The case of the missing disks and spray-on space suits

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars – Astronomers announced that they have a lead in the case of the missing disks. Presented during a report earlier this month at the American Astronomical Society meeting in San Diego, this lead may account for the missing evidence of red dwarfs forming planetary systems. See article.
g Abodes – A broad look at possibilities for climate change suggests Earth could heat up much more significantly than other leading studies have predicted. In fact, the global temperature could rise between 3.6 and 19.8 degrees Fahrenheit, scientist report in today’s issue of the journal Nature. See article. The report follows an announcement Monday that global warming is approaching the critical point of no return, after which widespread drought, crop failure and rising sea levels would be irreversible (see article).
g Life – Experiments at the University of Chicago and Chicago's Field Museum have validated some controversial rocks from Greenland as the potential site for the earliest evidence of life on Earth. See article.
g Intelligence – Instinct has the power to hush reason. But when is it safe to go with your gut? Researchers may remain uncertain about the reliability of intuition, but it is a difficult force to deny. In Psychology Today, social psychologist David G. Meyers explores this mystery in an adaptation from his new book, “Intuition: Its Powers and Perils”.
g Message – How did the SETI program come to be? For a timeline of the program’s history, see article.
g Cosmicus – Future explorers on the Moon and Mars could be outfitted in lightweight, high-tech spacesuits that offer far more flexibility than the bulky suits that were used for spacewalks in the 1960s. Research is under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a “Bio-Suit System” that incorporates a suit designed to augment a person’s biological skin by providing mechanical counter-pressure. The “epidermis” of such a second skin could be applied in spray-on fashion in the form of an organic, biodegradable layer. See article.
g Aftermath – How can we predict reactions to proof of an otherworldly intelligence? Some scientists argue that any unpredictable outcomes can only be judged against our own history. See article.

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