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.
The Drake Equation
This formula estimates the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.N=(R*)(Ns)(Fp)(Ne)(Fl)(Fi)(Fc)(L)
Where:- N = Number of civilizations we can communicate with
- R* = Average star formation rate
- Ns = Percentage of stars capable of supporting earth-like planets
- Fp = Percentage of those stars with planets
- Ne = Average umber of planets in those stars' habitable zones
- Fl = Percentage of those planets where life begins
- Fi = Percentage of planets with life where an intelligent species evolves
- Fc = Percentage of those intelligent species that develop communication technology
- L = Average lifetime, in years, of a civilization that develops such technology
About Me
- Rob Bignell
- I'm the owner and chief editor at Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the editing and proofreading needs of writers both new and published. For more than two decades, I worked as an award-winning journalist, with half of those years spent as an editor. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres have been published, and I am the author of the nonfiction “Hikes with Tykes” series, a novel "Windmill", and a collection of poetry, "Love Letters to Sophie's Mom". For seven years I worked as an English teacher or a community college journalism instructor. I hold a master's degree in English and a bachelor's in journalism and English.