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Life is, after all, just a state of matter, albeit a weird one. —Physicist Paul Davies, 2005! Before the Space Age, searching for life and intelligence on the other planets of our solar system always left room for doubt. We knew that our telescopes might not be able to detect evidence of living things or the artifacts of another civilization at interplanetary distances. If we had con- fined ourselves to peering through our atmosphere, we might have remained forever uncertain; debates could have continued without any prospect of Baal ene aletn final resolution. The Spaceflight Revolution gave us new means of searching for life in our solar system. Our machines could observe planets and moons from close orbits, even land to conduct research on their surfaces. This boosted a new interdisciplinary science known as astrobiology or exobiology (astronomers often call it bioastronomy). In 1962, the Space Science Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sci- ences set the search for extraterrestrial life as the prime goal of space biology, concluding that “it is not since Darwin—and before him Coper- nicus—that science has had the opportunity for so great an impact on man’s understanding of man. The scientific question at stake in exobiology is in the opinions of many the most exciting, challenging, and profound issue, not only of this century but of the whole naturalistic movement that has characterized the history of Western thought for three hundred years.” Harvard evolutionary biologist George Gaylord Simpson commented dryly that this was the first time a scientific discipline had been started before any evidence of its subject matter had been found.’ The raw materials for life seem to be abundant; the elements needed for biology exist throughout our galaxy. Discoveries since the 1950s have con- firmed that space is rich in carbon-based compounds, including the basic 25 A New Era Searching for Life