eichhorn. 1973. “An Unsuccessful Search for a Planetary Companion of Barnard’s Star (BD + 43561).” Astronomical Journal 78: 769–776.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, Gregory. 2000. “The Assembly of Geophysics: Scientific Disciplines as Frameworks of Consensus.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 31: 259–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, Stephen J. 1989. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gronstal, Aaron L. 2013. “Extraterrestrial Life in the Microbial Age.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthke, Karl S. 1990. The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hegel, Georg W. F. 1832. Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Introduction, section 8. Accessed July 30 , 2012. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/hi/history2.htm#II.

  • Horowitz, Norman H. 1977. “The Search for Life on Mars.” Scientific American 237: 52–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, Norman H. 1986. To Utopia and Back: The Search for Life in the Solar System. New York: W. H. Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle, Fred. 1983. The Intelligent Universe: A New View of Creation and Evolution. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxley, Aldous. 1959. “Case of Voluntary Ignorance.” In Collected Essays. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Impey, Chris. 2013. “The First Thousand Exoplanets: Two Decades of Excitement and Discovery.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeans, James. 1917. The Motion of Tidally Distorted Masses. Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. London: Royal Astronomical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeans, James. 1919. Problems of Cosmogony and Stellar Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeans, James. 1923. The Nebular Hypothesis and Modern Cosmogony. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeans, James. 1930. “Life and the Universe.” In The Universe Around Us. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeans, James. 1942a. “Is There Life on Other Worlds?” Science 95: 589.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeans, James. 1942b. “Origin of the Solar System.” Nature 149: 695.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, Harold P. 1977. “The Viking Biological Investigation: General Aspects.” Journal of Geophysical Research 82: 4677–4680.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, Robert E. 1982. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koyré, Alexandre. 1957. From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuiper, Gerard P., ed. 1949. The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets: Papers Presented at the Fiftieth Anniversary Symposium of the Yerkes Observatory, September, 1947. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuiper, Gerard P., ed. 1952. The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, (2nd edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuiper, Gerard P. 1955. “On the Martian Surface Features.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 67: 271–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, Shiv S. 1967. “On Planets and Black Dwarfs.” Icarus 6: 136–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, Gilbert V., and Patricia A. Straat. 1976. “Viking Labeled Release Biology Experiment: Interim Results.” Science 194: 1322–1329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, Gilbert V. 2011. Private communication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovejoy, Arthur O. 1936. The Great Chain of Being. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcy, Geoff, and Paul Butler. 1998. “Detection of Extrasolar Giant Planets.“ Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 36: 57–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marozzi, Justin. 2008. The Way of Herodotus: Travels with the Man Who Invented History. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKay, David, Everett K. Gibson, Jr., et al. 1996. “Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001.” Science 273: 924–930.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayor, Michel, and Didier Queloz. 1995. “A Jupiter-Mass Companion to a Solar-Type Star.” Nature 378: 355–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst. 1985. “The Probability of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life.” In Ernst Mayr. 1988. Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist, 67–74. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, Ernst. 1988. Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Stanley, and Harold C. Urey. 1953. “Organic Compound Synthesis on the Primitive Earth.” Science 130: 245–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monod, Jacques. 1971. Chance and Necessity. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Navarro-González, Rafael, Edgar Vargas, Jose de la Rosa, Alejandro C. Raga, and Chris P. McKay. 2010. “Reanalysis of the Viking Results Suggests Perchlorate and Organics at Mid-latitudes on Mars.” Journal of Geophysical Research 115: E12010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oparin, Alexander I. 1924. Proiskhozhdenie zhinzy. Moscow. trans. by Ann Synge as “The Origin of Life.” In John D. Bernal. 1967. The Origin of Life, Appendix I, 199–234. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company. Reprinted in David W. Deamer and Gail R. Fleischaker. 1994. Origins of Life: The Central Concepts, 31–71. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oparin, Alexander I. 1936. Vozhiknovenie zhizny na aemle. trans. as 1938. The Origin of Life. London. Republished 1952. New York: Dover.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petit, Edward, and Seth B. Nicholson. 1924. “Radiation Measures on the Planet Mars.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 36: 269–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rea, D. G., T. Belsky, and Melvin Calvin. 1963. “Interpretation of the 3-to 4- Micron Infrared Spectrum of Mars.” Science 141: 923–937.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rea, D. G., Brian O’Leary, and William M. Sinton. 1965. “The Origin of the 3.58 and 3.69-Micron Minima in the Infrared Spectrum.” Science 147: 1286–1288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reuyl, Dirk, and Erik Holmberg. 1943. “On the Existence of a Third Component in the System 70 Ophiuchi.” Astrophysical Journal 97: 41–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Henry Norris. 1935. The Solar System and Its Origin. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Henry Norris. 1943. “Anthropocentrism’s Demise.” Scientific American, July, 18–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Henry Norris, Raymond Smith Dugan, and John Quincy Stewart. 1945. Astronomy: A Revision of Young's Manual of Astronomy. Boston: Ginn and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagan, Carl. 1977. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shklovskii, Ioseph S. 1965. “Multiplicity of Inhabited Worlds and the Problem of Interstellar Communications.” In Extraterrestrial Civilizations, ed. G. V. Tovmasyan. Erevan: Akademii Nauk Armyanskoi SSR. English trans., 1965. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 5–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, George G. 1964. “The Non-Prevalence of Humanoids.” Science 143: 769–775. Reprinted in This View of Life: The World of an Evolutionist, 253–271. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinton, William M. 1957. “Spectroscopic Evidence for Vegetation on Mars.” Astrophysical Journal 126: 231–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinton, William M. 1959. “Further Evidence of Vegetation on Mars.” Science 130: 1234–1237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slipher, Edward C. 1927. “Atmospheric and Surface Phenomena on Mars.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 39: 209–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spinrad, Hyron, Guido Münch, and L.D. Kaplan. 1963. “The Detection of Water Vapor on Mars.” Astrophysical Journal 137: 1319–1321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, Robert J., ed. 2000. Handbook of Intelligence. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, Robert J. 2002. “The Search for Criteria: Why Study the Evolution of Intelligence.” In The Evolution of Intelligence, ed. R. J. Sternberg, and J. C. Kaufman, 1–8. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strick, James E. 2004. “Creating a Cosmic Discipline: The Crystallization and Consolidation of Exobiology, 1957–1973.” Journal of the History of Biology 37: 131–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, Woodruff T., III. 2009. “Cosmic Noise: A History of Early Radio Astronomy.” Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tikhov, Gavriil A. 1955. “Is Life Possible on Other Planets?” Journal of the British Astronomical Association 65: 193–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tikhov, Gavriil A. 1960. Principal Works: Astrobotany and Astrophysics, 1912–1957. Washington, DC: U.S. Joint Publications Research Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trumpler, Robert J. 1927. “Observations of Mars at the Opposition of 1924.” Lick Observatory Bulletin 387: 19–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vakoch, Douglas A. 2013. “Life Beyond Earth and the Evolutionary Synthesis.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Kamp, Peter. 1956. “Planetary Companions of Stars.” Vistas in Astronomy 2: 1040–1048.

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Kamp, Peter. 1963. “Astrometric Study of Barnard’s Star from Plates Taken with the 24-Inch Sproul Refractor.” Astronomical Journal 68: 515–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Kamp, Peter. 1975. “Unseen Astrometric Companions of Stars.” Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics 13: 295–333.

    Google Scholar 

  • van de Kamp, Peter. 1977. “Barnard’s Star 1916–1976: A Sexagesimal Report.” Vistas in Astronomy 20: 501–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, Alfred R. 1903a. Man’s Place in the Universe. New York: McClure, Phillips and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, Alfred R. 1903b. “Man’s Place in the Universe.” The Independent 55: 473–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, Peter, and Donald Brownlee. 2000. Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe, Audra. 2002. “Germs in Space: Joshua Lederberg, Exobiology, and the Public Imagination, 1958–1964.” Isis 93: 183–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zakariya, Nasser. 2010. “Towards a Final Story: Time, Myth and the Origins of the Universe.” PhD dissertation, Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, USA

    Steven J. Dick

Authors
  1. Steven J. Dick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven J. Dick .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Director of Interstellar Message Composi, Bernardo Avenue 189, Mountain View, 94043, USA

    Douglas A. Vakoch

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dick, S.J. (2013). The Twentieth Century History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate: Major Themes and Lessons Learned. In: Vakoch, D. (eds) Astrobiology, History, and Society. Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35983-5_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation