Weird Life: the search for life that is very, very different from our own
David Toomey
ISBN: 9780393348262
Finished August 12, 2014
Exploration of various possible "weird life" based on different chemical, physical, or multiverse arrangements.
This was a really interesting book. I especially liked the progression of relative "weirdness" from extremophiles (hello, tardigrades!) to potentially non-carbon-based life (yay for silicone and extreme environments), to life based around even more peculiar physical/electro-chemical finagling, to the possibilities raised by having different universal constants in different multiverses.
All of that without ever once stepping fully into the realm of science fiction (although some weird life from those pages was referenced) or handwaving explanations.
The only slightly weird digression was the abrupt switch to SETI and the constraints of having life that is intelligent, communicative, and existing at the same (generally speaking) point in time to actually communicate with each other. Not that I didn't enjoy the thought exercises and the background on SETI, but it did seem an odd fit. Which is actually telling, as SETI is sort of the only game in town for finding life, since NASA has gotten cut and governments aren't much interested in science for science's sake.
I live in hope that before I die at the ripe old age of 300+, someone looks back at this book and can compare the examples there with what we've actually found out there.
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