Thursday, October 13, 2005

Indecipherable messages, build your own world big booster rocket

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 - Almost 90 years after Einstein postulated his general theory of relativity - our current theory of gravity - scientists have finally finished collecting the data that will put this theory to an experimental test. For the past 17 months, NASA's Gravity Probe-B satellite has been orbiting the Earth using four ultra-precise gyroscopes, about a million times better than the finest navigational gyroscopes, to generate the data required for this unprecedented test. See article.
g Abodes - A 300-mile-wide patch that outshines everything else on Titan at long infrared wavelengths appears not to be a mountain, a cloud or a geologically active hot spot, University of Arizona scientists and Cassini team members say. See article.
g Life - “Ladies choice” isn’t just a dance routine, it is also a driver of species evolution - and two researchers may have found a reason why. See article.
g Intelligence - The possible evidence for ancient life on Mars has rekindled the age-old debate about life in the universe. Certainly, if life evolved independently on Mars, why not also on just about every suitable planet in the galaxy? But it doesn't necessarily follow that ''advanced'' life, and therefore technological civilizations, are also common. Far from it. See article.
g Message - The chances are there's life out there, but any messages could be thousands of years old and indecipherable. See column. Note: This opinion piece is from May 2005.
g Cosmicus - China took the next bold step in its quest for the high frontier Wednesday when a team of former military pilots blasted into Earth orbit from a desert launch pad to begin five days of intensive experiments and tests that will pave the way for further milestones in space in the coming years. See article.
g Learning - Most teachers believe that students learn better when abstract concepts are taught using concrete materials or examples - but a new study suggests they may be wrong. See article.
g Imagining - Like stories about alien biologies/environments? Be sure to scour your favorite used bookstores for Larry Niven’s “Ringworld” (1970) and the sequel, “Ringworld Engineers” (1980).
g Aftermath - How to predict reactions to receipt of evidence for an otherworldly intelligence? Some scientists argue that any unpredictable outcomes can only be judged against our own history. See article.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

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