Jaime Green (editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing series) tackles the premise of a question that has tantalized humanity for centuries in the fascinating The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos. Drawing on decades of research in SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and from interviews Green conducted with eminent scientists (Abel Méndez, Katie Slivensky, Jason Wright, and more), each of the book's six chapters delves into one factor underpinning the possibility of finding life beyond our big, blue planet. But the book is not just a glimpse into an often-misunderstood area of scientific research; it is an exploration of the very meaning of life, humanity, personhood, consciousness, and existence.
Green uses classics of science fiction (such as Carl Sagan's Contact, James L. Cambias's A Darkling Sea, and Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life") as a touchstone through which to think about concepts like evolution, intelligence, technology, and the forms that extraterrestrial intelligent life might take aside from humanoid. As she points out, much of science fiction that is focused on extraterrestrial life is, in fact, concerned with questions of human existence, and her book about potential extraterrestrial life, likewise, reveals much about humanity's existence and concept of itself. Green's writing discusses intensely complex ideas in clear and engaging ways, and is endearingly childlike in its wonder and awe. Readers can't help but be swept along in her curiosity and excitement. --Dainy Bernstein, literature professor, University of Pittsburgh