The Deep Hot Biosphere

The implications are astonishing. The theory proposes answers to often-asked questions about life on other planets and the origins of surface life on earth. Is the deep biosphere where life originated? Can Mars and other seemingly barren planets contain deep biospheres? Is there yet another-deeper, hotter-biosphere within the earth, based on silicon instead of carbon?

In the first book on this very controversial and intriguing theory, pioneering physicist Thomas Gold explores the likelihood of a subterranean biosphere, one that exists in a gaseous atmosphere at very high temperature and pressure, and survives on chemical energy-hydrocarbons. This stunning book offers new insights into the origins of life, the origins of natural gas and petroleum, and the distribution of life in the universe.

Quotes:

"Gold's theories are always original, always important, and usually right. It is my belief, based on fifty years of observation of Gold as a friend and colleague, that the deep hot biosphere is all of the above: original, important, controversial, and right." (Freeman Dyson-foreword)

"The book, The Deep Hot Biosphere, is a real eye-opener. Actually my fundamental reaction is that NONE of this should seem controversial: it makes such good sense that I feel embarrassed for the biology community for not having established this as a fundamental alternate hypothesis 20 years ago. I have a sickening sensation that, in a decade or so, scientists will be looking back on the state of the field at the turn of the century as if we were intellectual barbarians, much the way we look back on those who questioned Darwin's work when it was first presented." (John P. Miller, Director, Center of Computational Biology, Montana State University-from a letter to the author)

"As you are aware, my knowledge and experience of natural gas, gained from drilling and operating many of the world's deepest and highest pressure natural gas wells, lends more credence to your ideas than the conventional theories of the biological/thermogenic origin of natural gas. Your theory explains best what we actually encountered in deep drilling operations." (Robert A. Hefner III, The GHK Companies, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-from a letter to the author).

Contents

• Preface
• 1. Our Garden of Eden
• 2. Life at the Borders
• 3. The Deep-Earth Gas Theory
• 4. Evidence for Deep-Earth Gas
• 5. Resolving the Petroleum Paradox
• 6. Proving Up the Theory
• 7. Extending the Theory
• 8. Rethinking Earthquakes
• 9. The Origin of Life
• 10. What Next?