CAPTURED BY ALIENS: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE AND TRUTH IN A VERY LARGE UNIVERSE

Book ID/图书代码： 03890004B05935

English Summary/英文概要： The great minds of the human race, employing ever more fabulous technology have peered into the depths of space and discovered that we exist on a tiny speck in a universe that is vast beyond comprehension. But there is one thing we have yet to discover: a single scrap of extraterrestrial life. We have heard no signals, found no alien picnic trash. The aliens who allegedly abduct people in the middle of the night have a strange way of evaporating in the harsh glare of scientific scrutiny. And so at the turn of the millennium we are in an intellectual fix: we know the universe only through its structure, its physical properties, its chemistry. Of its biology we can only guess. Are there creatures out there like us, with big brains and restless spirits? Or are we, for all intents and purposes, alone? If aliens exist -- if there really are intelligent creatures zooming around the galaxy -- then where in tar-nation are they?
Washington Post reporter Joel Achenbach -- the author of Why Things Are and a commentator for National Public Radio -- puts the ET debate into the context of the space program, discoveries in astronomy, and the hunger for meaning and spiritual nourishment in an era when science often doesn’t provide the answers that people desire. He finds that the topic of extraterrestrial life is poisoned by wishful thinking, by the natural human yearning to make contact with our brothers and sisters in space.
But ha also finds some fascinating, admirable, and maddening characters who have pursued the truth about extraterrestrial life: Cad Sagan, the brilliant astronomer who brought the cosmos to the masses; Dan Goldin the cantankerous head of NASA who still believes in the dream of the Space Age; Henry Harris, a former Las Vegas lounge singer who is assigned the job of figuring out how to get a spaceship to Alpha Centauri; and various and sundry ufologists, experiencers, spiritualists, and channelers for whom the aliens are an ever-present reality.
In this fascinating, funny, and spirited book, Achenbach discovers that the search for life elsewhere leads us on a looping road back to the fundamental questions about life on Earth. To think coherently about extraterrestrial life, we first must come to terms with who we are, why we exist, and what it means to carry around in our cells an evolutionary history that took tour billion years to unfold Achenbach’s message is that it is a wonderful and thrilling thing to be a sentient human being -- a creature capable of foolish romanticism -- in a universe that is mostly rocks and gas and dust and empty space.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 一批人类的精英运用最先进的技术窥视宇宙奥秘，发现人类只是浩瀚宇宙中的冰山一角。只是有一件事还没有发现：异外生命体的残存物，至今没收到任何信号，没发现任何外星人留下的吃剩的野餐。那些据说在午夜绑架了地球人的外星人会逃过严密的科学监视，堂而皇之逃走。在世纪之交，我们面临学术上的困惑：我们对宇宙的了解只停留在它的结构，物理和化学属性上，可对于它的生物结构，只能凭空想象。有没有和我们一样的生物体，有着发达的大脑和不朽的灵魂呢？或者不管怎样，我们是否是独一无二的生命体呢？如果银河系中真有其他生命体,他们到底在哪呢?Joel Achenbach身兼数职,华盛顿邮报记者,国家公共广播公司评论员,也是小说《为什么是这样》的作者。Joel把外星人这一话题引入到空间项目，天文学新发现之中，来满足人类对生存意义及精神慰藉的渴望，因为我们所生活的这一时代，科学还无法满足人们的求知欲。他觉得探讨外星人这一课题已被人类的一厢情愿及他们与生具来“爱搭讪”的秉性弄得千创百孔。但作者还是遇到了些可敬的甚至一心为追求有关外星生命体而着了魔的人物：Cad Sagan，他是一位出色的天文学家，是他向民众普及宇宙这一概念的；Dan Goldin 是(美国)国家航空和宇宙航行局的古怪的头头，至今仍然沉迷于太空时代的幻想中；Henry Harris，以前是拉斯维加斯的高级酒吧歌手现受命要把飞船弄到Alpha Centauri这颗最有可能发现生命体的行星上去；还有形形色色的UFO学者，经验主义者，唯心论者，通灵者，对他们来说，外星人从来不是海市蜃楼。在这本有趣、迷人的小说中，作者发觉对异外生命的寻找又把我们带回到有关地球生命的根本性的问题上来。要想理性的来看待外星生物，首先我们必须搞清我们到底是谁，为什么存在，流淌在我们细胞中用了四十亿年才完成的进化史到底意味着什么。作者要向我们传达的信息是：能在这个充斥着岩石，气体和尘埃的宇宙中做有感知的人真棒---人是可以幻想的。

Awards/获奖情况：Journalist Achenbach has devoted much effort over the past several years to studying a broad spectrum of views on the question of extraterrestrial life, extending his inquiry from the most hard-nosed scientists to the most credulous, irrational members of the UFO fringes. The contents of his new book are best represented by the volume’s subtitle; it is quite clear that Achenbach gives no credence to alien abduction stories or similar looniness. Despite his openness to hearing and reporting nonscientific speculation, in the end he supports science as the best method of inquiry in the notoriously tricky search for possible life in other worlds. His hero is Carl Sagan, who stretched far in the hope of finding extraterrestrial life but who, in the long run, honored the constraints of the scientific method. This book is well written, and Achenbach’s adroit use of nicely timed, appropriate humor further enhances its readability. Although not a scientist himself, Achenbach has absorbed and reliably reported the current "state of the art." Strongly recommended for public and academic libraries.AJack W. Weigel, formerly with Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor ---From Library Journal

...on this journey to nowhere, Achenbach is a likable and most informative guide. --- The New York Times Book Review, Carol Peace Robins

About the Author/作者介绍： 作者是华盛顿邮报的全职记者，已出过三本书，现与妻子、女儿住华盛顿特区。
JOEL ACHENBACH is a staff writer for The Washington Post. The author of three previous books, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three daughters.

Format:照片

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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