Mario Livio, the distinguished former astrophysicist at Hubble Space Telescope (until 2015) and best-selling science author, discusses his latest book, co-authored with Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak, 'Is Earth Exceptional'? One of the most fascinating questions is whether there is life -and especially intelligent life- beyond our planet.

This book provides the best information about the requirements for life and how scientists search for life in the cosmos. Dr. Livio explains the challenge of identifying life elsewhere when we have only the example of life’s emergence on Earth. Importantly, the book combines the unique expertise of astrophysics (Mario Livio) and geochemistry (Jack Szostak) in a very timely consideration of the possibility of life elsewhere.