The Possibility of Life - Jaime Green ****

This is a book about extraterrestrial life, and it isn’t all science. For me, that’s what made it such a rivetingly good read, although (speaking as a former astrophysicist) I can’t imagine saying that about any other popular science subject. I’d be very dubious, for example, about a quantum physics primer that contained a detailed account of Ant-Man’s experiences in the Quantum Realm. That’s because quantum physics is real science, with real experimental results and real practical applications – and it doesn’t need a sci-fi take on it to bring it to life. Aliens aren’t like that.

Yes, I know there’s a well-established branch of science called astrobiology – I’ve even written a book about it. But astrobiology deals with the search for extraterrestrial life, not the nature of extraterrestrials themselves, about which there’s no data. Books like mine are interesting for people who want to know how real scientists think and work – how they decide what sort of evidence to look for, and then design instruments to do that – but they can be frustrating for readers who just want to know something about the aliens themselves. Jaime Green classifies my kind of ‘whether or not’ questions about aliens as ‘very boring’ – which I think is a little harsh, though I won’t dispute that the ‘what if’ questions she focuses on instead are by far the more interesting ones.

When I said the book ‘isn’t all science’, I was referring to the fact that it’s a roughly 50/50 mix between science fictional portrayals of aliens and ideas that various scientists – many of them interviewed by Green for this book – have about them. But even the latter tend to be more speculative than scientific in nature. The scientific method depends on consensus, and mature branches of science – such as quantum physics – are based on a very strong consensus. On the other hand, even the most basic questions about extraterrestrial life have no meaningful consensus at all. How likely is it, for example, that an intelligent alien would be roughly the same size and shape as a human being? Green quotes some scientists who say it’s pretty certain they would be, while others consider the idea ludicrously improbable.

With such a lack of consensus, the field is wide open for ‘what if’ type speculation – and that’s what this book is all about. What makes it such a fascinating and enjoyable read is that it’s all intelligent, well-informed speculation – and that applies just as much to the sci-fi scenarios that Green picks out as it does to the views of the scientists she speaks to. It’s also surprising just how many different topics there are to speculate about. The book’s half-dozen chapters progress from the nature of life and the kind of planets it might be found on, through the types of lifeforms that might exist and how they might display intelligence, to the possibilities of alien technology and language.

It’s fascinating to read a book that’s ostensibly on the same subject as one I wrote myself, yet actually has almost no overlap with it. Jaime Green’s book won’t tell you much about how astrobiologists set about searching for alien life, but unless you’re a particular kind of science nerd you’re probably not very interested in that anyway. What most people really want to know is what aliens might be like – and that’s something I’ve never seen discussed quite as brilliantly or entertainingly as here.

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Review by Andrew May - Subscribe to a weekly digest of all our reviews and more for free here