Radiation-resistant organism, astrobiology at a museum and exopsychology

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 - Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently tested a new device, the Environmental Sample Processor, designed to probe the ocean depths. Astrobiology Magazine Field Research Editor Henry Bortman joined them on a day-long voyage and filed this report on their progress. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2288mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0.
g Life - A new study may completely change our understanding of one of Earth's most radiation-resistant organisms, the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. The findings may have implications ranging from protecting cancer patients from the harmful effects of radiation therapy, to ensuring the safety of astronauts on space missions. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2279mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0.
g Intelligence - A long-standing thorn in the side of biologists has been the difficulty in accounting for the enormous variation between individuals when sexual selection by females for the most attractive mates should quickly spread the “best” genes through a population. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070328_lek_para
dox.html.
g Message - Since the beginning of astronomical observation, science has been viewing light on a curve. In a galaxy filled with thousands of eclipsing binary stars, we've refined our skills by measuring the brightness or intensity of so-called variable star as a function of time. The result is known as a "light curve." Through this type of study, we've discovered size, distance and orbital speed of stellar bodies and refined our ability to detect planetary bodies orbiting distant suns. Here on Earth, most of the time it's impossible for us to resolve such small objects even with the most powerful of telescopes, because their size is less than one pixel in the detector. But new research should let us determine the shape of an object... like a ringed planet, or an orbiting alien space station. See http://
www.universetoday.com/am/publish/alien_space_stations.html.
g Learning - In this interview, David Grinspoon talks about his job as the first-ever curator of astrobiology for a museum. While there are no alien artifacts yet available for display, there are many ways a museum can feature the various facets of astrobiology. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=1966=thread&order
=0&thold=0.
g Imagining - While science fiction has come a long way from the days of bug-eyed monsters, the genre still hasn't gone far enough in presenting well-conceived alien beings. As a derivative genre, role-playing games have an even poorer record. See http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/sfnov99.html.
g Aftermath - The next social science to be created might be "exopsychology" — the study of behavior, attitudes, personalities and thoughts of alien beings. Although necessarily speculative, exopsychology might eventually be a critical link between humans and aliens. In the meantime, such a study could also provide the additional benefit of informing us about earthbound prejudices. See http://www.parentsurf.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_n2_v22/ai_630
6697.