Life in the Universe

Life in the Universe provides an ideal starting point for any student intrigued by the possibilities of life in the solar system and beyond. This course is aligned to the leading textbook, Life in the Universe, 5e, by Jeffrey Bennett, Seth Shostak, Nicholas Schneider, and Meredith MacGregor (published by Princeton University Press).

Purchase the digital bundle at Princeton University Press

Jeffrey Bennett, a recipient of the American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award, holds a B.A. in biophysics (UC San Diego), and an M.S. and Ph.D. in astrophysics (University of Colorado). He specializes in science and math education and has taught at every level from preschool through graduate school. Career highlights including serving 2 years as a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters, where he developed programs to build stronger links between research and education; proposing and helping to develop the Voyage scale model solar system on the National Mall (Washington, DC); creating the free app Totality by Big Kid Science, designed to help the public prepare for and undertand solar eclipses; and creating a free, online digital textbook for middle school Earth and space science. He is the lead author of textbooks in astronomy, astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics; of critically acclaimed books for the general public on topics including global warming, Einstein’s theory of relativity, the search for extraterrestrial life, and math and science teaching; and of seven children’s science books, all of which have been selected for the Story Time From Space program, in which astronauts aboard the International Space Station read books to the children of Earth (with videos posted at storytimefromspace.com). His personal website is www.jeffreybennett.com and his educational web sites include www.BigKidScience.com, grade8science.com, and www.globalwarmingprimer.com.

Seth Shostak earned his B.A. in physics from Princeton University (1965) and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology (1972). He is currently Senior Astronomer and Institute Fellow at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, where he helps press the search for intelligent beings in the cosmos. For much of his career, Seth conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies and investigated the fact that these massive objects contain large amounts of unseen mass. He has worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen, the Netherlands (where he learned to speak bad Dutch). Seth also founded and ran a company that produced computer animation for television. He has written more than six hundred popular articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film, and television. A frequent fixture on the lecture circuit, Seth gives approximately 70 talks annually at both educational and corporate institutions, and he is also a frequent commentator on astronomical matters for radio and television. His book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (National Geographic, 2009) details the latest ideas, as well as the personal experience of his day job. When he’s not trying to track down aliens, Seth can often be found behind the microphone, as host of the SETI Institute’s weekly one-hour radio show (and podcast) about science, Big Picture Science.

Nicholas Schneider is a full professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado and a researcher in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He received his B.A. in physics and astronomy from Dartmouth College in 1979 and his Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona in 1988. His research interests include planetary atmospheres and planetary astronomy. One research focus is the odd case of Jupiter’s moon Io. Another is the astrobiological mystery of Mars’s lost atmosphere, which he is helping to answer by leading the Imaging UV Spectrograph team on NASA’s MAVEN mission now orbiting Mars. Nick enjoys teaching at all levels and is active in efforts to improve undergraduate astronomy education. Over his career he has received numerous awards including the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award, NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and the Richard H. Emmons Award for Excellence in College Teaching. Off the job, Nick enjoys exploring the outdoors with his family and figuring out how things work.

Meredith MacGregor is an assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and the Associate Director of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She received her B.A. in physics and astrophysics from Harvard University in 2011 before continuing to obtain her M.A. (2013) and Ph.D. (2017), both in astrophysics from Harvard. She then served as a National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory (Washington, D.C.), before moving to Boulder in 2020. Her research focuses on using multi-wavelength astronomical observations to explore the formation and habitability of planetary systems. She works frequently with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to image the process of planet formation in action and has more recently led multi-wavelength observational campaigns to understand stellar flaring and its potential impact on planetary atmospheres and surface life. Her work has been widely covered in the popular press including the New York Times, Scientific American, Science News, and National Geographic. She has won numerous awards, including being named as a Scialog Fellow in Signatures of Life in the Universe. She also serves as the Co-Chair of the NASA Infrared Science Interest Group, leading community discussion about the future of infrared astronomy.