Jerry L. Cranford, Ph.D, CCC-A, is a retired professor at the Department of Communication Disorders at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. He is an experienced neuroscientist/psychologist with an extensive background as a funded brain research scientist, and also a lifelong dedicated amateur astronomer whose primary interest is in the question of how intelligent forms of life might develop on other worlds in the universe. Dr. Cranford is attempting to combine his professional knowledge of the brain sciences with his knowledge of astrobiology to speculate on how alien life forms may develop neurobiological control systems that could be functionally analogous to those found in various animal species on Earth. He has extensive experience in writing articles and books for interested non-scientists and strives at making the scientific information he presents as accurate as possible but with a minimum of highly technical jargon.