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Is Mars Habitable? A Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book "Mars and Its Canals," with an Alternative Explanation

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About this book

Telescopic lines on Mars become a test of scientific reasoning in Alfred Russel Wallace's examination of Percival Lowell's claims. Lowell interprets the markings as canals built by intelligent inhabitants. Wallace asks whether the planet could supply the water, air and warmth that such a population would need. His preface, dated October 1907, explains how a planned review grew into a book as the physical questions demanded closer attention.

The chapters combine accounts of early observations with arguments about atmospheric pressure, heat loss and the polar caps. Wallace compares Mars with the Earth and Moon, challenges Lowell's temperature calculations and proposes a geological explanation for the apparent canals and dark spots. A note by physicist J. H. Poynting adds another criticism of the climate estimate.

About the author

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 to 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, and biologist who co-discovered the principle of evolution by natural selection. His years of fieldwork in the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago made him one of the leading scientists of the Victorian era.