The Feathered Onion (Clive Trotman, 2004, Wiley ISBN: 0470871873) takes an unusual and fascinating look at the origins of life on earth and suggests that there is something of a discrepancy between the evidence for the age of the earth and when life got off the starting blocks. The resolution to this seeming paradox could be that life started elsewhere. However, don't hold your breath in the hope of finding life elsewhere in the universe today, the power of a radio signal is very weak and the likelihood of picking up a broadcast from a random point in the sky is tiny given the age of the universe. Our only hope may be the targeted searching of earth-like planets.