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September 25th, 2024
Meld the passion of a leading astrobiologist with the weighty nature of trying to grasp for answers to two key questions: Are we alone in the universe? How did life on Earth begin in the first place?
“The missions are telling us that the stuff we’re made of is not an accident. It’s almost common out there,” explains Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute.
Cabrol’s book, The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life (Scribner/Simon & Schuster), recently released, offers an insightful, and reflective view of the search for life – a mind-stretching quest not only looking “out there” but also right here on our home planet.
The observer and the observation
Perhaps part of the challenge is that humankind is both the observer and the observation, Cabrol explains. That is, we are life trying to understand itself and its origin.
“We are reminded that the universe is both an enigmatic puzzle and a profound mirror reflecting out own existence,” Cabrol writes.
Nathalie Cabrol is a French American explorer and the director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. In an exclusive interview, Space.com discussed with her the new book and the professional odyssey that she has embarked upon.
To read my new Space.com interview with the renowned astrobiologist, go to – “‘We are close:’ SETI astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol on the search for life” – at:
https://www.space.com/seti-nathalie-cabrol-the-secret-life-of-the-universe
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