'LONELY PLANETS' | A review Book is a lively look at possible alien life

The book offers a little something for everyone.
By CLAY EVANS
SCRIPPS HOWARD
"Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life," by David Grinspoon (Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.95).
Not many scientists have the reputation of being witty or entertaining, even when their subject matter is rich with possibility. But more and more, scientists are allowing their Renaissance sides to emerge by publishing books explaining complex, scientific subjects and debates in lively prose.
David Grinspoon, principal scientist in the Department of Space Studies at the Boulder, Colo., Southwest Research Institute and an adjunct professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, is one of those. Grinspoon steps into the shoes of the late Carl Sagan with "Lonely Planets," the best, most entertaining examination of the possibility of other life in the universe since Sagan's best work.
Likes what he's doing
Like Sagan, he brings a joyous, open, even boisterous enthusiasm -- "billions and billions!" -- to his writing. If you think a survey of "natural philosophical" history regarding the possibility of alien life might be dry, think again. There's something here for a wide audience, from scientists to dreamers to fans of UFOs.
You can tell Grinspoon is having fun early on, when he describes the delight he takes in not just hard science, but the "fringe" beliefs and tales of UFO abductions.
UFOs, Roswell, cattle mutilations and the like get all the funky press, but for my money, the best part of Grinspoon's cosmic ride is actually the first two-thirds of the book, in which he walks the reader through the history of the universe.
But despite coming up dry so far in our immediate spatial neighborhood, Grinspoon, like Sagan, believes it's a near mathematical certainty that civilization exists elsewhere in the big, beautiful universe we live in.
It's fascinating as pure information and made positively delightful by Grinspoon's willingness to be playful. His writing is rife with a kind of uppity humor. He's like a teenager who's just decided he wants to be an astrobiologist, thrilled and humbled but still full of attitude.
Later chapters
Many readers will find the later chapters of the book the most entertaining. That's where he pores over the science of aliens -- the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the goofier, X-Files-type UFO conspiracies. It's no less richly rendered than the early chapters, but I kept wanting him to get back to his planetarium riff.
Even here, however, he offers valuable observations on the phenomena: "The most extreme UFO believers and debunkers are caught in a feedback loop in which each side validates the other's existence. Overzealous efforts to discredit UFO reports help to reinforce the wide perception of scientific skepticism as intolerant and narrow-minded. Believers accuse debunkers of being in on a conspiracy, which leads to more hysterical debunking, and so on," he writes.
That's sensible analysis, and Grinspoon leaves his readers with some equally sensible -- even a tad sobering -- thoughts on the whole question of alien intelligence.