Egg-shaped Regulus, SpaceX and Hollywood aliens

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 – For decades, scientists have observed that Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo, spins much faster than the Sun. But thanks to a powerful new telescopic array, astronomers now know with unprecedented clarity the terrible distortions that occur to this massive celestial body that revolves once on its axis in just 15.9 hours. See article.
g Abodes – Since the remarkable landing of the Huygens probe on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, planetary scientists have wondered anew about the discovery prospects in our own solar system. As part of the Cassini Imaging team studying the atmosphere on Saturn, NASA's Anthony Del Genio explained to Astrobiology Magazine his interests in the giant ringed world and its strange moons. See Part I and Part II.
g Life – Be sure to pick up the latest issue of Discover magazine, whose cover story examines a digital experiment that mimics, and adds to the volumes of existing proof of, evolution. If not near a magazine rack, then click here.
g Intelligence – Human complexity and diversity may spring from a surprisingly few number of genes, relatively speaking. RNA editing, the process by which cells use their genetic code to manufacture proteins, can greatly increase the number of gene products generated from a single gene. See article.
g Message – SETI research isn’t limited to a single facility listening to radio signals. Another dimension of the program is “Optical SETI,” consisting of two efforts based at Berkeley and two at Harvard. To learn more about it, see article.
g Cosmicus – Elon Musk conceived SpaceX to offer low-cost access to space, give a boost to what he calls a "stagnate" industry that has failed to evolve since Apollo and build toward the goal of launching human space voyages. See article.
g Learning – After many years of reading about the universal dictionary (Robert Heinlein), the city fathers (James Blish), the house records (Frank Herbert), and the hitchhiker's guide (Douglas Adams), to name just a few, Google has finally decided to put all there is of human knowledge online. All right, not quite all of it. But Google is working with the University of Michigan, Harvard and several other libraries to put millions (that's millions!) of books — scanned, spidered and ready to read — online. See article.
g Imagining – Hollywood loves movies about extraterrestrials, but most silver screen aliens — from E.T. to Star Wars — are remarkably anthropomorphic. Scientists say the real aliens may be far stranger than we think. But intelligent life elsewhere in the universe almost certainly won't resemble Tinseltown's take. An episode of SETI’s “Are We Alone?” radio series recently discussed the matter with guest Phil Plait, an astronomer and author of Bad Astronomy. For an archive of the broadcast and go to “Hollywood Aliens: What’s Right and What’s Wrong.”
g Aftermath – Here’s a fascinating idea: A group of serious scientists, writers, military leaders and others discussing how to establish a constructive dialogue between humanity and ETI, once contact is made. See article.


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