Cellular pathway and place your bets on 37 Gem

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 – Ghostly haloes of dark matter as heavy as the Earth and as large as our solar system were the first structures to form in the universe, according to new calculations from scientists at the University of Zurich, published in this week's issue of Nature. See article.
g Abodes – Critics who dismiss the importance of greenhouse gases as a cause of climate change lost one piece of ammunition this week. In a new study, scientists found further evidence of the role that greenhouse gases have played in Earth’s climate. In Thursday’s issue of the journal Geology, Ohio State University scientists report that a long-ago ice age occurred 10 million years earlier than once thought. The new date clears up an inconsistency that has dogged climate change research for years. See article.
g Life – Just one cellular pathway produces the raw ingredients plants use to make thousands of compounds, from molecules with anticancer properties to the active ingredient in catnip, according to a team of researchers at Purdue University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. See article.
g Intelligence – In Part Two of the series on stellar and terrestrial evolution, Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of the PBS/NOVA Series "Origins,” discusses the human tendency of being self-centered, and how that can shape our reality and cloud our vision of the truth. See article.
g Message – What star meets the current best guesses for habitability? This fascinating question was answered as part of a research survey in preparation for NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission. The answer, according to the largest such classification so far attempted, is the 37th brightest star in the constellation, Gemini, called 37 Gem. This star, as it turns out, is the most like our own sun. See article. Note: This article came out in October 2003.
g Cosmicus – Want to keep up on space launches? Try “Jonathan's Space Report.” The Space Report is issued about twice a month. It describes all space launches, including both piloted missions and automated satellites. Back issues are available online. To receive the JSR each week by direct email, send a message to majordomo@host.planet4589.org, with a blank subject line and message body containing the single line "subscribe jsr".
g Learning – Here’s a great list of astronomy books for children. There are some great ideas for the perfect birthday gift!
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, the Yumbrabaul. See article.


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