Oxygen came earlier than thought, hiding one’s sun, and fictional post-Apollo lunar architecture

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 - Oxygen, key to life on Earth today, began to appear on the planet millions of years earlier than scientists had thought, new research indicates. See article.
g Message - Could intelligent beings in another solar system have hidden their sun by knocking their planets apart and using the pieces to build a hollow ball around their sun? Find out more about “Dyson Spheres”.
g Cosmicus - Having just spent four months on a simulated arctic mission to Mars, University of Hawaii scientist Kim Binsted is hoping to be chosen now for the real thing. See article.
g Learning - Astrobiology experts from the University of Glamorgan and Cardiff University have formed a unique research partnership. See article.
g Imagining - Could the legendary dragons of Pern from Anne McCaffrey’s famous science fiction novels actually exist? Welcome to the theoretical science of dracogenetics. See article.
g Aftermath - A 1998 report by the National Research Council Space Studies Board Task Group on Sample Return from Small Solar System Bodies assesses the potential for a living entity to be present in or on samples returned from small solar system bodies such as planetary satellites, asteroids and comets. See article.