Book - The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World, by Sarah Johnson

Paperback, 275 pages, published 2020. Reader's Guide in the back. Winner of the Whiting Award. Excellent used condition, nearly new. There's a remainder mark on the bottom (see pics) but otherwise this copy was very gently loved. "Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey--as a female scientist and a mother--with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos." 🚀 🔭 🌌 Johnson's engaging prose draws readers in and the Notes section indicates it was very well-researched. 🌟