“You cannot stop our epistemic curiosity. We want to understand this thing — and life is probably the most important thing we know about!” ~ Mario Livio

The big questions of astrophysicist Mario Livio’s new book Is Earth Exceptional? The Quest for Cosmic Life are as close as we get to an ultimate curiosity — questions about the origins of life, the universe, and where and how those two intersect.

Dr. Livio worked with the Hubble Space Telescope and is a bestselling author of seven books, including The Golden Ratio, Brilliant Blunders, and (drum roll, please) Why?: What Makes Us Curious. Together with Jack Szostak, a biochemist and Nobel laureate, he’s written a kind of cosmic “what-dunnit” that shifts between the many and various disciplines that may someday provide the answers they seek about life’s origins.  

Truth be told, they are as excited by the new questions as their eventual answers. We talked about everything from bias toward life as we know it, science’s inclination to simplicity, and the curiosity cues of a paradox.

The book is chock-a-block with curiosity practices for any kind of exploration. Don’t worry about all the science, come along for the ride!

There is one sentence which [Galileo] wrote which I think is phenomenal…He said, “I do not believe that the same God that gave us our senses and intelligence wanted us to abandon their use.”

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #248: Is Earth Exceptional? with Mario Livio

Learn more about Mario Livio: https://www.mario-livio.com

Read about Is Earth Exceptional? The Quest for Cosmic Life.

If this conversation piqued your curiosity, indulge your inner scientist with these other C2BC Classics: Curiosity & Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, with Saul Perlmutter; Curiosity, Creativity, Science & Art: “Sci Art” with Soren Meibom; Reimagining Scientific Discovery with Rebecca Kamen; The Moore Foundation’s Curiosity-Driven Science Initiative, with Janet Coffey; and Curiosity, Science & Humor Walk into a Bar…, with Kasha Patel.

I enjoyed interviewing Dr. Livio about his book Why? What Makes Us Curious.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Great Great Lengths” by The Balloonist, via Blue Dot Sessions.

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