“Technology has really won the argument”
Comedian, actor and lover of all things science, Ben Miller has documented the search for alien life in a new book with optimism for the future. Are we really alone in the universe?
Ben Miller
BIO Ben Miller
Known in the UK as being one-half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, Ben Miller has appeared in a number of films and TV series. He abandoned a PhD in physics in favour of comedy but his love of science and astronomy remains strong. Having presented an episode of the BBC science series Horizon and written It’s Not Rocket Science, Miller now seeks to chart and explain humankind’s search for alien life.
Interviewed by David Crookes
Although you’ve just written a book about alien life, you’ve got three young children. Has that made you reassess life in general?
I think a new baby makes you reassess a lot of things in your life, from home furnishings right on up to the existence of God. But the reason for writing the book – which was started three or four years ago – was to continue from where I left off with my first book, It’s Not Rocket Science.
I found that I was fascinated by biology and the extraordinary advances being made in that area, and I also kept stumbling across different areas where people were talking about alien life and I just thought it would be a great thing to bring all of those things together in one book and talk about the real science of aliens. So my route into The Aliens Are Coming! was sort of through that. It’s why this book starts where the last one leaves off, because I ended the first with a discussion of extraterrestrial life.