In The Reason Why: The Miracle of Life on Earth John Gribbin shows what makes our planet so special, explaining why the 'Fermi Paradox' - the apparent absence of alien life - holds the key to our uniqueness.

There are several hundred billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, yet out of all of these Earth is the only planet with intelligent life on it. Why?

For the first time, John Gribbin makes the link between the whole series of cosmic events that gave rise to our civilization - a unique set of circumstances that have not, and could not, occur anywhere else.

John Gribbin is our best, most accessible guide to the big questions of science. In this book, he explores the biggest questions of all: why are we here, what does it mean to be alone in the universe - and do we have a future?

'The master of popular science writing'
  Sunday Times

'A fascinating journey through space and time ... this book presents an exciting insight into the many fortuitous events and cosmic quirks that have all come together to make Earth such a life-friendly world'
  Science Focus

'Lyrical, enormously readable ... John Gribbin explains just how our home world appears to be special, and exactly what we have to be thankful for'
  The Times Higher Education

John Gribbin is one of today's greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books, including In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Stardust, Science: A History and In Search of the Multiverse. Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is currently Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex.