The Reason Why

<p><b>In <i>The Reason Why: The Miracle of Life on Earth </i>John Gribbin shows what makes our planet so special, explaining why the ''Fermi Paradox'' - the apparent absence of alien life - holds the key to our uniqueness.</b><br><br> There are several hundred billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, yet out of all of these Earth is the only planet with intelligent life on it. Why?<br><br> For the first time, John Gribbin makes the link between the whole series of cosmic events that gave rise to our civilization - a unique set of circumstances that have not, and could not, occur anywhere else. <br><br> John Gribbin is our best, most accessible guide to the big questions of science. In this book, he explores the biggest questions of all: why are we here, what does it mean to be alone in the universe - and do we have a future?<br><br> ''The master of popular science writing''<br/>  <i>Sunday Times</i><br><br> ''A fascinating journey through space and time ... this book presents an exciting insight into the many fortuitous events and cosmic quirks that have all come together to make Earth such a life-friendly world'' <br/>  <i>Science Focus</i><br><br> ''Lyrical, enormously readable ... John Gribbin explains just how our home world appears to be special, and exactly what we have to be thankful for'' <br/>  <i>The Times Higher Education </i><br><br> <b>John Gribbin </b>is one of today''s greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books, including <i>In Search of Schrödinger''s Cat</i>, <i>Stardust</i>, <i>Science: A History </i>and <i>In Search of the Multiverse</i>. Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is currently Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex.</p>