The Living Galaxy

This book describes the possible distribution of life in the Milky Way. Our description is mathematical in order to be extrapolated from what we know that happened on Earth to what might have happened on the huge number of extrasolar planets existing in the Milky Way Galaxy. We use the statistical Drake equation, which identifies parameters for calculating the total number of life forms at all levels. While the original Drake equation (1961) contained seven factors only, we extend the number of factors to 50, thus incorporating much of the scientific knowledge about the Evolution of Life available in 2024.

As such, this book aims at being a narrative of a series of events, starting with pre-life epochs and extending them into the present and into the future. This book, while well rooted in scientific and mathematical models, depicts the drama of life – whether it emerges and thrives or succumbs and vanishes. It’s a tale of attempts, defeats, and progress, unfolding not along the scale of Human Lifetimes, but rather along the scale of Galactic Civilizations billion years long.

Author Biography

Claudio Maccone is a SETI astronomer, space scientist and mathematician. From 2012 to 2021 he chaired the SETI Permanent Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) which is based in Paris. Author of over 100 scientific articles, he published 6 books about future Space Missions, SETI and Astrobiology. He is now Chair of the IAA Moon Farside Protection Permanent Committee which aims to preserve (at United Nations) the radio silence still existing on the other side of the moon, before it is destroyed by the political rivalries between the various spatial countries today.

Andrea M.F. Valli, biophysicist and paleontologist. He was scientific advisor for the “Conseil général de l’Allier”. Associated with the “Société Scientifique du Bourbonnais” (Allier), he participated in the cultural dissemination with conferences on paleontology and the evolution of life.

Eugenio Mieli, degree in physics. He has always worked in TLC. Noting the relevance between Maccone’s work in the book “Mathematical Seti” and the biological scenario described by Valli in the book “Bactéries, Dinosaures et Kangourous – Brève Histoire de la Biodiversité”, has decided to face Drake’s entire equation together with the two other authors.