Where Did We Come From?

The life story of this book spans many stages of the life and scientific career of one of the foremost astrophysicists/astrobiologists of our times. Starting from his boyhood days, the book describes the author's scientific work over the past 50 years, the ground-breaking discoveries he had made, the controversies generated in the scientific community, and the gradual acceptance of his discoveries. Written in lucid non-technical language it captures the essence of the author's research at Cambridge, his lifelong collaborations with the legendary astronomer of the 20th century, Sir Fred Hoyle, the birth of the subject of astrobiology which they arguably “invented” in 1980, and his continuing ground-breaking research carried out while he was a Professor at Cardiff and later at Buckingham. The book traces the various influences that guided the author through his career, including that of his father who was a Cambridge Wrangler, and the profound influence of Buddhism in his early life.
The author has published over 25 books and close to 300 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, over 60 of which were in the journal Nature.Contents:

Prologue
To Begin at the Beginning
Through the Mists of Time
Sail Away on SS Scynthia
From School to University
Destination Cambridge
A Project Takes Shape
Grinding Out the Details
Launching the Carbon Dust Theory
The Data Leads the Way
From Cambridge to Cardiff
From Organic Dust to Ecodisasters
Diseases from Space
Galaxies Strewn with Micro-Organisms
Microfossils and Evolution
Arkansas and the Colombo Conference
The Lecture at SLBC
Archaeopteryx and the Return of Halley's Comet
Escape From Brewing Turmoil
Ice Ages and the Genesis of Racism
A New Millennium and the Taste of Things to Come
Epilogue

Readership: Astrophysicists, astrobiologists, philosophers and the general public.Key Features:

Life story of the main proponent of panspermia and astrobiology
Shows the personal and social context in which a major scientific theory has been developed
Describes how the treatment of heretics in science has progressed through time