Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Finding life's molecular building blocks on Mars and bored students

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - In this lecture, Michael Brown talks about the discovery of Pluto in 1930, and explains how scientists today find other distant objects in the Kuiper Belt. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2253mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Life - NASA-funded researchers are refining a tool that could not only check for the faintest traces of life's molecular building blocks on Mars, but could also determine whether they have been produced by anything alive. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2255mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Intelligence - People see what they believe, not vice versa, when it comes to social injustice. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070228_moral_outrage.html.
g Learning - School can be a real yawn. Two out of three high-school students in a large survey say they are bored in class every single day. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070228_bored_students.html.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

‘Breathing’ alien air, inner workings of the brain and students explore limits of life on Earth

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured for the first time enough light from planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to identify signatures of molecules in their atmospheres. The landmark achievement is a significant step toward being able to detect life on rocky exoplanets and comes years before astronomers had anticipated. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/21exoplanets/.
g Intelligence - The inner workings of the brain aren’t as organized as once thought. According to a new study, it’s mayhem up there. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070227_brain_chaos.html.
g Learning - Here’s an interesting classroom activity: “Who Can Live Here?” Students explore the limits of life on Earth to extend their beliefs about life to include its possibility on other worlds. See http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/astrobiology/LabActivities/
ExtremeEnvironments.doc
.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Titanic star collision, Pluto’s demotion and PlanetQuest

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Imagine two stars with winds so powerful that they eject an Earth's worth of material roughly once every month. Next, imagine those two winds colliding head-on. Such titanic collisions produce multimillion-degree gas, which radiates brilliantly in X-rays. Astronomers have conclusively identified the X-rays from about two-dozen of these systems in our Milky Way. But they have never seen one outside our galaxy - until now. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/25binary/.
g Abodes - Michael Brown discusses the controversy over Pluto's demotion to a "dwarf planet," and what that means for our scientific understanding of the solar system. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop
=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2249mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity: “Alien Safari.” New from NASA PlanetQuest, Alien Safari can be used in your classrooms or informal education settings to help kids discover some of the most extreme organisms on our planet, and find out what they are telling astrobiologists about the search for life beyond Earth. See http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/AlienSafari_launch_page.html.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

International Heliophysical Year, Titan’s haze and strange creatures in frigid waters

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - The International Heliophysical Year has officially begun (Feb. 19) ­— two years dedicated to a better understanding of the how the Sun affects the Earth and the other planets in the solar system. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070221113556.htm.
g Abodes - Saturn's moon Titan is notorious for its shroud of organic haze. Recent experiments suggest that early Earth may have been covered by a similar haze. The discovery could shed light on how life spread around the globe. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2246mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Life - Several strange creatures including a psychedelic octopus have been found in frigid waters off Antarctica in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments. See http://www.livescience
.com/environment/070225_antarctic_biodiversity.html
.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: Who Can Live Here? Students explore the limits of life on Earth to extend their beliefs about life to include its possibility on other worlds. See http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/ExtremeEnvironment/Extreme.
htm
.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

High-energy cosmos, microbial habitats on Mars and teaching astrobiology in high schools

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Integral's latest survey of the gamma-ray universe continues to change the way astronomers think of the high-energy cosmos. With more than 70 percent of the sky now observed by Integral, astronomers have been able to construct the largest catalogue yet of individual gamma-ray-emitting celestial objects. And there is no end in sight for the discoveries. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220132135.htm.
g Abodes - The first observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show that liquid or gas flowed through cracks penetrating underground rock on Mars. These fluids may have produced conditions to support possible habitats for microbial life. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=
modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2245mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Learning - Although exobiology is of widespread interest to high school science students, it is not generally dealt with comprehensively in most textbooks. In addition, teachers often have inadequate resources available to prepare classroom presentations on how life may have begun on Earth and whether these processes might take place elsewhere in the solar system and the universe. Here’s a classroom teaching module suitable for use in both general and advanced high school biology courses: See http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/astro/html/Exobiology.html.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Sun’s energetic outbursts, Mars’ subterranean natural plumbing system and decoding ET’s messages.

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Although very close to the minimum of its 11-year sunspot cycle, the Sun showed that it is still capable of producing a series of remarkably energetic outbursts, the joint ESA/NASA Ulysses mission revealed. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/20ulysses/.
g Abodes - A Mars-orbiting spacecraft has spotted a subterranean natural plumbing system that might have ferried water beneath the surface of the red planet in the distant past. See http://space.com/scienceastronomy/070215_candor_chasma.html.
g Intelligence - The lineages of humans and chimpanzees, our closest relatives, diverged from one another about 4.1 million years ago, according to a new estimate that is said to be far more precise than previous ranges for this critical evolutionary moment. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070223_chimp_split.html.
g Learning - There’s a neat set of online activities, primarily for older teens or young adults, about communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence at http://ethel.as.arizona.edu/~collins/astro/subjects/ceti.html. It helps students learn about SETI while they send one another messages then decode them, as if they were alien civilizations on distant worlds.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Fastest spinning star, Galileo Mission and how to become an astrobiologist

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Astronomers using the European Space Agency's gamma-ray observatory, Integral, have detected what appears to be the fastest spinning neutron star yet. This tiny stellar corpse is spinning 1122 times every second. If confirmed, the discovery gives the chance to glimpse the insides of the dead star. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/19neutronstar/.
g Abodes - Yogi Berra supposedly suggested that when you come to a fork in the road, you are supposed to take it. That's just what planetary scientists studying the rich data set from the Galileo Mission to the outer solar system are doing now. They're taking the fork. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/14europa/.
g Intelligence - While a person's accidental death reported on the evening news can bring viewers to tears, mass killings reported as statistics fail to tickle human emotions, a new study finds. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070216_genocide_interest.
html
.
g Learning - What is an astrobiologist, and can you become one? See http://www.astrobiology.com/how.to.html.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Virtual twin of Earth's sun, pure-tone signal from space and ‘Moons of Jupiter’

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Members of a research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to peer at the embryo of an infant star in the nearby Eagle Nebula, which they believe may someday develop into a virtual twin of Earth's sun. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/18sunlike/.
g Abodes - NASA scientists may have discovered how a warmer climate in the future could increase droughts in certain parts of the world, including the southwest United States. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/12droughts/.
g Intelligence - Children as young as 6 months old have detailed memories that can persist for a year or more, researchers reported at a conference in San Francisco. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070217-00575600-bc-us-memory.xml.
g Message - What would be a sign of alien intelligence? Forget mathematics — try a simple, pure-tone radio signal. See http://
www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_artificiality_part2_030220.
html
.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity: “Moons of Jupiter.” In this lesson plan, students build model rovers to learn about engineering and evidence of alien life. See http://www.adlerplanet
/
arium.org/education/teachers/plans/alien/Lesson_Plan.pdf.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Cosmic winds grapple, mission to Jupiter’s moons and one of the biggest of the Big Questions of Existence

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Two stellar titans are waging wars of wind in the first such scene spotted outside the Milky Way Galaxy. See http://space.com/scienceastronomy/070216_wind_crash.html.
g Abodes - Scientists are currently discussing the benefits of studying each of Jupiter's four large moons with a dedicated mission. In a recent talk to the American Geophysical Union, the case was made for visiting Europa in order to learn more about the moon's ocean and possibly the origins of life. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2240mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Intelligence - When a man fails to help out around the house, his poor performance might be related to a subconscious tendency to resist doing anything his wife wants, a new study suggests. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070214_resistance.html.
g Message - The question of whether we are alone in the universe is one of the biggest of the Big Questions of Existence. One way to settle the matter is to find some cosmic company. A direct approach to this problem is to scan the skies with radio telescopes in the hope of stumbling across a message from an alien civilization. See http://www.teampicard.net/forum/latest-intelligence/
223-message-curious-please-phone-et/home.html
. Note: This article is from 2005.
g Learning - There may be numerous intelligent civilizations on planets throughout our galaxy. That's the hypothesis driving SETI research. We seek evidence of extraterrestrial technology using optical and radio telescopes to search for signals that emanate from other civilized worlds. These places are far, far away. But, when discussing the search with school children, they often simply ask, "Why don't we just go there?" This can be a teachable moment. See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_devore_distance_031204.
html. Note: This article is from Dec. 2003.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Ghostly galaxies, Martian fossils and beaming a signal directly at Earth

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Ghostly galaxies composed almost entirely of dark matter speckle the universe. Unlike normal galaxies, these extreme systems contain very few stars and are almost devoid of gas. Most of the luminous matter, so common in most galaxies, has been stripped away, leaving behind a dark matter shadow. These intriguing galaxies-known as dwarf spheroidals-are so faint that, although researchers believe they exist throughout the universe, only those relatively close to Earth have ever been observed. And until recently, no scientific model proposed to unravel their origin could simultaneously explain their exceptional dark matter content and their penchant for existing only in close proximity to much larger galaxies. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070215142025.htm.
g Abodes - Just as water helps moderate temperatures of nearby land, large tracts of forests can also help lessen the extremes of land in the area. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070212182026.htm.
g Life - Hunting for traces of life on Mars calls for two radically different strategies, says Arizona State University professor Jack Farmer. Of the two, he says, with today's exploration technology we can most easily look for evidence for past life, preserved as fossil "biosignatures" in old rocks. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070218140354.htm.
g Intelligence - Chimpanzees learned to make and use stone tools on their own, rather than copying humans, new evidence suggests. See http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070212_chimp_tools.html.
g Message - Since the invention of the radio, humans have been broadcasting signals into outer space. Other civilizations in our galaxy might be doing the same. They might even be deliberately sending out signals to find other civilizations. Someone out there may even be beaming a signal directly at the Earth. See http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/seti.php.
g Learning - If science communications in astrobiology is about researchers sharing their results, the audience for new findings may well turn out to be a surprising finding in itself. John Horack, one of the principal Internet architects for how a Webby-award winning NASA site found its audience, explains new ways to view the problem of sharing science. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/article793.html. Note: This article is from 2004.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Star’s last hurrah, hiking maps of Mars and Project OZMA

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the colorful "last hurrah" of a star like our sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/14demise/.
g Abodes - Scientists using data from the HRSC experiment onboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft have produced the first “hiker's maps” of Mars. Giving detailed height contours and names of geological features in the Iani Chaos region, the maps could become a standard reference for future Martian research. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070212183559.htm.
g Life - A miner in the state of Chiapas found a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for 25 million years, a researcher said. If authenticated, the preserved frog would be the first of its kind found in Mexico, according to David Grimaldi, a biologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the find. See http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070217_
ap_amber_frog.html
.
g Intelligence - Jeffrey H. Schwartz, University of Pittsburgh professor of anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences, is working to debunk a major tenet of Darwinian evolution. Schwartz believes that evolutionary changes occur suddenly as opposed to the Darwinian model of evolution, which is characterized by gradual and constant change. Among other scientific observations, gaps in the fossil record could bolster Schwartz's theory because, for Schwartz, there is no "missing link." See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070210170623.htm.
g Message - Here’s a neat piece: an interview with Frank Drake, the astronomer and pioneer who flipped the "on" switch for Project Ozma, the first modern “SETI” project. See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/ozma_drake_000407.html. Note: The interview is from April 2000.
g Learning - Holy evolution, Darwin! Comics take on science: In recent years, a few scientists and comic book artists have joined forces to portray the excitement of science, scientific ideas and the drama of discovery. The latest one stars Charles Darwin, explaining evolutionary theory to a tiny follicle mite living in his eyebrow. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.phpstoryId=4495248 to hear the story.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Solar system outliving its sun, clashing continents and Project BETA

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A swarm of colliding comets is weaving a dusty death shroud for a distant stellar corpse and providing astronomers with rare proof that certain solar system objects can outlive their suns. See http://space.com/scienceastronomy/070212_helix_comets.html.
g Abodes - New research may help refine the accepted models used by earth scientists to describe the ways in which continents clash to form the Earth's landscape. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2238mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Intelligence - Although no two brains are alike, they can display a comparable pattern of neural activity when exposed to similar sensory input. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen have now developed a mathematical method to design networks from neural cells which exhibit a predefined pattern dynamics. The researchers hope that their method will assist them in getting closer to understanding which of the possible network configurations was privileged by evolution - and why. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070201144735.htm.
g Message - A number of searches for extraterrestrial intelligence actually have occurred, are ongoing and are planned. Here’s one of the more famous ones: Project BETA, at Harvard University. See http://seti.harvard.edu/seti/beta.html.
g Cosmicus - New research on locomotion stability may aid in designing spacesuits with better mobility for astronauts on future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload&name
=News&file=article&sid=2244mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
.
g Learning - The fact that you’re confronting this column on a web site devoted to space science and astronomy makes you roughly as rare as technetium. Despite the fact that astronomy is one of the two most popular science subjects in American schools (the other is biology), it’s really not that popular. See http://space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_science_070215.html.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Rowdy comets, analyzing a signal from space and suborbital Earth transit system

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A bunch of rowdy comets are colliding and kicking up dust around a dead star, according to new observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The dead star lies at the center of the much-photographed Helix nebula, a shimmering cloud of gas with an eerie resemblance to a giant eye. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/12cometsclash/.
g Abodes - Despite the icy cold and darkness, beneath the frozen surface of the sea in Antarctica thrives a rich and complex array of plants and animals. But what will happen to all those creatures if global warming reduces the ice cover, as is predicted for coming decades? See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070207190309.htm.
g Life - The rise of multicellular animals about 540 million years ago was a turning point in the history of life. A group of Finnish scientists suggests a new climate-biosphere interaction mechanism for the underlying processes in a new study, which will be published on February 14, 2007 in PLoS ONE, the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication from the Public Library of Science. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070214084059.htm.
g Intelligence - Every day we plan numerous actions, such as to return a book to a friend or to make an appointment. How and where the brain stores these intentions has been revealed by John-Dylan Haynes from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in cooperation with researchers from London and Tokyo. For the first time they were able to "read" participants' intentions out of their brain activity. This was made possible by a new combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and sophisticated computer algorithms. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070208131728.htm.
g Message - Here’s a neat interactive Web game where you analyze a signal from space, just as would a SETI. See http://mystery.sonomaedu/alien_bandstand/.
g Cosmicus - Even as the private spaceflight firm PlanetSpace, Inc. aims for orbital space shots, the Chicago-based company is also drawing up plans for a suborbital Earth transit system. See http://
space.com/businesstechnology/070214_techwed_planetspace.
html
.
g Learning - Be sure to check out Ken Murphy’s new essay at adAstra: “Unlike many in my generation, I've never been particularly enamored of Mars. I don’t dislike it, but my interest has long been our Moon, such a tantalizingly close destination right there in the sky. Looking for a niche in the space field after graduate school, I decided to try to become the most knowledgeable person of my generation with regards to the Moon. It seemed the perfect Gen. X slacker goal - I'm part of a small demographic, studying a relatively esoteric (for my generation) topic. How hard could it be?”See http://space.com/adastra/adastra_lunar_library_070215.html.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Searching the sky for alien signals, meaningful conversation with ET and powdered DNA

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - The universe contains one and a half times more calcium than previously assumed. This conclusion was drawn by astronomers of the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, after observations with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/11calcium/.
g Abodes - A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis has made the first 3-D model of seismic wave damping — diminishing — deep in the Earth's mantle and has revealed the existence of an underground water reservoir at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070210171556.htm.
g Life - It's the look of love—when female green swordtail fish see attractive adult males, they mature faster sexually, researchers now find. See http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070213_sight_sex.html.
g Intelligence - You gotta move it to lose it, but how much depends on the sedentary activity of thinking as well as the actual calories burned, a new study finds. It's how much you think you worked out, not just the vigor of you workouts, that is key, according to the research published in the February issue of the journal Psychological Science. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070207_imagine_
exercise.html
.
g Message - Visiting another civilization on a distant world would be fascinating, but at present such a trip is beyond our capabilities. However, it is perfectly within our capabilities to develop a communications system using a powerful transmitter and a sensitive receiver, and using it to search the sky for alien worlds whose citizens have a similar inclination. See article.
g Cosmicus - The second test flight of a Falcon 1 rocket built by the private spaceflight firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has shifted to early March due to range safety demands at the company’s island launch site. See http://space.com/missionlaunches/070210_falcon1_delay.html.
g Learning - Three vials tucked into a corner of the American Museum of Natural History in New York might be small, but their contents are remarkable: The white powder suspended in clear liquid within is human, chimp and extremely rare Neanderthal DNA. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070207_human_evo
exhibit.html
.
g Imagining - Browse the local used bookstores for this volume, which examined the scientific plausibility of many alien creatures in “Star Trek”: “To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek.” Published about four years ago, Athena Andreadis' book makes a good read, boosted by her background as a molecular biologist and neurosurgeon. There’s a review of the book at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/sf_and_society/48298.
g Aftermath - If we establish communication with a civilization even as close as 100 light years from Earth, the round-trip time for a message and its reply is 200 years. What will be the psychology of a civilization that can engage in a meaningful conversation with this sort of delay? How is such a conversation to be established? What should the content of such a conversation be? See http://web.archive
.org/web/20010217051450/204.240.36.10/radobs/vol1no3/minds.
htm
.

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Jupiter’s magnetic bubbe, laser beacons from ET civilizations and global space race

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - As New Horizons approaches Jupiter for a flyby this month, the spacecraft is already generating data that will help resolve puzzling questions about the interactions between the solar wind, the million-mile-per-hour stream of ionized gas flowing out from the Sun, and Jupiter's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds the planet and encloses ionized gas. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/09newhorizons/.
g Abodes - The largest climate change in central North America since the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, a temperature drop of nearly 15 degrees Fahrenheit, is documented within the fossilized teeth of horses and other plant-eating mammals, a new study reveals. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070207171908.htm.
g Life - Female Antarctic fur seals will travel across a colony to actively seek males which are genetically diverse and unrelated, rather than mate with local dominant males. These findings, published in this week's Nature, suggest that female choice may be more widespread in nature than previously believed and that such strategies enable species to maintain genetic diversity. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070207171903.htm.
g Intelligence - "There is no such thing as a true aphrodisiac," Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) once said. The pint-size sex expert was being literal. By definition, an aphrodisiac arouses or intensifies sexual desire, and no herb or witch's potion has been proven to do so. But why take the fun out of trying and spoil Valentine's Day? Herein lies 10 touted love tonics, from hopeless fling to sure thing. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/top10_aphrodisiacs.html.
g Message - In 2001, California astronomers broadened the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with a new experiment to look for powerful light pulses beamed our way from other star systems. Scientists from the University of California's Lick Observatory, the SETI Institute, UC-Santa Cruz, and UC-Berkeley used the Lick Observatory's 40-inch Nickel Telescope with a new pulse-detection system capable of finding laser beacons from civilizations many light-years distant. Unlike other optical SETI searches, this new experiment is largely immune to false alarms that slow the reconnaissance of target stars. See http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=5634.
g Cosmicus - A French parliamentary group said China’s recent anti-satellite demonstrations, plus Chinese and Indian plans for lunar exploration, are clear signs that a second global space race has begun and that Europe should join it. See http://space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_070212.html.
g Learning - Although exobiology is of widespread interest to high school science students, it is not generally dealt with comprehensively in most textbooks. In addition, teachers often have inadequate resources available to prepare classroom presentations on how life may have begun on Earth and whether these processes might take place elsewhere in the solar system and the universe. Here’s a classroom teaching module suitable for use in both general and advanced high school biology courses: See http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/astro/html/Exobiology.html.
g Imagining - An early “Star Trek” alien is the Thasians (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/aliens/article/
70733.html
), who serve a deux ex machina role in one episode. The Thasians apparently are a noncorporeal life form that gave a human child incredible powers of telekinesis. Such capabilities, as exhibited by the child (now a 17-year-old teenager) appear to stem from within his own physical being, however. The Thasians themselves also are dependent on the physical reality of a spacecraft for traveling beyond their planet. Of course, how a noncorporeal life form might exist is beyond our physical science, though one might suspect it is an organized pattern of electrical impulses, somehow held together and organized without use of a physical platform (such as our brain cells) — though their powers can be transferred to such a platform, as occurs with the boy. Most likely the Thasians did not evolve as noncorporeal life forms but instead, being eons ahead of us in technology, rely on machines (using teleportation-like technology) to do their work; their own beings might be interfaced with such machines so a mere concentrated thought can command it. The Thasians, thus feeling encumbered by physical form, shifted to another dimension — again, more fiction than reality — where the very nature of that space allows the beings (electrical patterns) to remain organized, and perhaps better able to communicate with their machines. Of course, too little was said about the Thasians in the episode, though the boy did note that the Thasians do not “feel” or “touch” in the same way that humans do.
g Aftermath - If some day we detect a radio signal from a distant civilization, we’ll have to make some adjustments in the way we view ourselves. After millennia of knowing of no other intelligence in the universe than humankind, we could face a considerable challenge to our terrestrial egotism. In the process, will we simply gain a little healthy humility about our place in the universe? Or would it be downright humiliating to compare our own meager accomplishments with those of more advanced extraterrestrials? See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/vakoch_seti_001115.html. Note: This article is from November 2000.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

New cosmic map, train your brain and alien language challenges

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A new cosmic map confirms a close relationship between galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers and the distribution of the invisible dark matter in the early universe. See http://space.com/scienceastronomy/070209_quasar_map.html.
g Abodes - New research findings may help refine the accepted models used by earth scientists over the past 30 years to describe the ways in which continents clash to form the Earth's landscape. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070208100925.htm.
g Life - Many species of ants scavenge for the same kinds of food. Why then doesn't the single most efficient species drive the others to extinction? A research group based at the University of Utah conducted a detailed study of ants in the mountains of southeastern Arizona to identify exactly how they manage to share the same environment. The study appears in the March issue of the American Naturalist. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070210170640.htm.
g Intelligence - Students who are told they can get smarter if they train their brains to be stronger, like a muscle, do better in school, a new psychology study shows. See http://www.livescience.com/human
biology/070208_intelligence_growth.html
.
g Message - Epicurus, in the fourth century BC, believed that the universe contained other worlds like our own, and since his time there has been considerable debate whether extraterrestrial life exists and might communicate with us. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, an international social movement — Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence — has emerged which advocates an attempt to achieve communication with extraterrestrial intelligence, and many of its most active members have been leading scientists. Modest efforts to detect radio signals from intelligent extraterrestrials already have been made, both under government aegis and privately funded, and the technical means for a more vigorous search have been developed. If a CETI project were successful, linguists would suddenly have one or more utterly alien languages to study, and some consideration of linguistic issues is a necessary preparation for it. See http://mysite.verizon.net/wsbainbridge/dl/ceti.htm.
g Cosmicus - Let’s face it. The heavily cratered Moon already looks like a beat-up and blasted world. So how about using the Nevada Test Site — established in 1951 to provide a venue for evaluating nuclear weapons explosions — as a nifty locale for shaking out NASA’s lunar outpost plans? See http://www.livescience.com/blogs/author/leonarddavid.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom resource courtesy of NASA: “Life on Earth … and Elsewhere?” This booklet contains 5 classroom activities for grades 5-10 spanning topics from "Defining Life," to "Determining the Chances of Extraterrestrial Life." See http://www.erg.pdf/.
g Aftermath - For centuries scientists, novelists and ordinary people have imagined what would happen if the human race had contact with an extra-terrestrial civilization. Professor Paul Davies, from the Australian Center for Astrobiology, Sydney, offers his thoughts in this interview. See http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_
view.asparticle_class=4&no=269045&rel_no=1
.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Ulysses reaches heliosphere’s maximum latitude, testing the Fermi Paradox and societal implications of astrobiology

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - The Ulysses spacecraft has reached maximum latitude in its exploration of the heliosphere, the bubble in space blown out by the solar wind. The craft's position provides a unique look at the Sun and how it affects the environment of the Solar System. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.
phpop=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2236mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Abodes - Astronomers from the University of Virginia and other institutions have found that Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, is a "cosmic graffiti artist," pelting the surfaces of at least 11 other moons of Saturn with ice particles sprayed from its spewing surface geysers. This ice sandblasts the other moons, creating a reflective surface that makes them among the brightest bodies in the solar system. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/08graffiti/.
g Intelligence - A new study reveals that a cluster of genes, involved in immune function among other things, could predict how sexually attracted a person is to a partner and how likely a woman is be faithful to her mate. Couples in which the individuals had dissimilar versions of so-called major histocompatibility complex genes had the greatest sexual compatibility. See http://www.livescience.com
/humanbiology/070207_romance_gene.html
.
g Message - To subject the Fermi Paradox to needed experimental testing, a researcher has offered the Artifact Hypothesis: A technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization has undertaken a long-term program of' interstellar exploration via transmission of material artifacts. http://www.setv.org/online_mss/seta83.html.
g Cosmicus - In just months, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is set to surpass the record for the most science data ever returned by a Mars spacecraft. Even so, two instruments onboard are not performing as planned and engineers are examining why. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules .phpop=modload&name=
News&file=article&sid=2237mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
.
g Learning - Here’s a cool set of classroom lessons courtesy of NASA: Astroventure, in which students search for and design a habitable planet. See http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/.
g Imagining - Like stories about communicating with aliens? Scour your used bookstore for Ian Watson’s “The Embedding” (1973).
g Aftermath - What are the societal implications of astrobiology? A NASA workshop in 1999 set out to determine what they might be. Here’s their report: http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/workshops/societal/.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Hydrothermal vents’ sounds, International Seed Vault and ‘The Origin of Life and Evolution of the Cosmos’

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - The 16-year-old Ulysses spacecraft reaches what could be considered a low point in its mission observing the sun - and solar scientists could not be happier. The European-manufactured, joint NASA- and ESA-managed spacecraft, has reached maximum latitude in its exploration of the heliosphere, the bubble in space blown out by the solar wind. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/07ulysses/.
g Abodes - New recordings of the sounds produced by hydrothermal vents at the ocean floor may provide insight into these unique environments and the organisms they support. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2233mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Life - Moths often baffle and elude us with their bouncy, seemingly erratic flight paths, especially around outdoor lights, but they have a piloting system that has allowed them to thrive on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. Now scientists have learned the details of this flight system and find that moths use their antennae as spatial orientation sensors to steady themselves as they fly and hover over flowers. See http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070208_moth_flight.html.
g Intelligence - The Norwegian government has revealed the architectural design for the Svalbard International Seed Vault, to be carved deep into frozen rock on an island not far from the North Pole. The entrance to the "fail-safe" seed vault will "gleam like a gem in the midnight sun," signaling a priceless treasure within: seed samples of nearly every food crop of every country. The vault is designed to protect the agricultural heritage of humankind - the seeds essential to agriculture of every nation. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070209074207.htm.
g Message - What are our friends south of the equator doing in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? After all, the Northern Hemisphere only covers half of the galaxy. See http://seti.uws.edu.au/.
g Cosmicus - SES AMERICOM, an SES company, announced today that the AMERICOM-18 (AMC-18) satellite that was launched on Dec. 8, 2006, has successfully completed a full battery of in-orbit-tests and is now operational from its assigned orbital location of 105 degrees West. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/01amc18/.
g Learning - Here’s a neat Web site with excellent graphics: “The Origin of Life and Evolution of the Cosmos.” It explores events that led to the origin of life on Earth. See http://www.originoflife.org.uk/.
g Imagining - America has seen a spate of alleged UFO sightings in recent weeks and months. Eyewitnesses in Arizona, Illinois, Arkansas, North Carolina, and other states have reported seeing mysterious lights and objects in the sky. See http://www.livescience.com/othernews/070209_strange_lights.html.
g Aftermath - What would an intelligent signal from another planet change about human destiny? This large question is the topic of the book "The SETI Factor," by Frank White, who also analyzes how to announce such an historic finding and whether it would unite or divide nations. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/article646.html. Note: This article is from 2003.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Relic radiation from dead stars and what we should say to extraterrestrials

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A team of astronomers has announced the first catalog of a new type of gamma-ray source, a dozen clouds of "relic" radiation from dead stars that reveal information about the energetic past of these celestial objects. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/06relic/.
g Abodes - Analysis of the world's oldest sedimentary rocks has shown that carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that has become a bane of modern society, may have saved Earth from freezing over early in the planet's history. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload&
name=News&file=article&sid=2232mode=thread&order=0
&thold=0
.
g Message - Here’s a new take on searching for extraterrestrial life: A U.C. Berkeley student is looking for signs of advanced civilizations that have enclosed their home star within a giant sphere at In Search of Dyson Spheres. See http://www.planetary.org/html
UPDATES/seti/SETI@home/Update_032304.html
.
g Learning - Darwin's 198th Birthday will occur on Feb. 12; it will also be the 148th Anniversary of the publication of his famous book, “On The Origin of Species.” The objective of Darwin Day Celebration is to encourage existing institutions worldwide, such as municipalities, public and private schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums, churches, private organizations and individuals to celebrate Science and Humanity every year, on, or near, February 12, Darwin's birthday! See http://space.com/searchforlife/seti_darwin_day_070208.html.
g Aftermath - What should we say to an extraterrestrial? Try the World Wide Web. SETI astronomer Seth Shostak opines at http://www.seti.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=194993&ct=308803.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Invisible stars, spotting worlds circling distant stars and ocean mapping

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Astronomers have found a new class of objects in space: a neutron star orbiting inside a cocoon of cold gas and/or dust that hides a bloated supergiant star. In a strange twist of fate, these objects may be tremendously luminous, but the enshrouding cocoon absorbs almost all their emission, making them nearly invisible to telescopes on Earth until now. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/06gascocoon/.
g Abodes - There is ongoing theoretical debate regarding how and where to spot other worlds circling distant stars. And there are new ground and in-space observational tools that are locking into real-time data. See http://space.com/scienceastronomy/070205_
extrasolar_debate.html
.
g Life - Tagging some of the oceans most experienced natural seafarers has allowed scientists to amass a vast amount of oceanographic data. Now, this rich store of information is being used in ocean models that provide new insights into the inner workings of the ocean. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2235mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
.
g Intelligence - The tropical forests of South East Asia, important for local livelihoods and the last home of the orangutan are disappearing far faster than experts have previously supposed according to a new Rapid Response report from The UN Environment Programme. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070206160851.htm.
g Learning - Here’s a neat set of lesson plans deeply related to astrobiology: "The World of Bacteria." It’s for high school biology students. See www.ecb.org/guides/pdf/HSBiology03.pdf.
g Aftermath - Among scientists involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, it’s quite common to be focused on the future, ever mindful that it could take years, or even decades, to find a signal from otherworldly intelligence. But if historian Steve Dick has his way, astronomers will also turn their attention toward the past as they search for life beyond Earth — to discover the aftereffects of contact between two intelligent cultures. See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_vakoch_history_030612.
html
. Note: This article is from 2003.

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Diverse collection of galaxies, ‘Interstellar Messaging’ and ‘Aliens and Lingists’

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the diverse collection of galaxies in the cluster Abell S0740 that is over 450 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Centaurus. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/06hubble/.
g Abodes - Seismic activity is tearing Africa apart and scientists are geared up to watch the ripping landscape in an unprecedented set of observations. See http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/070130_africa_torn.html.
g Message - Here’s a neat Web site: “Interstellar Messaging.” You’ll find discussion, history and real-world examples of mankind's methods and ongoing attempts to communicate with extraterrestrials. See http://www.seti.housenet.org/.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft this month is set to surpass the record for the most science data returned by any Mars spacecraft. While the mission continues to produce data at record levels, engineers are examining why two instruments are intermittently not performing entirely as planned. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/07mro/.
g Learning - Here’s a neat new set of classroom activities, courtesy of NASA: “Microbial Life.” It’s a new, freely accessible digital library dedicated to the diversity, ecology, and evolution of the microbial world. Engage students with hands-on activities and other curriculum-based resources that cover topics such as astrobiology, bioinformatics, extremophiles, and the microbes of marine environments. See http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/.
g Imagining - Book alert: Here’s an oldie worth finding in a used bookstore: Walter E. Meyers’ “Aliens and Linguists: Language Study and Science Fiction.” It examines how science fiction treats aliens using languages, aptly pointing out fallacies and offering some intriguing speculations. See http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/reviews_pages/r25.htm for a review.
g Aftermath - Once scientists are certain that we’ve received a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, how would we decide to respond? Read the proposal “A Decision Process for Examining the Possibility of Sending Communications to Extraterrestrial Civilizations”(http://www.iaanet.org/p_papers/seti.html), made at the International Academy of Astronautics meeting in Paris during 2000.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Anthropogenic global warming, extraterrestrial messenger probes and ‘Consequences of Success in SETI’

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - Human-caused global warming—also called “anthropogenic” global warming—is the latest example of life altering Earth, but it is not the most dramatic. See article.
g Intelligence - Bully bosses need to lighten up and wallflower managers would do well to stand up, according to a new study of what makes an effective business leader. See http://www.livescience.com/othernews/070204_boss_basics.html.
g Message - How might we detect an extraterrestrial messenger probe already in the solar system? See http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/WhereAreThey1983.htm. Note: This article is from 1983.
g Learning - The challenge to communicate both the breadth and depth of astrobiology is discussed by Carol Oliver, of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. As a researcher in communicating science, she considers how best to tell a busy public what it means to explore other worlds for signs of life elsewhere. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/article678.html.
g Imagining - What is panspermia, a concept that appears in a number of science fiction stories, and how plausible is it? See http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/dirpans.html.
g Aftermath - Here’s another "old" piece worth reading: "Consequences of Success in SETI: Lessons from the History of Science" (http://www.nidsci.org/articles/steve_dick.php), given during a Bioastronomy Symposium in 1993.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Jupiter from Mars’ orbit, searching for Martian amino acids and social and political issues that will arise once we make contact with extraterrestrial

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can take interesting astronomical pictures, team scientists report today. The High Resolution Imaging Experiment based at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson has produced a view of Jupiter as seen from Mars orbit. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0701/31hirisejupiter/.
g Intelligence - Fluctuations in sex hormone levels during women's menstrual cycles affect the responsiveness of their brains' reward circuitry, an imaging study at the National Institute of Mental Health, a component of the National Institutes of Health, has revealed. While women were winning rewards, their circuitry was more active if they were in a menstrual phase preceding ovulation and dominated by estrogen, compared to a phase when estrogen and progesterone are present. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070203103344.htm.
g Message - In 2001, a group of Russian teens from Moscow, Kaluga, Voronezh and Zheleznogorsk participated directly and via the Internet in composing a Teen-Age Message to extraterrestrial intelligence, and in the selection of target stars. Their message was transmitted in the autumn of that year, from the Evpatoria Deep Space Center. See http://www.cplire.ru/html/ra&sr/irm/teen-age-message.html.
g Cosmicus - A miniature detector, 1 million times more sensitive than the ones carried by Viking, will search for amino acids on Mars. The detector will be sent to Mars aboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars spacecraft, scheduled for a 2013 launch. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2229mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
.
g Learning - TERC and NASA are developing an interdisciplinary year-long course for middle and high school students using astrobiology as its unifying, underlying structure. Through a series of inquiry-based activities centered on the search for life on other planets, students can explore diverse concepts in chemistry, biology, physics, Earth and space science and engineering. Astrobiology provides students opportunities to master fundamental science concepts in a relevant context and apply their skill and understanding directly in a variety of investigative modes. See http://www.spaceref.com/redirect.refurl=astrobio.terc.edu/&id=2865.
g Imagining - Among the first and most memorable of “Star Trek” aliens is the salt vampire (http://www.startrek.com/startrek/
view/library/aliens/article/70657.html). Could such a creature exist, though? Forgetting the problem of its facial arrangement (eyes-nose-mouth from top to bottom), which repeats Earth’s evolutionary path for vertebrates, the salt vampire receives a mixed review. Consider its shaggy coat, which appears to be inconsistent with bipedalism in a warm climate; humans likely lost their primate hair because doing so allowed our bodies to cool better in the African savanna — and the salt vampire’s planet is hot, probably orbiting a G-class star that has entered its red giant phase (judging by climate and sky color). Of course, the creature could be a hominid that just come down from the trees, which certainly would be sparse on such a planet. But its intelligence level indicates a much longer path of evolution. Perhaps the planet was in a cold state before the star entered its red giant phase. On another note, the creature’s need for salt is voracious for the chemical is in short supply; that seems at odds with the hot desert climate for halites would form as the sun’s expansion caused the seas to evaporate. Possibly, the creature, being the last of its kind, simply had gone mad, expressing its psychosis through murder — which explains why Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock felt no mercy for it when phasering it to death at episode’s end!
g Aftermath - For some provocative reading, pick up “Sharing the Universe,” by Seth Shostak, at your local bookstore. SETI scientist Shostak almost single-handedly is outlining social and political issues that will arise once we make contact with extraterrestrials.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Hidden shapes of alternative universes, Titan’s giant cloud and Coalition for Space Exploration

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - Peering backward in time to an instant after the big bang, physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised an approach that may help unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/04dimensions/.
g Abodes - A giant cloud half the size of the United States has been imaged on Saturn's moon Titan by the Cassini spacecraft. The cloud may be responsible for the material that fills the lakes discovered last year by Cassini's radar instrument. See http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/070201titancloud.html.
g Message - Since SETI first became a subject for serious scientific research, scientists have come up with many possible ways to detect the presence of other civilizations by searching our part of the galaxy for signs of artificially created signals. Using many different kinds of detection equipment and novel concepts, investigators labored away in their electronics laboratories and observatories dreaming, that one day, the signs they had been searching for would be found. See http://www.seti.org.au/whatarewe.htm.
g Cosmicus - The Coalition for Space Exploration was formed early in 2004 to show industry support for the Vision for Space Exploration. The coalition is a diverse group of companies, nonprofit organizations, trade associations and unions. See http://www.spacecoalition.com/.
g Learning - The research scientists aren’t the only ones getting excited about astrobiology. This new discipline has tremendous potential for revolutionizing science education. It is rich with exciting content to engage those who generally don’t consider themselves scientifically oriented, and also for opening the ears and minds of adults who may want a new reason to visit their local science center. See http://www.terc.edu/handsonIssues/f00/asbellclarke.html. Note: This article is from 2000.
g Imagining - There’s a neat Web site, Sector 001, that reviews the appearance of dozens of “Star Trek” aliens at http://www.powernet.net/~jcrafton/extra-in.html. It also includes some speculations about each one, particularly why so many are humanoid.
g Aftermath - Award-winning author Paul Davies, an eminent scientist who writes like a science fiction novelist, explores the ramifications of successful contact with alien life in his fascinating book, "Are We Alone? Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life." "The discovery of a single extraterrestrial microbe," he writes, "would drastically alter our world view and change our society as profoundly as the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. It could truly be described as the greatest scientific discovery of all time." Though a decade old, the book still is a great read. See http://www.innovationwatch.com/books/bks_0465004180.htm.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Hubble studies exoplanet’s atmosphere, Phoenix lander and communicating nanotechnology

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - NASA's powerful Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to study for the first time the layer-cake structure of a planet orbiting another star. SEE http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload&
name=News&file=article&sid=2228mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
.
g Message - We’ve all heard of SETI, bit what about METI — “Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” or sending both scientific and artistic messages to the stars? See http://lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/SETI/koi/articles/METIArt.htm.
g Cosmicus - NASA’s next mission to Mars—the Phoenix lander—is undergoing readiness testing in preparation for an early August launch window. http://space.com/missionlaunches/070201_phoenix_update.html.
g Learning - With consumer applications in everything from clothing, personal-care products and sporting goods to air purification systems, computers and home appliances, nanotechnology rapidly is becoming an integral part of everyday life. Yet survey results show that public audiences largely lack awareness and understanding of nanotechnology concepts, says Olivia Castellini, a former postdoctoral researcher with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Interdisciplinary Education Group. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070131211717.htm.
g Imagining - Like first contact stories? Then be sure to read Murray Leinster’s short story "The Castaway,” published in the June 1953 edition of Universe magazine.
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 http://seti.astrobio.net/news/article118.html.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Mars’ water clouds, the Soviets’ SETI program and reflecting on shuttle flight

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - A video captured by NASA's Opportunity rover shows the formation of convective water clouds on Mars. The clouds are in some ways similar to clouds seen on Earth...but in other ways they are very different. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload&
name=News&file=article&sid=2227mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
.
g Message - Researchers in the former USSR were long interested in the detection of radio signals originating from extraterrestrial intelligence. The Soviets named their program CETI, or Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The acronym SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) was adopted by the Workshop and by the Ames Research Center to differentiate our own efforts from those of the Soviet Union and to emphasize the search aspects of the proposed program. The Soviet plans for their CETI efforts have been summarized in "The CETI Program," Sov. Astron., vol. 18, no. 5, March-April 1975, which is available in total at http://www.myspacebooks.com/nasa_sp_419/s3.11.htm.
g Cosmicus - "It was a wonderful flight, extremely exciting. I couldn't have asked for more." ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang recently spoke about his Celsius Mission. On December 22, 2006, Fuglesang, the first Swedish astronaut in space, returned to Earth with Space Shuttle Discovery with the rest of the STS-116 crew at the end of the 13-day mission to the International Space Station. During the STS-116 mission Fuglesang participated in three Extra Vehicular Activities to continue assembly work on the outside of the Station. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/02fuglesang/.
g Learning - In the upcoming Warner Brothers' feature film "The Astronaut Farmer,” Billy Bob Thornton plays the role of Charles Farmer, a former astronaut who never flew in space but who decides to accomplish his dream of reaching orbit by building his own rocket. See http://space.com/entertainment/cs_070203_mercury_astronaut
farm.html
.
g Imagining - Is the Black Cloud, the famous alien in Fred Hoyle’s science fiction novel, plausible? See http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/B/BlackCloud.html.
g Aftermath - What would an intelligent signal from another planet change about human destiny? This large question is the topic of the book "The SETI Factor," by Frank White, who also analyzes how to announce such an historic finding and whether it would unite or divide nations. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/article646.html. Note: This article is from 2003.

Friday, February 02, 2007

How brains guide limbs, Chinese space program and fallout from receiving an interstellar signal

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - A recent study has changed our understanding of planetary atmospheres and may have implications for understanding the future of our own planet's climate. How Earth's environment changes over time is directly related to the evolution and survival of life on Earth. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2226mode=thread&order=0&
thold=0
.
g Life - Scientists have long struggled to figure out how the brain guides the complex movement of our limbs, from the graceful leaps of ballerinas to the simple everyday act of picking up a cup of coffee. Using tools from robotics and neuroscience, two Johns Hopkins University researchers have found some tantalizing clues in an unlikely mode of motion: the undulations of tropical fish. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070131134917.htm.
g Message - When looking for ET, we may have to consider other strategies beyond radio waves. See http://www.zeitlin.net/OpenSETI/NewSearches.html. As a side note, one of those strategies might by looking for optical signals; see http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=174
for more.
g Cosmicus - A Chinese navigation satellite was successfully hauled into orbit Friday to kick off a busy year in space that will include the launch of the country's first probe to study the Moon. See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/02china/.
g Learning - Are we alone? Are humans unique in the universe, or is our existence the natural outcome of universal processes that produced complex life on Earth and elsewhere? As we observe the universe beyond Earth, we find that we are fundamentally a part of it. To understand the relationship of humanity to stardust requires understanding evolution in its broadest sense. See http://www.space.com/searchforlife/devore_seti_010130.html. Note: This article on teaching evolution in schools is from January 2001.
g Imagining - Like first contact stories? Then be sure to read Arthur C. Clarke’s short story "No Morning After," anthologized in “Time to Come” (edited by August Derleth and published by Farrar, Starus & Young in 1954).
g Aftermath - High-tech telescopes on the ground and in space that perform daunting astronomical peep shows in a search for Earth-like worlds aim to answer one of humankind's most monumental questions: “Are we alone?” There is on-going deliberation relating to the societal, philosophical and religious fallout that stems from resolving such a stellar inquiry.See http://space.com/news/070202_alien_contact.html.