Pick Up The Zoologists Guide To The Galaxy: What Animals On Earth Reveal About Aliens – And Ourselves Developed By Arik Kershenbaum Digital Copy

haven't been able to study alien life forms yet, but based on what we know about Earth species as well as logic and mathematics, what can we predict about them Kershenbaum lays out his ideas and conclusions clearly and in an entertaining way.
He provides lots of suggestions of further readingfor novices and experts, Also, he makes quite a few science fiction references, Full disclosure: I am a friend and collaborator of the author's, received an ARC for comments, and a zoologist by trade, I've also preorderedcopies to give as gifts because it's one of my favourite popular science books,

In everyday life, Dr Arik Kershenbaum's work focuses on animal communication and how their evolutionary history shapes their social lives.
His book takes these same ideas and applies them not to just the communication of aliens, but their very shapes, social systems, and biology.
In a brilliant, erudite trip through the galaxy, he explains how we can take our Earthbased knowledge of how natural selection works and apply it to other planets.
Natural selection, he believes, will be like gravity and exist everywhere in the Universe, no matter the mode of reproduction, In the same way that physicists can make predictions about the way gravity will work on Venus, Dr Kershenbaum argues we can do the same with evolutionary histories.


He explores how physics will constrict potential modes of locomotion, but also speculates on how life might exist in perpetual flight, or as gas clouds.


How will an alien move through a gas cloud, an ocean, a desert Will they walk, crawl, slither, scuttle or propel themselves by other means, like the jetfueled progress of squids What might that look like in an atmosphere wildly different to our own

In turn, his knowledge of biology informs his speculation on aliens' lives.
Will they be social, like humans Will they cooperate, share, and communicate in the same ways as us Will they have sex If so, what would their mating rituals look like Will they be intelligent, and if so will they have song or poetry or art What about culture and heritable knowledge On Earth, biologists are stunned by the intelligence and ingenuity of octopuses, which can't pass their knowledge onto their offspring because of their reproductive strategy, so don't have culture.
What can they potentially tell us about what intelligent but not civilised alien life would look like

Kershenbaum has an easy to read style that is accessible to the layman reader, and he still manages to fill his book with wellverified scientific facts.
In amongst these are gems, like that the creature that swallowed Jonah in the Old Testament was a huge fish, and not a whale, that dolphins have names for each other and teach their daughters to protect the delicate skin of their snouts with sponges while truffling in gravel, and that duckbilled platypuses hunt through mud using electrical impulses.
Each fact is meticulously backed up with references from scientific literature and his "Further Reading" section is an excellent guide to the greats of popular science writing.


Kershenbaum also uses humour to help get his points across, as when he uses Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore to explain about the necessary flexibility of hierarchy in language to produce infinite meaning from finite words.
Citing Chomsky, he develops the ideas of how grammar is required, and how we can predict the forms that alien communication might take from what we know of communication on earth.
A civilisation that uses language based on smells is unlikely, apparently, but it's far more likely that vocal communication will work, Unsurprisingly from a scientist who focus on communication complexity, his chapters on how alien language might evolve and work are particularly compelling and interesting.


Easy to read, clever, funny, and wellresearched, A Zoologist's Guide to the Universe is a joy to read, Let Arik take you on a trip through the galaxy and show you the potential of the wonders therein,

I might even call it the best book on alien life with 'guide to the galaxy' in the title not written by Douglas Adams.
I hope you enjoy your trip with Arik as your guide as much as I did, This was an interesting look at what aliens might be like given what we know about life and evolution, Sure, we dont know the specifics, but Kershenbaum is able to discuss things like language and cooperation based on what types of things drive evolution on Earth.


Kershenbaum is clearly really into this topic, and its always fun to hear someones thoughts on a subject theyre extremely passionate about and have spend a long time pondering.
He also has a dry sense of humor which kept this whole thing light and fun,. I'm proud of myself for finishing this I usually struggle with non fiction that isn't memoirs and I actually managed to finish this!
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Really enjoyable and well explained, I do however have a Bsc in general biology so I found it easier to grasp some concepts as I was already familiar with them like game theory and kin selection for instance.
However, the way the author talks about the more complex concepts leads me to believe that having even just a basic intro to them is enough, if needed at all and by basic I mean a quick Wikipedia read/YouTube video watch, not a whole degree lmao.
I really enjoyed how the points are put forward and the structure makes sense the book flows well from point to point with little repetition only when necessary to link points together.
I also found that the way the author approaches the subject to be very sensible and plausible and unlike what I expected! Would definitely recommend to others.

. I docked off a star because whilst it is understandable it is very dense as the author tries to cover very many aspects and concepts in very few pages comparatively however there are references for everything of books and articles and TV shows and films that go more in depth and probably explain the scope of the concepts covered "better" as in: in more detail.
It's very much an "exposé" of what we actually know and how we can extrapolate that more than a hard "this is what we'll find" which I enjoy as well because I share the opinion that this outlook is how we'll ever find anything anyway.


TLDR: it's wellwritten, well structured if a bit dense at times and probably requires a little bit of background knowledge on evolutionary theory kin selection amp game theory being maybe the most important though chances are I've definitely missed others but accessible and very interesting!! The author argues, that in outward form and behaviour, alien life must be pretty much like it is on earth.
He makes this point in the introduction and then spends far too long on the elaboration, I learned so much about life on earth and life in general from this book, The author did a great job of breaking down basic evolutionary and physics concepts before applying them to biology to build his theories.
I was fascinated by what I learned about life as we know it and it gave me such food for thought about life we may encounter in space.
Loved it. .