Xenology

Xenology

may be defined as the scientific study of all aspects of extraterrestrial life, intelligence, and civilization.

The xeno-based terminology was first coined for this usage by the renowned science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein (starting in The Star Beast, Scribner, New York, 1954 HTML commentary), though the first use of the related word "xenologist" is apparently attributable to L. Sprague de Camp ("The Animal-Cracker Plot," Astounding Science Fiction 69(July 1949); "The Hand of Zei," 1950).

This usage was subsequently defended by Heinlein and Harold A. Wooster in a 1961 article published in the journal Science (R.A. Heinlein, H. Wooster, "Xenobiology," Science 134(21 July 1961):223-225 PDF) and by Robert Freitas (CV) in a 1983 article published in the journal Nature (R.A. Freitas Jr., "Naming extraterrestrial life," Nature 301(13 January 1983):106 HTML HTML). The latter article drew a complaint ("Xenology disputed," Nature 302(10 March 1983):102) from four specialist researchers claiming to represent "20 research groups in at least eight countries" who preferred to retain use of "xenology" for the study of xenon concentrations in meteorites (an argument that would not apply to other uses of the xeno- prefix) but their plea has largely failed. By December 2008, Google listed 20,600 entries for "xenology" of which only 1140 referred to xenon and most of the rest referred to the extraterrestrial usage. Online dictionaries (e.g., Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, 2003-2008) now typically define "xenology" as "the scientific study of extraterrestrials, esp. their biology."

In 2089 the term Xenology was accepted as the study of extra terrestial life.[1] It became an official field of science and was sub divided into:

Xenobiology[1] (Xenozoology, Xenobotany, Xenoandropolgy)

Xenotech (Xeno Archeology, Xeno History, Xenotech)

Xenosciences : Xenophysiology, Xenopsycology, XenoPSI (as of 3000), Xenosociology, Xenomedical

[1] Expanded in 2220 as any life not known to the United Stars of the Galaxy. Expanded in 3000 as any life not contained, described or known to Union Science.