Books

• Pic du Midi
• The cosmic water hole

Pic du Midi
(One hundred years of life and science in a high altitude observatory)

Edition in French (CNRS-Editions)
L'Observatoire du Pic du Midi
(Cent ans de vie et de science en haute montagne)
550 pages, 5 appendices, bibliography, index, 80 illustrations
February 2000.

Cover of the French edition

Reviews of the French edition

The cosmic water hole
206 pages, (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge), March 1991. (see at MIT Press).

Covers of the 7 editions

Reviews of the French, English and German editions

Summary of the corresponding conference, in French

This book, written for the layperson, is about the search for life in the Universe. In the first part, I make an inventory of the characteristics of life on Earth that can be considered universal. I then discuss the possibilities of life in the Solar System, the search for other planetary systems, the hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations and the strategies for detecting them. In conclusion, I examine the place of Mankind in the Universe.

This book has been published in six different languages :

French edition (Editions Teknea),
Silence au point d'eau,
July 1988

Japanese edition (Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo),
July 1990.

English edition (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge),
The cosmic water hole,
March 1991. (see at MIT Press).

Italian edition (Franco Muzzio Editore, Padova),
Silenzio al punto d'acqua,
June 1991.

German edition (Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel),
Signale ohne Antwort, die Suche nach ausserirdischem Leben,
May 1993.

Spanish edition (Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Mexico),
Silencio en el punto de agua, ?Estamos solos en el universo?,
July 1993.

German edition (Seehamer Verlag, Weyarn),
Signale ohne Antwort, die Suche nach ausserirdischem Leben,
October 1997.