Berthoud Community Library District

"The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He's also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental...

Our neighboring planets may have the answer to this question. Scientists have already identified ice caps on Mars and what appear to be enormous oceans underneath the ice of Jupiter's moons. The atmosphere on Venus appeared harsh and insupportable of life, composed of a toxic atmosphere and oceans of acid -- until scientists concluded that Earth's atmosphere was eerily similar billions of years ago. An extraterrestrial colony, in some form, may...

Upon discovering a rock bearing ancient microfossils, exobiologist Dr. Miguel Hernandez seeks to preserve a tract of Mars for further research. But Lowell Colony Mayor Andre Rand covets the same area for expansion. Now, framed for sabotage, Miguel must flee into the deadly Martian wilderness and, if possible, collect additional evidence before it's destroyed by construction. In a society driven by greed and ruled by corruption, Miguel stands to lose...

"Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity's coming of age as we awaken to the possibilities of life on other worlds and their sudden relevance to our fate on Earth. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life and intelligence from the ancient Greeks to the leading thinkers of our own time, and shows how we as a civilization can only hope to survive climate change if we recognize what science has recently discovered: that we are...

Astrobiologists compare life on Earth to signs of life on other planets, study space mission photos, and listen for signals from alien civilizations. Learn all about this cool and amazing research in this fast-paced peek into future life!

Considers the plausibility of alien life and what creatures living on extrasolar planets might be like, drawing on scientific sources to depict alien creatures who have adapted to the unique characteristics of their respective environments.

Astrobiologists look outward from Earth, seeking evidence of life elsewhere in the universe, but they also travel to places on Earth where extreme conditions may be similar to those on distant worlds.

"Any reader of science fiction or viewer of Star Trek will be awake to the dream that there may be life elsewhere in our universe that isn't like life here on Earth. Maybe, like E.T., it has new letters in its genetic alphabet! Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it gets around on wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles Cockell makes the surprising argument that the Universe constrains life, making its evolutionary outcomes...

"In the past year, we have witnessed unprecedented breakthroughs in the seemingly unrelated fields of synthetic biology and exoplanetary astronomy. Just recently, arsenic-based bacteria was discovered in a California lake-both puzzling and electrifying the scientific world. In The Life of Super-Earths, expert astronomer Dimitar Sasselov aims to highlight these groundbreaking findings and explain how what we learn in the laboratory informs our investigation...