Life and habitable zones in the Universe

Currently we are aware of only one biosphere in the entire Universe, our own. Various ongoing observational programmes are, however, attempting to locate more. These searches for extraterrestrial life are among the most challenging and interesting tasks of modern science. The Universe is immense, and even the distances to the nearest stars are beyond our present capabilities to traverse, so that search strategies must be thought through carefully in terms of how, where and what to search for. Life is undoubtedly more likely in some environments than others, and environmental criteria must be fulfilled for life to arise, survive, evolve and thrive. As search resources are limited we should concentrate our search on habitable zones that are suitable for the kind of life we can most easily recognise, in other words, searches should be guided by our own biosphere.