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<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe - Peter Douglas Ward, Donald Brownlee, Donadl Brownlee - Google Books</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/books/css/_a33f2a89320471e58c940b9287b9d4eb/kl_about_this_book_kennedy_full_bundle.css" type="text/css" /><link rel="stylesheet"href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Product+Sans:wght@400"><link rel="canonical" href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Rare_Earth.html?id=vxiNPwAACAAJ"/><meta property="og:url" content="https://books.google.com/books/about/Rare_Earth.html?id=vxiNPwAACAAJ"/><meta name="title" content="Rare Earth"/><meta name="description" content="The sweeping diversity of complex life on Earth, Ward and Brownlee argue, evolved out of an extraordinary set of physical conditions and chance events that would be extremely hard to duplicate--though not impossible. Many planets throughout the vastness of the Universe may be teeming with microbial life, but advancement beyond this stage is very rare. Everyone with an interest in the possible extent of life in the Universe and the nature of life's evolution on our own planet will be fascinated by Rare Earth. "...likely to cause a revolution in thinking..." The New York Times "...[the book] has hit the world of astrobiologists like a killer asteroid..." Newsday (New York) "...a sobering and valuable perspective..." Science "...a startling new hypothesis..." Library Journal "...Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee offer a powerful argument..." The Economist "...provocative, significant, and sweeping..." Northwest Science & Technology "...a stellar example of clear writing..." 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Many planets throughout the vastness of the Universe may be teeming with microbial life, but advancement beyond this stage is very rare. Everyone with an interest in the possible extent of life in the Universe and the nature of life's evolution on our own planet will be fascinated by Rare Earth. "...likely to cause a revolution in thinking..." The New York Times "...[the book] has hit the world of astrobiologists like a killer asteroid..." Newsday (New York) "...a sobering and valuable perspective..." Science "...a startling new hypothesis..." Library Journal "...Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee offer a powerful argument..." The Economist "...provocative, significant, and sweeping..." Northwest Science & Technology "...a stellar example of clear writing..." American Scientist</div></div></div><div class="search_box_wrapper"></div></td> </tr></table><div id="summary-second-column"></div></div></div></div></div><div class=vertical_module_list_row><h3 class=about_title><a name="book_other_versions_anchor"></a>Other editions - <a href='https://books.google.com.sg/books?q=editions:ISBN1439568928&id=vxiNPwAACAAJ&output=html_text'>View all</a></h3><div id=book_other_versions class=about_content><div id=book_other_versions_v><div class="one-third-column"><div class="crsiwrapper"><table class="rsi" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 border=0><tr><td class="coverdstd" align="center"><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=uVMmswEACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Donald+Brownlee%22&output=html_text&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=1" ><img alt="" class="coverthumb hover-card-attach-point" src="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=uVMmswEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5" border="0" height="80"></a></td><td valign=top><div class=resbdy><a class="primary cresbdy" href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=uVMmswEACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Donald+Brownlee%22&output=html_text&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=1"><span dir=ltr>Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe</span></a><br><span style="line-height: 1.3em; font-size:-1;"><span><a href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Peter+D.+Ward%22" class="secondary"><span dir=ltr>Peter D. Ward</span></a>,<a href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Donald+Brownlee%22" class="secondary"><span dir=ltr>Donald Brownlee</span></a></span><br/><span><span style="color:#999">No preview available</span> - 2013</span><br/></span></div></td><td align=right></td></tr></table></div></div><script>(function () {var fn = window['_OC_WSBookList'] || window['_OC_BookList'];fn && fn('book_other_versions', [{"title":"Rare Earth","authors":"Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee","bib_key":"ISBN:147578113X","pub_date":"16 Apr 2013","snippet":"What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the ...","subject":"Science","info_url":"https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=uVMmswEACAAJ\u0026dq=inauthor:%22Donald+Brownlee%22\u0026output=html_text\u0026source=gbs_book_other_versions","preview_url":"https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=uVMmswEACAAJ\u0026dq=inauthor:%22Donald+Brownlee%22\u0026output=html_text\u0026source=gbs_book_other_versions","thumbnail_url":"https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=uVMmswEACAAJ\u0026printsec=frontcover\u0026img=1\u0026zoom=1","num_pages":338,"viewability":4,"preview":"noview","embeddable":false,"my_ebooks_url":"https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=print\u0026continue=https://books.google.com.sg/books%3Fas_coll%3D7%26output%3Dhtml_text\u0026hl=en","can_download_pdf":false,"can_download_epub":false,"is_pdf_drm_enabled":false,"is_epub_drm_enabled":false,"subtitle":"Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe"}]);})();</script></div></div></div><div class=vertical_module_list_row><h3 class="about_title">Bibliographic information</h3><div class="about_content" id="metadata_content" style="padding-bottom:.3em"><div class="metadata_sectionwrap"><table id="metadata_content_table"><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label">Title</td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Authors</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Peter+Douglas+Ward%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=2"><span dir=ltr>Peter Douglas Ward</span></a>, <a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Donald+Brownlee%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=2"><span dir=ltr>Donald Brownlee</span></a>, <a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Donadl+Brownlee%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=2"><span dir=ltr>Donadl Brownlee</span></a></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Publisher</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>Baker & Taylor, CATS, 2008</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>ISBN</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>1439568928, 9781439568927</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Length</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>368 pages</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Subjects</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><div style="display:inline" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Science%22" itemprop="url" dir=ltr><span itemprop="title">Science</span></a></div> › <div style="display:inline" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Science+Physics%22" itemprop="url" dir=ltr><span itemprop="title">Physics</span></a></div> › <div style="display:inline" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Science+Physics+Astrophysics%22" itemprop="url" dir=ltr><span itemprop="title">Astrophysics</span></a></div><br><br><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Science+/+Physics+/+Astrophysics%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=2"><span dir=ltr>Science / Physics / Astrophysics</span></a></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td>&nbsp</td><td>&nbsp</td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Export Citation</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><a class="gb-button " href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/download/Rare_Earth.bibtex?id=vxiNPwAACAAJ&output=bibtex"><span dir=ltr>BiBTeX</span></a> <a class="gb-button " href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/download/Rare_Earth.enw?id=vxiNPwAACAAJ&output=enw"><span dir=ltr>EndNote</span></a> <a class="gb-button " href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/download/Rare_Earth.ris?id=vxiNPwAACAAJ&output=ris"><span dir=ltr>RefMan</span></a></td></tr></table></div><div style="clear:both"></div></div></div><div id="footer_table" style="font-size:83%;text-align:center;position:relative;top:20px;height:4.5em;margin-top:2em"><div style="margin-bottom:8px"><a href="/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html"><nobr><nobr>About Google Books</nobr></nobr></a> - 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