The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy

I love The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy by Arik Kershenbaum. Although it sets out to be (and is) about alien life, what emerges is a wonderfully insightful sidelong look at Earthly biology – Richard Dawkins, via TwitterIf you don’t want to be surprised by extraterrestrial life, look no further than this lively overview of the laws of evolution that have produced life on earth. – Frans de Waal, author of Mama’s Last HugA fun, and thoroughly biological, exploration of possible and impossible alien beings. If you’d love to know what real aliens from other planets might really be like, this is the book for you – Susan Blackmore, author of Seeing MyselfSurveying the deep-time of evolution on Earth and his own cutting-edge research into animal communication, Kershenbaum provides a fascinating insight into the deepest of questions: what might an alien actually look like – Lewis Dartnell, author of OriginsWhen we search for aliens, what are we searching for? If life exists on other worlds, it might look very different to life ‘as we know it’, but Arik Kershenbaum makes a persuasive and entertaining case that we needn’t be completely in the dark. There are some rules that all beings with a claim to be alive must observe, and for which life on our planet can serve as a guide. This is an eye-opening and, above all, a hopeful view of what - or who - might be out there in the cosmos – Philip Ball, author of Nature’s PatternsEvolutionary theory helps us explain patterns in the past, and combined with a rich understanding of natural history and biodiversity, predict what might be discovered in the future. Arik Kershenbaum takes us on a joyous voyage of animal diversity and illustrates the singular importance of natural selection in explaining life - here on Earth - and what will likely be discovered throughout the galaxy. A stimulating read! – Daniel T. Blumstein, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los AngelesThis is no mere frivolous exercise in arm-waving (or tentacle-waving) and baseless speculation. Instead, what emerges is a fascinating plunge into the deep-time history of life on Earth and animal evolution in all its glorious diversity … To comprehend the alien is to know thyself * The Times *The book crawls with curious facts … [Kershenbaum] is fascinating on how aliens might communicate – James McConnachie * The Sunday Times *A wonderful mix of science-based speculation and entertaining whimsy – David P. Barash * Wall Street Journal *

Intrepid zoologist Dr Arik Kershenbaum is the world-leading expert in animal vocal communication, and has roamed the wilds of Europe, North America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia for over a decade, working to decipher it. He is a college lecturer and fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge, and has published more than thirty academic publications. His previous book, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, was a Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year and was published in eleven languages.