Author: C. Cockell

CHARLES S. COCKELL is currently Professor and Chair of Microbiology at the Open University. He has written and edited six books including Impossible Extinction (CUP, 2003) about microbes” survival after natural catastrophes. Following his doctorate at the University of Oxford, he worked for NASA and British Antarctic Survey. He has led expeditions to Mongolia and Indonesia, among other places, to study life in extreme environments. He is Chair of the Earth and Space Foundation and in 1990 stood in the UK national elections for the “Forward to Mars Party” advocating more British involvement in Mars exploration plans, winning 91 votes.