Meet the Neighbors

Name: Meet the Neighbors
Price: 59.99 AUD
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ISBN: 9780241808306

Life on Mars and How to Find It

Steven A. Benner

$59.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Allen Lane
20 October 2026

Philosophy of science; History of science; Popular science; Popular astronomy & space

A pioneering astrobiochemist argues that the 1976 Viking landers may already have found life on Mars - and shows how we can prove it

Are we alone in the universe? Mars has always seemed where we were likeliest to find the answer. Yet, since the Viking landers touched down in 1976, no mission has returned to the Martian surface to search directly for life living there now. Instead we're searching the moons of outer planets, or the atmospheres of planets many light years away.

In Meet the Neighbors, pioneering astrobiochemist Steven A. Benner argues that this was a historic mistake. That we're looking in the wrong place. Drawing on the Viking archive and explaining how the scientific process failed, he re-examines the mission that first searched for extant Martian life and makes the provocative case that its results were misunderstood. In the decades that have followed, Mars science has focused on water, geology and past habitability, while the most direct question - is anything alive on Mars today? - has been pushed aside.

Benner shows why Mars remains the most accessible place to discover a second origin of life, and why finding even microbial organisms there would transform our understanding of our place in the cosmos. He also asks a deeper question- what counts as life in the first place? From the chemistry that may give rise to living systems to \""agnostic\"" tools capable of detecting unfamiliar biology, he lays out a bold and practical blueprint for the next phase of exploration.

At once a scientific detective story, a challenge to decades of orthodoxy, and a lucid guide to one of humanity's biggest questions, Meet the Neighbors is the definitive, urgent brief on where to go, what to measure, and why the next discovery won't just change textbooks - it will rewrite our place in the universe.

By: Steven A. Benner
Imprint: Allen Lane
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780241808306
ISBN 10: 0241808308
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 20 October 2026
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Steven A. Benner is a chemist, synthetic biologist, paleogenetist, and astrobiologist whose work began at Harvard University and developed at the ETH Zurich and the University of Florida before success in inventing medical and biotechnology products allowed him to found The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution. Throughout, he has helped reshape the modern definition of life and the search for it beyond Earth. In 2023 he was awarded the Harold Urey Medal from the International Astrobiology Society for the study of the origin of life.

Reviews for Meet the Neighbors: Life on Mars and How to Find It

Bravo to Benner, one of the world’s most accomplished chemists, for putting the possibility of extant Martian life back on the scientific agenda -- Paul Davies, author of Quantum 2.0 In his terrific new book, Benner draws powerful conclusions … He assembles an impressive body of evidence to support his bold claim that there is almost certainly life on Mars and that, furthermore, life originated on the Red Planet before it appeared on Earth, and in all probability was the source of life here -- Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society