Lee Billings

Five Billion Years of Solitude, written by Lee Billings, is an excellent primer on the issues of life, death and survival facing the human race. The primary subject is the search for exoplanets, but Billings covers much more than that. He describes in understandable terms the geological history of the Earth (in the process debunking the pseudo-science of Creationism), the search for extraterrestrial life and habitable planets, and issues of more current interest, such as what the real stakes are in the climate change debate. Here are some of his more interesting conclusions. (1) We could be at the very end of Earth's ability to host complex life. After 1500 million years of evolution from microbial to intelligent life, and after enduring several mass extinctions along the way, Earth may have only 100-400 million years left as a host for life, depending on how well or badly our Sun behaves. (2) The geometric expansion of humanity's use of resources points to an endpoint, a few hundred years from now, when our economic development can no longer be supported by the resources of just one planet. (3) Our extinction as a species could come even sooner than that, and along with it the mass extinction of most of the species that currently exist on Earth. (4) Our current space exploration program has been a tragicomedy of errors ever since the Nixon Administration. If a bad strategic decision could be made, we made it, blowing our best opportunities to embark on a sustainable program of exploration and exploitation of the resources of the solar system. There is much wisdom in this book, and I highly recommend it.… (más)

Subtitled 'The Search for Life Among the Stars', the author first looks at the one planet we know most about, Earth; how it began, how life came about, what it was like before humans came into the picture and what it will be like after we're gone. It's a good overview. The one inescapable take away from this book is an appreciation for how rare Earth is. So far, it is the only planet we know of on which life exists...and for most of our planet's existence, life could not exist even here. Billions of years ago it couldn't, and a billion years from now it probably won't. Our sun is gradually growing hotter and eventually this source that brought life to our planet will take it away. Not to worry, we probably have half a billion years until then. Still, it's a sobering thought. We have reached the point in our technologically augmented civilization in which we can plan our escape when the time comes, assuming our species or its evolutionary children are still around. There are other worlds out there. Those they might support life aren't easy to find and even harder to reach, but they probably exist. Most of this book is about the search for them. Apparently the only reason we don't already have Terrestrial Planet Finding telescopes in space isn't technological. We have the technology. What we don't have is the funding and political stability to make it happen. It's not that we're not building telescopes. We are, but they are susceptible to political whims, and several TPF telescopes have been abandoned before completion. The most important one remaining is probably the James Webb Space Telescope, a NASA lead international effort that is intended to be the successor to Hubble. The program originated in 1996. I just checked, and the telescope is supposed to launch in 2018. That date remains uncertain. The U.S. House of Representatives proposed cutting funding for it in 2011, and then reversed itself. I can only assume that many politicians don't think the search for another life-bearing planet is all that important. I think they're wrong. Imagine how historically significant such a discovery would be. It would define our era.
The author conveys the sense of dedication and commitment of the people involved in the hunt for earth-like planets around other stars. Sometimes, the biographical and personal accounts are more detailed than necessary for a book on this subject, but they show that these scientists are not ivory tower academics. They have personal lives and personal tragedies as well as a higher purpose.
The book is neither long nor technical. It's a good read for anyone with an interest in space science or the future of humanity.… (más)