Intellectual benefits of the study of astrobiology

As has often been noted previously (e.g. Connell et al. Reference Connell, Dick and Rose2000; Race et al. Reference Race, Denning, Bertka, Dick, Harrison, Impey and Mancinelli2012), the principal scientific and intellectual benefits of astrobiology arise from its inherently interdisciplinary nature. The study of astrobiology requires a grasp of, at least, astronomy, biology, biochemistry, geology and planetary science. All undergraduate courses in astrobiology (including the one the author has taught at Birkbeck College London for many years; Birkbeck College 2017) need to cover elements of all these different disciplines, and postgraduate and postdoctoral astrobiology researchers likewise need to be familiar with most or all of them.

From the latter half of the 19th century onwards these subjects have been taught in schools and universities as separate academic disciplines, with the result that the practice of science has ceased to reflect the underlying continuum of nature. Despite the undoubted advances in scientific understanding that have resulted from academic specialization, as noted by Offerdahl (Reference Offerdahl, Impey, Spitz and Stoeger2013) there has also been an intellectual downside:

By forcing multiple scientific disciplines to interact, the study of astrobiology can stimulate, and is stimulating, a partial re-unification of the sciences and helping to move the practice of 21st century science back towards the more interdisciplinary outlook that prevailed in the 17th and 18th centuries [for book-length treatments of the latter see, e.g. Uglow (Reference Uglow2002) and Holmes (Reference Holmes2008)]. By producing broad-minded scientists, familiar with multiple aspects of the natural world, the study of astrobiology therefore enriches the whole scientific enterprise. It is from this cross-fertilization of ideas that future discoveries that would not otherwise be made may be expected, and such discoveries will comprise a permanent legacy of astrobiology even if they do not include the discovery of alien life.

In addition to the (partial) re-unification of the sciences, the study of astrobiology is also stimulating much intellectual and philosophical activity outside the scope of the natural sciences, for example the numerous studies of the ethical, cultural and social implications of the discovery, or non-discovery, of life elsewhere [see, e.g. Race et al. (Reference Race, Denning, Bertka, Dick, Harrison, Impey and Mancinelli2012), and multiple papers in the volumes edited by Bertka (Reference Bertka2009), Dick & Lupisella (Reference Dick and Lupisella2009), and Impey et al. (Reference Impey, Spitz and Stoeger2013)]. Indeed, because of this, astrobiology is well placed to (again, at least partially) help heal the rift between science and the humanities identified by C.P. Snow in his famous 1959 Rede Lecture on the ‘Two Cultures’ (Snow Reference Snow1959), and more recently by Wilson (Reference Wilson1998). As noted by Kemp (Reference Kemp2009), in an article marking the 50th anniversary of Snow's lecture:

If nothing else, astrobiology can help provide just such an interdisciplinary education. Indeed, when all the aspects are considered, it seems clear that the intellectual life of humanity will be enriched on many levels merely by searching for life elsewhere in the Universe, regardless of whether the search is successful or not.

It is also important to recognize that astrobiology comprises a research agenda that is temporally and spatially open-ended. Searching for life in the Universe will take us from extreme environments on the Earth, to the plains and sub-surface of Mars, the icy satellites of the giant planets, and on to the all-but-infinite variety of planets orbiting other stars. And this search will continue whether life is actually discovered in any of these environments or not. The range of entirely novel environments opened to investigation will be essentially limitless, and thus has the potential to be a never-ending source of intellectual stimulation (for a fuller discussion of this point see Crawford Reference Crawford2014a).

Cosmic and evolutionary perspectives: wider societal benefits of astrobiology

Transcending the more narrowly intellectual benefits of astrobiology, however, are a range of wider societal benefits. These arise because, as noted by Stoeger (Reference Stoeger, Impey, Spitz and Stoeger2013), ‘astrobiology encourages us to expand and deepen our views of society and self.’ To my mind, the principal societal benefits arising from the study of astrobiology, and from its popularization to a wider public, are a consequence of the cosmic and evolutionary perspectives on human affairs that it naturally engenders.

With respect to the cosmic perspective, it is simply not possible to consider searching for life on Mars, or on a planet around another star, without moving away from the narrow Earth-centric perspectives that dominate the social and political lives of most people most of the time. At a time when the Earth is faced with global challenges that can only be met by increased international cooperation (and arguably by developing institutions of global governance; see, e.g. Cabrera Reference Cabrera2011; Crawford Reference Crawford and Cockell2014b), yet tribal nationalistic and religious ideologies are acting to fragment humanity, the promulgation of a unifying cosmic perspective on human affairs is potentially of enormous importance.

In the early years of the Space Age, the then US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, said of the world that ‘we can never again be a squabbling band of nations before the awful majesty of outer space’ (quoted by Poole Reference Poole2008; p. 42). Yet, this perspective can only influence the thinking of people if it is brought to their attention, and astrobiology can play an important role in doing so. Note that, although the cosmic perspective might be expected to intrude most forcibly into the public consciousness in the event of an actual discovery of extraterrestrial life, the search itself can also contribute. Indeed, it is only by sending spacecraft out to explore the Solar System, in part for astrobiological purposes, that we can obtain images of our own planet that show it in its true cosmic setting (Fig. 1). The societal benefits of this perspective have been stressed by, among others, Sagan (Reference Sagan1994), Poole (Reference Poole2008), Crawford (Reference Crawford and Cockell2014b) and White (Reference White2014). Indeed, White (Reference White2014) makes the important point that:

“it is time for the influence of space exploration on human consciousness to be seen as a legitimate justification for investing in it” (White Reference White2014; p. 102).

Fig. 1.

The Earth photographed from the surface of Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in March 2004. Such images powerfully reinforce a ‘cosmic perspective’ that can have a unifying influence on human affairs (image courtesy of NASA).

Fortunately, opportunities for developing this cosmic perspective on human affairs are likely to increase in the future, especially as a result of proposed human space missions beyond low Earth orbit, which, at least in part, will be motivated by astrobiological considerations (Crawford Reference Crawford2010; ISECG 2013).

In addition to a spatial, ‘cosmic’, perspective, astrobiology also provides an important temporal and evolutionary perspective on human affairs. Indeed, many university astrobiology courses, including the author's own (Birkbeck College 2017), begin with an overview of the history of the Universe, beginning with the Big Bang and moving successively through the origin of the chemical elements, the evolution of stars, galaxies and planetary systems, the origin of life, and evolutionary history from the first cells to complex animals such as ourselves. There is a strong synergy here with the emerging discipline of ‘Big History’ (Christian Reference Christian2004, Reference Christian2017; Spier Reference Spier2010), which, following the lead of Chambers (Reference Chambers1844, Reference Chambers1845), von Humboldt (Reference von Humboldt1845) and Wells (Reference Wells1925), aims to integrate human history with an evolutionary history of the cosmos.

That such a perspective has the potential to act as a unifying influence on humanity, especially by making clear our common evolutionary heritage, has long been recognized. For example, Chambers (Reference Chambers1845) noted that such universal histories are in harmony with the aim of

A similar observation was made by an early reviewer of the first volume of Humboldt's Cosmos, who noted that ‘[t]he individual is made to feel that he is connected, by the very nature and substance of his body, with every part of the universe’ and drew the societal implication that:

What Whelpley apparently had in mind was a sense that humanity might be able to unify itself socially and politically if it could but agree on a common integrated worldview of the kind that Humboldt was trying to convey. More recently, the physicist David Bohm, also reflecting on the societal benefits of more holistic thinking, lamented the view of society ‘as a set of separately existent nations, races, or political, economic, and religious groups’ because, as he noted:

It hardly needs to be pointed out that the holistic worldview sought by these authors is essentially identical to that implied by the study of astrobiology and related disciplines.

There is a well-known aphorism widely attributed to Humboldt (e.g. Wilson Reference Wilson2016; p. 79), and which is perhaps especially relevant at a time when narrow nationalistic and religious ideologies appear to be on the rise, to the effect that:

Humboldt was presumably thinking about the mind-broadening potential of international travel, based on his own experiences as an explorer. However, familiarity with the cosmic and evolutionary perspectives provided by astrobiology, powerfully reinforced by actual views of the Earth from space, can surely also act to broaden minds in such a way as to make the world less fragmented and dangerous. Astrobiology as a discipline can play a major part in achieving this, not least because, as stressed by Connell et al. (Reference Connell, Dick and Rose2000) and Offerdahl (Reference Offerdahl, Impey, Spitz and Stoeger2013), much astrobiology research is of wide public interest and often in the public eye.