The many roads to the red planet — a memoir

The many roads to the red planet — a memoir



Author Sarah Stewart Johnson hunts for microbial traces on Earth that could inform the search for life on other planets.Credit: David Goerlitz

A memoir of Mars

A new book by planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson is a vivid history of humanity’s efforts to understand the red planet, writes reviewer Alexandra Witze. Through a mix of personal memoir and scientific primer, she illuminates the history of astronomers and explorers who have been fascinated by this neighbouring world, known to the ancients as a ruddy dot shining in the night sky.

Nature | 4 min read