Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life (2002, second edition published as What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life) is a book about xenobiology by biologistJack Cohen and mathematicianIan Stewart. Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary field, combining aspects of astronomy, biology and geology, which considers the question of whether extraterrestrial life exists and if so, then what are its origin, distribution, and evolution. ... A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of organisms. ... Jack Cohen is a reproductive biologist at the University of Warwick, England. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... Ian Stewart, FRS, is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University, United Kingdom. ...
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. The existence of extraterrestrial life remains hypothetical though human beings continue to search Extraterrestrial life is life that may exist and originate outside our planet Earth. ... The rare Earth hypothesis is a response to the Fermi paradox which explains why we might expect a planet such as Earth to be very rare. ...
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
The classical alien is light green or grey skinned, with a large head, and the typical four limb and two to five digit structure—i.e., it is fundamentally humanoid with a large brain to indicate great intelligence.
Belief in extraterrestrial life may have been present in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Sumer, although in these societies, cosmology was fundamentally supernatural and the notion of aliens is difficult to distinguish from that of gods, demons, and such.
A related suggestion is that aliens might broadcast pulsed and continuous laser signals in the optical as well as infrared spectrum [9]; laser signals have the advantage of not "smearing" in the interstellar medium and may prove more conducive to communication between the stars.
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