'Highly recommended' Financial TimesToday we know of only a single planet that hosts life: the
Earth. But across a Universe of at least 100 billion possibly habitable worlds surely our
planet isn't the only one which like the porridge Goldilocks sought is just right for
life?Astrobiologists search the galaxy for conditions that are suitable for life to exist
focusing on similar worlds located at the perfect distance from their Sun within the aptly
named 'Goldilocks Zone'. Such a place might have liquid water on its surface and may therefore
support a thriving biosphere. What might life look like on other worlds? It is possible to make
best-guesses using facts rooted in science and by studying 'extremophiles' - organisms such as
the near-indestructible water bears which can survive in the harshest conditions that Earth
and even space can offer. Goldilocks and the Water Bears is a tale of the origins and
evolution of life and the quest to find it on other planets on moons in other galaxies and
throughout the Universe.
