The Impact Debate, Spaceball and the Zeerocks

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 – Astronomy is a science of extremes — the biggest, the hottest and the most massive. Late last week, an astrophysicist and his colleagues announced that they have linked two of astronomy's extremes, showing that some of the biggest stars in the cosmos become the strongest magnets when they die. See article.
g Abodes – The Impact Debate: Experts on asteroids and comets discuss the past, present, and future effects of asteroid and comet impacts, on life and evolution, in this four-part series, which starts at article.
g Life – A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of a female monkey's bottom. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, researchers say. See article.
g Intelligence – Are you optimistic about humanity’s future? You ought to be, because optimists get the last laugh. A new study shows their hearts stay healthy longer than those of grumps. People who described themselves as highly optimistic a decade ago had lower rates of death from cardiovascular disease and lower overall death rates than strong pessimists, the research found. See article.
g Message – Want to get a sense of SETI’s history and varying projects? Jodrell Bank Observatory offers an easy to follow yet informative primer.
g Cosmicus – After a year on Mars, our rovers have been covered with dust. Now scientists believe one cannot understand today's changes on Mars — its weather, temperature or water — without also accounting for dust. See article.
g Learning – Discover the universe, its components and origins — play “Spaceball.” Here’s a Web site structured as if a championship baseball game is being played between a celestial object and a spacecraft. Besides being fun, it helps children explore our solar system and the people and spacecraft that made our adventures in and knowledge of space possible. See article.
g Imagining – A few days ago, I noted a neat science fiction alien reading list from Prof. Joan Slonczewski, who taught “Biology 103: Biology in Science Fiction” at Kenyon College in 2003. Her students, using astrobiological principles, attempted to create a number of plausible alien civilizations and worlds as a class project. Here’s another one, a microbial organism from the planet Zeerocks, which infects photo copiers and cause them to break down!
g Aftermath – Some of the best discussion of the consequences of alien contact occurs in science fiction. Here’s a novel that ranks among the most important in that dialogue: Arthur C. Clark’s “Songs of a Distant Earth.” Look for it at your library or local used book store.

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