Lonely Minds In The Universe by Giancarlo Genta A book that tackles many questions about life beyond Earth not only from the standpoint of science, but also of sociology, psychology, philosophy and religion. It explores not just what if (or when) we might find other life, but how will we recognize it, how will we react to it, and how it might affect us as a species. And, of course, it's not just all about other intelligent life - it's about life of any kind. Genta looks at past and current ideas about how life came to Earth and efforts underway to search for life forms in our own Solar System, efforts to detect signals from alien civilizations and efforts to transmit our own signals to nearby stars, and efforts to locate earth-like exoplanets. Lonely Minds is not a particularly light read, but it is not so technical as to completely daunt the layman either.