Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life - Definition and Overview

Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life (second edition publised as What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life) is a book about xenobiology by biologist Jack Cohen and mathematician Ian Stewart.

In this book Cohen and Stewart argue that any investigation of extraterrestrial life which starts with the assumption that any advanced form of life must have similar characteristics to life on Earth, and must have evolved on a planet similar to the Earth (as in the rare Earth hypothesis) is too restrictive and unimaginative. They suggest that it is possible to make a scientific and rational study of the possibility of life forms that are so different from life on Earth that we may not even recognise them as life in the first instance.

References

• Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart: Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, Ebury Press, 2002, ISBN 0-091-87927-2
• Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart: What Does a Martian Look Like: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, Ebury Press, 2004, ISBN 0-091-88616-3